Note that Scales wrote this book in 2016—well before the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine—using articles published as far back as 2006.
Washington’s defense intellectuals tell America to expect tomorrow’s wars to be short, sharp, distant, bloodless, and glorious. Expect our enemies to be “shocked and awed” by our material greatness. Expect them to fight the way we fight—and remember that they are stupid, illiterate, and cowardly. President Obama almost started a war against Syria in 2013 based on this premise: a few hundred missiles fired from submarines and destroyers and it is over. This book tells a different story, one from the ground, standing on the firing step of a foxhole or inside the turret of a tank, from where [SSgt Salvatore “Sal”] Giunta and [Capt. William] Swenson have seen war. The world looks quite different from there. I believe the past is prologue, that a close look at circumstances that overwhelmed and almost killed Giunta and Swenson hold the keys to future victories.
Scales, B. Maj. Gen., USA (Ret.). (2016) Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk. Naval Institute Press. p. 2
Not all of Scales’ predictions have come true. The War in Ukraine, like any war, changes the nature of war in sometimes unpredictable ways. Despite those changes, exposed through the crucible of combat, the broad contours of Scales’ arguments remain mostly intact.
Recommended.
Feature image courtesy RMN
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