How We Fight

Americans love war. "We've never run from a fight." Triumphs from the American Revolution to World War II define who Americans are as a nation and a people. Americans hate war. American leaders rush into conflicts without knowing the facts or understanding the consequences. Korea, Vietnam, and now I [...]
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Americans love war. "We've never run from a fight." Triumphs from the American Revolution to World War II define who Americans are as a nation and a people. Americans hate war. American leaders rush into conflicts without knowing the facts or understanding the consequences. Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq and Afghanistan define who Americans are as a nation and a people. How We Fight explores the extraordinary double-mindedness with which Americans approach war and articulates the opposing perspectives that have governed our responses throughout history: the "crusade" tradition, or the love of grand quests to defend democratic values and overthrow tyrants; and the "quagmire" tradition, or the resistance to the work of nation-building and its inevitable cost in dollars and American lives. How can one nation be so split? Studying conflicts from the Civil War to the present, Dominic Tierney uncovers the secret history of American foreign policy and provides a frank and insightful look at how Americans respond to the ultimate challenge. And he shows how U.S. military ventures can succeed.His innovative model for tackling the challenges of modern war suggests the possibility of enduring victory in Afghanistan and elsewhere by rediscovering a lost American warrior tradition.