The Changing Face of War, Lessons of Combat from Marne to Iraq

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	• The Changing Face of War: Lessons of Combat, from the Marne to Iraq Martin Van Creveld Presidio Press, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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The Changing Face of War, Lessons of Combat from Marne to Iraq

Presents a concise summary of tactics, strategies, weapons, and personnel employed by various countries and groups to fight conflicts around the world over the past 300 years or so. Well written, easily understandable, and comes across as very objective, although not diplomatic in judging past or current effectiveness of various militaries and governments. This should be must reading for every American citizen in assessing the cost effectiveness of the vast expenditures of our government on the military and to guide improvements in the way we allocate resources and hold our military-industrial complex and politicians accountable.

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Very Disappointing

I, too, like many others, are/were major fans of Mr. van Creveld. As a Soldier, history teacher, and avid reader, I found his earlier works to be crisp, insightful, and without equal. This work, initially, did not let me down until the end. While I didn't catch as many errors as previous reviewers, I am shocked at the number that have been pointed out. Additionaly, I was shocked as I started to read the last part of the book w/ respect to Iraq and the US. Mr. van Creveld used what could have easily been a very well written (although fairly factually flawed) book to take a personal and political swipe at the US, the US government, President G. Bush, and the US military.

The last parts of the book dealing w/ this issue should have been written as a NYT op-ed piece. I was thouroughly disappointed by the time I completed reading the book. When the author switched gears and started to take swipes at those areas he obviously does not agree w/ in a way that ruined the book, I lost respect for him.

Mr. van Creveld would have been better served if he had written an op-ed piece, gotten it out of his system, and then completed the book as objectively and analytically as he has done in his other works.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

One of the most influential experts on military history and strategy has now written his magnum opus, an original and provocative account of the past hundred years of global conflict. The Changing Face of War is the book that reveals the path that led to the impasse in Iraq, why powerful standing armies are now helpless against ill-equipped insurgents, and how the security of sovereign nations may be maintained in the future.

While paying close attention to the unpredictable human element, Martin van Creveld takes us on a journey from the last century?s clashes of massive armies to today?s short, high-tech, lopsided skirmishes and frustrating quagmires. Here is the world as it was in 1900, controlled by a handful of ?great powers,? mostly European, with the memories of eighteenth-century wars still fresh. Armies were still led by officers riding on horses, messages conveyed by hand, drum, and bugle. As the telegraph, telephone, and radio revolutionized communications, big-gun battleships like the British Dreadnought, the tank, and the airplane altered warfare.

Van Creveld paints a powerful portrait of World War I, in which armies would be counted in the millions, casualties?such as those in the cataclysmic battle of the Marne?would become staggering, and deadly new weapons, such as poison gas, would be introduced. Ultimately, Germany?s plans to outmaneuver her enemies to victory came to naught as the battle lines ossified and the winners proved to be those who could produce the most weapons and provide the most soldiers.

The Changing Face of War then propels us to the even greater global carnage of World War II. Innovations in armored warfare and airpower, along with technological breakthroughs from radar to the atom bomb, transformed war from simple slaughter to a complex event requiring new expertise?all in the service of savagery, from Pearl Harbor to Dachau to Hiroshima. The further development of nuclear weapons during the Cold War shifts nations from fighting wars to deterring them: The number of active troops shrinks and the influence of the military declines as civilian think tanks set policy and volunteer forces ?decouple? the idea of defense from the world of everyday people.

War today, van Crevald tells us, is a mix of the ancient and the advanced, as state-of-the-art armies fail to defeat small groups of crudely outfitted guerrilla and terrorists, a pattern that began with Britain?s exit from India and culminating in American misadventures in Vietnam and Iraq, examples of what the author calls a ?long, almost unbroken record of failure.?

How to learn from the recent past to reshape the military for this new challenge?how to still save, in a sense, the free world?is the ultimate lesson of this big, bold, and cautionary work. The Changing Face of War is sure to become the standard source on this essential subject.

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