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The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency by Charles Lister |
Charles Lister's book on the Syrian Jihad has more first person interviews and accounts than any of the other books.
Lister spent the time to get to know the people and now he has the ability to give us the guided tour of all the personnel and factions that you MUST know to understand what's going on in Syria. My Amazon Review:
I read quite a bit of middle eastern politics and especially terrorism. Lister's book is the best treatment I've seen of the situation in Syria. Nothing else even comes close. Despite a hundred pages of references, notes and index, the truth is that Lister knows so much because he has exclusive interview access with hundreds of sources who have trusted him to tell their story. If you want to know what is happening in Syria, read this book. HOWEVER, the book comes with a high standard of expectation on the reader. If this is a new topic area for you, you will want to keep a Syrian map at your side and a notepad for sketching out the many dozens of jihadist groups that are mentioned.
Lister's book really points out the hypocrisy of our undeveloped policy in Syria. Do we want the regime gone? Yes. But are we willing to spill our own blood to accomplish that? No. So how do we do it? Well, we could partner with the Saudis to fund jihadi organizations to fight the regime. Wait - didn't we try that in Afghanistan already? What was the result? Oh yes, the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Lister's book has all of the raw data necessary to understand the delicate framework of the on-again off-again alliances of the Free Syrian Army, Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, and of course the Islamic State. We say we are only funding and providing weapons to the "moderate" jihadists, but those weapons are being traded and bartered among groups with great liquidity as those and dozens of smaller organizations attempt to protect their families and towns from the Regime and to stave off the new pro-Regime forces from Russia, Iran, and Lebanon (Hezbollah). Each of the major players seems to have fought both with and against the others. Jabhat al-Nusra has been called al-Qaeda's branch in Syria by our own state department, and yet we simultaneously treat them as our great hope in defeating the Islamic State.
Thank you, Charles Lister, for spending so much of your time and energy getting this story out to the rest of us! |
 
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Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror by Michael Hayden |
From my Amazon.com review: Great intelligence Leadership Bio devolves into angry partisan hate leaving many unanswered questions -- I bought this book and dove into it, having heard Hayden in interviews and in lectures and believing he would address the top challenges of our day. It started out strong and there were some amazing insights. I did truly admire what Hayden accomplished and his character, leadership style, and life story. Unfortunately the book devolved into a partisan rant about how horrible the Democrats in the Senate and the administration are, with regards to handling intelligence. Snowden, which one would think would take significant role in a book about the Intelligence community published in 2016, gets a small mention in the final chapter in a quite dismissive way. Stuxnet is also almost entirely ignored, although there is a great chapter on policy setting with regards to Iranand their nuclear program.
Very glad I read it. I feel that I truly learned more of the functions of government decision-making with regards to the process of intelligence. But I certainly was expecting more, and was disappointed by the way the book devolved into bickering and name-calling. |
 
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And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East by Richard Engel |
I entitled my Amazon review "The story of the Middle East Conflict by one who went there" -- Richard Engel decided as a boy to become a journalist and foreign correspondent. Settling in Cairo in 1996, unemployed, and living among the people to learn the language and the culture, gave him a sense of what the Middle East was in the time of the Big Men. With that as a base, and a bit of perhaps foolhardy bravery, Richard stayed when everyone else fled. He smuggled himself in and was there in Iraq, in Libya, in Syria, and anywhere else where there was a story he felt the world should know. Now moving his life on from the Middle East, Engel has the freedom to tell what he saw, and what he believes happened, with the clarity of one who was there first-hand. An important story for every American to read. |
