Imperial Grunts Imperial Grunts Imperial Grunts

by Robert D. Kaplan

A fascinating, unprecedented first-hand look at the soldiers on the front lines on the Global War on Terror. Plunging deep into midst of some of the hottest conflicts on the globe, Robert D. Kaplan takes usthrough mud and jungle, desert and dirt to the men and women on the ground who are leading the charge against threats to American security. These soldiers, fighting in thick Colombian jungles or on dusty Afghani plains, are the forefront of the new American foreign policy, a policy being implemented one soldier at a time. As Kaplan brings us inside their thoughts, feelings, and operations, these modern grunts provide insight andunderstanding into the War on Terror, bringing the war, which sometimes seems so distant, vividly to life. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

Genres: Military Fiction, History, Nonfiction, War, Military History, Politics, Travel

376 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Robert David Kaplan is an American journalist, currently a National Correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly. His writings have also been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Republic, The National Interest, Foreign Affairs and The Wall Street Journal, among other newspapers and publications, and his more controversial essays about the nature of U.S. power have spurred debate in academia, the media, and the highest levels of government. A frequent theme in his work is the reemergence of cultural and historical tensions temporarily suspended during the Cold War.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars! I hated this book…at first. Why? I bought it in 2007. Kaplan’s main thesis is that we are an American Empire, in the vein of Roman, Venetian and British empires. At first I thought, oh shit, Kaplan has gone Code Pink on me. I just retired from the military and he is calling me an imperialist. Not exactly what I wanted to hear. I put the book away until now. But this is a fantastic story that demanded to be read. Kaplan’s main theme:

“Imperialism is but a form of isolationism, in which the demand for absolute, undefiled security at home leads one to conquer the world, and in the process to become subject to all the world’s anxieties. That is why empires arise at the fringes of consciousness, half in denial…Rome never thought it was building an empire until it already had one, and had already reached the limits of its expansion…Empires are works in progress, with necessity rather than glory the instigator of each outward push… America’s imperium was without colonies, suited to a jet-and-information age in which mass movements of people and capital diluted the meaning of sovereignty.“

Kaplan places the beginning of the American Empire from just after the Revolutionary War, with the efforts to move the large, threatening powers of England, France and Spain from our rear. We just kept pushing outward until we reached the Pacific. WWII and the subsequent Cold War were the big modern era reasons to continue empire building bringing us to where we are today. The proof of our empire is the opposition to it, according to Kaplan.

Okay, that is the big theme but he spends the rest of the book visiting various theaters of low and high intensity conflict. And he introduces us to an amazing group of “grunts” out in the field. He begins in Yemen in 2002 and finishes in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. In between he visits the drug war in Colombia, the steppes of Mongolia, The Philippine Islands, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa. Along the way he goes off on tangents to Sub-Saharan Africa, Bosnia, Cambodia, etc. Kaplan is unmatched as a travel writer and he has some big cojones as you follow him into some really hairy places. But he just dips in and out, while the “imperial grunts” remain and carry on with their various missions. The sheer variety of places and missions assigned to the military is truly astounding, even to someone like me who knows the way around. I found myself wanting back in and immensely proud of these young soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen.

The book moves along briskly, never boring or preachy and never spending too much time in any one place. Yemen and Colombia do not appear fun places to go but I really want to go back to the Philippines based on his description. Mongolia sounds intriguing, along with Eritrea and Djibouti. Afghanistan and Iraq, not so much. Ever been to Lamu? You will want to. What you will also want to do is spend some time with the young NCOs and junior officers out maintaining the “empire”. If your opinion of the army grunt is along the lines of a Stephen King, i.e., only the dumb ones join, you will be pleasantly surprised. The book is not dated at all, and it is interesting to compare what is happening now in Yemen, Afghanistan and other locales to what Kaplan describes in 2002-2004. Try it, you’ll like it.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read some less than favorable reviews of this book, mostly by those types who find the idea of American imperialism an unsavory concept. But the fact of the matter is the American empire is a reality and has been going strong for half a century. Rather than waste time equivocating over what does or does not equate to imperialsim, Kaplan dives right in visiting forward operating bases (FOBs) where Army Special Forces, FAOs, and Marines are projecting American soft power. Instead of occupying large bases around the world, the military's more forward-thinking strategists are favoring a small footprint strategy. There are now units in places like Columbia, the Philippines, Mongolia and Djibouti training local soldiers, leaving a favorable impression through efficient humanitarian projects, and collecting favors that can be called upon in the future should America need them. All of this was an aspect of American foreign policy that I was completely ignorant of and Kaplan deserves a lot of credit for bringing it to light and doing the footwork to really tell the stories of these impressive soldiers. He also spends the requisite time in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the problems he witnesses there are precisely because these new strategies aren't being applied on the military's two most important fronts. But most of all, Kaplan highlights just how brave and professional these imperial soldiers are and it gave me a new found respect for our country's military.

[Olethros · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Aprendiendo, tendiendo puentes y proyectando.-

Género. Ensayo.

Lo que nos cuenta. En palabras del propio autor, “…del mantenimiento imperial sobre el terreno y la búsqueda de un manual para su aplicación”, aunque creo que de los varios volúmenes que ha escrito Kaplan al respecto es el menos centrado en el imperialismo directamente (aunque algo hay) y más en ciertos tipos de profilaxis, simbiosis y tesis geopolíticas norteamericanas.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....

[Conrad Barwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is so bad and infuriarting to an unbelievable extent. That Kaplan is meant to be an influential writer who influences American policymakers is extremely worrying. Claiming to ground himself in geography and history, he understands neither and while not a dilletante evinces the mistakes that an amateur journalist will make in pronouncing weighty generalisations about countries, cultures and societies in ill-advised broad-strokes. This could almost be the classic modern Orientalist text with its snap judgements about non-Western and non-White people and how American imperialism is good for them. Factual errors abide in the book from the relatively minor, Robert Muldoon is British not Australian, to the medium, coming down from the Khyber pass one does not encounter tropical jungles but rather the fertile plains of the Punjab to the egregious, the AK-47 with its automatic rate of fire spread over an area compared to the more accurate and semi-automatic M-16 isn’t a reflection of the Soviet disregard for the lives of its infantrymen – in fact given population losses and casualties in WWII on the Eastern front, the Soviets faced massive manpower shortages and could not afford to throw away men casually; but is rather a reflection on battlefield conditions that required a reliable, automatic rifle for a conscript army. The M-16’s own troubled history where its jamming and the complaints by frontline troops of its unreliability in combat were deliberate ignored for months, leading to significant casualties as the rifles failed in combat, should make Kaplan pause to consider before making crass generalisations about which country could be cavalier about spending the lives of its young soldiers. Also a note must be made about the gender politics here; Kaplan seems unable to spend time in any country without passing some sort of remark about the attractiveness of the frequently young women he encounters and what exactly they are wearing. This becomes more than uncomfortable when he advocates a relaxing of the no-fraternisation rule prevalent in many bases, to allow US soldiers to effectively take local mistresses. The problems inherent here should be obvious but seem to completely escape Kaplan for unknown reasons.

[Glenn Hyman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is much to like about this book, and some things that irritate. The chief point that America is an empire is well taken, even though I don’t think there are many serious people that dispute it. My favorite reference in the book is to the notion among the military about how amateurs discuss strategy, while the real professionals discuss logistics. This applies to business, politics and really any leadership endeavor. Developing the strategy is easy compared to the tough work of implementation. Kaplan wears the military’s and his own moral superiority a bit too much on his sleeve. For example, after days of reporting on the battle of Fallujah, he left the besieged city “just as the cease-fire was announced and more journalists began to arrive.” You see, just like the Army recruiting ads say, Kaplan does more before 9 AM than most people do all day. This attitude is probably fairly common among the military, and you see it with adventurers like serious kayakers and mountain climbers. Many always come close to death, at least in their telling. Which makes you wonder how much they really value the sheer adventure versus their own pride and narcissism? Fortunately, this attitude is only among a small number of our troops, most of whom show real courage by putting their lives on the line. Political and ideological arguments are often prominent in the book, as opposed to just telling the story. All that said, it was a pretty good read.

[Olethros · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Aprendiendo, tendiendo puentes y proyectando.-

Género. Ensayo.

Lo que nos cuenta. En palabras del propio autor, “…del mantenimiento imperial sobre el terreno y la búsqueda de un manual para su aplicación”, aunque creo que de los varios volúmenes que ha escrito Kaplan al respecto es el menos centrado en el imperialismo directamente (aunque algo hay) y más en ciertos tipos de profilaxis, simbiosis y tesis geopolíticas norteamericanas.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....

[Steve Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

The vast net of US military commitments around the globe is largely invisible to the american taxpaying public - and Imperial Grunts does a good job of taking the reader on a tour of this world

I found myself reassured by what I read here - the military on display here is smart, quiet, adaptable, and effective. This is the way a global war against non-state actors needs to be fought.

But I found my enjoyment of this new world, and all its very important foreign policy implications, clouded by Kaplan's starry-eyes cryptofascist worship of military force as an instrument of foreign policy. Maybe I'm still irritated by his fanboy writeup of the B-2 in this months Atlantic, but there are times when Kapan gushed over military globalization the way Friedman gushes over economic globalization - which is to say breathlessly, unabashedly pro-globo... with the downside always conveniently omitted.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert D. Kaplan's "Imperial Grunts" offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of American soldiers deployed around the world in the early 2000s. Through his embedded journalism, Kaplan provides readers with an up-close look at the U.S. military's global presence, from Yemen to Colombia, Mongolia to Iraq. The book's central premise is that America functions as an empire, with its military personnel serving as the frontline agents of this imperial project. Kaplan coins the term "imperial grunts" to describe these soldiers, portraying them as modern-day equivalents of frontier troops in the American West. Kaplan's vivid prose brings to life the experiences of these servicemen and women, capturing their daily routines, challenges, and perspectives. He paints a picture of highly disciplined, well-educated individuals committed to their missions, often operating in harsh and dangerous environments. The author's admiration for these soldiers is evident throughout the book, as he describes their resourcefulness, courage, and adaptability. One of the book's strengths is its exploration of the military's role in implementing U.S. foreign policy at the ground level. Kaplan highlights how small teams of Special Forces and other units engage in "soft power" operations, building relationships with local populations and conducting humanitarian missions alongside combat operations. However, critics have noted that Kaplan's perspective can be overly romanticized, bordering on a "cryptofascist worship of military force.” His unabashed embrace of the concept of American empire may also be controversial for some readers. Despite these potential drawbacks, "Imperial Grunts" remains a valuable contribution to understanding the global reach of the U.S. military in the post-9/11 era. Kaplan's firsthand accounts and insights into the lives of soldiers in far-flung corners of the world provide a unique perspective on American power projection and the complexities of modern warfare.

[David P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Kaplan is a writer in the mold of young Winston Churchill, marching towards the sound of the guns and reporting from where the action is. His "Imperial Grunts" follows the wide-ranging activities of US elite troops--the "special forces," the "green berets" and in the last part, the Marine Corps in Iraq. If the US has taken on the role of a global police force--the way the British Empire once tried to do--here are the cops on the beat.

In addition to Iraq, he visits Yemen, Colombia, the Phillipines, Afghanistan, Somalia and Mongolia, as well as home bases in the USA. A common theme underlying all of Kaplan's book is his deep admiration for those "imperial grunts" and for the ones who lead them. American soldiers around the globe should appreciate what he has written, because it pays tribute to their determination, resourcefulness and courage, a tribute rarely heard for the simple reason that few members of the regular press go to where Kaplan has gone. These soldiers' job is dangerous, conditions are rough, pay is skimpy--and at the same time, the camaraderie is genuine, personal responsibilities are often enormous and the demands one one's "people-skills" can be staggering. This is most evident where American soldiers operate in small teams, training and inspiring local counterparts to give stability a chance, in societies on the edge of chaos.

Take the rain forests of Colombia, where rival militias subsist off the drug trade, while bullying and exploiting locals, often with help from across an unfriendly border. Colombian soldiers are brave and tough, and the fact that many US soldiers speak their language is a great asset--but Colombia's politicians and the majority of the population, comfortable in the highlands, do no sense the same urgency, so that the situation smolders on.

Yemen is a volatile tribal society, a medley of clans armed to the teeth, often supplementing their income from illegal levies at roadblocks. Whatever hold the central government has is maintained largely by judicious bribes and by playing clan leaders against each other. Later Kaplan discovers that much of Iraq is just as fragmented, and that Saddam's rule was maintained by similar means; the situation there has got worse since his visit. The clans, the weapons, the religious extremism--also, an expanding population subsisting on limited means--all these are enough to make the reader pause and wonder: are these the places for promoting democracy?

Indeed, I fear that with all the valor of US troops, chaos will ultimately prevail in most places he describes--followed by oppression, the only realistic alternative to chaos. The fighting men are first rate, dedicated and patriotic, but their orders often come from the rear echelon "REMFs," a different breed. Kaplan's book ends with a gripping first-hand account of the battle of Fallujah, in which the Marines prevailed, only to be ordered back at the moment of victory. Being disciplined, they pull out.

Maybe on the long run all that makes little difference. As one reads Kaplan's reports, one is struck by a feeling of futility--valor and resourcefulness are great assets, but in the face of world-wide disorder, of corruption, poverty, exploding populations and religious zealots, any hope for order may be doomed. Those societies were never stable to begin with, and now their edges are unraveling. Tomorrow the stakes will be higher, life more precarious and any hope for exporting our prosperous orderly democracy even more remote.

For the time, however, a few brave young men stand as a thin barrier between our world and the chaotic one. They do their utmost to give those embattled societies a chance, to maybe--just possibly--find a way to a better, more orderly life. More power to them, and great credit to Kaplan for trying to show the view from their side.

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I [am] a citizen of the United States and a believer in the essential goodness of American nationalism, a nationalism without which the security armature for any emerging global system simply could not have existed. I did not doubt that at some point, perhaps as soon as a few decades, American patriotism itsel might begin to become obsolete. I also had no doubt that we were not there yet. I had served in the military: in the Israeli rather than the American. In Israel in the 1970s, finding life exclusively among Jews in a small country claustrophobic, I discovered my Americanness anew.... My goal as a writer was simple and clear. I wanted to take a snapshot for posterity of what it was like for middle-level commissioned and noncommissioned American officers stationed at remote locations overseas at the beginning of the twenty-first century...

-Chapter 6, Imperial Grunts, Robert D. Kaplan

With much of the writing about Afghanistan and US military forces abroad coming from very young sources (even Sebastian Junger is a mere 46 as he dispatches to Vanity Fair; Bellavia is 24 when he first gets deployed; Internet journalist Kevin Sites is 39 as he enters Iraq; Luttrell, Wright, Swofford, Kyle, Parnell all in their twenties or early thirties as combat or embedded combat journalism is a work of young men), to large degree we receive the perspective of twenty-four year olds: certain, dedicated, black-and-white, aggressive, absolutist, and keen. To that degree, it's useful and beyond useful to have Robert Kaplan, currently sixty-one years old on the ground in Djibouti and Afghanistan to provide a father and babyboomer's perspective, a professor and a long-time Atlantic's journalist's understanding.

Kaplan is right-of-centre. He is a Zionist. He tells us with his rheumatic eyes that 'whorehouses across Asia use a fishbowl presentation.' He has children. These may be unusual perspectives for the 2013 reader, brought up on Zinn and Nader, who is used to left-of-centre critique and who drinks 'riptide rush' gatorade flavor, remembers 'gnarly' and 'rad' as elementary school slang, likes x-treme sports. But if Internet research reveals that Kaplan is a Stratfor analyst and a former Naval Academy professor, at the same time divergence of perspective is important to the broadly ranging reader. And Kaplan is a skilled writer, an organizer of information. A known minority of b-list non-fiction books start strong and then slowly slowly decline as the writer realizes there is only a limited amount of material he or she understands and can write about. Kaplan's book peaks in the middle, with the battlefront of Afghanistan providing a severe backdrop to what is otherwise peaceful deployments. Like Kevin Sites, he does the global thing, covering the entire world of deployment, but unlike Sites, he has a wealth of connections and personal experience to draw upon, and the story goes deeper and sees deeper.

I can't say that I would be voting any time soon for Kaplan to high electorial office, and I don't know whether being designated a senior advisor by SecDef Robert Gates is an honor or merely a sign of establishmentarianism, but I am eager to read the rest of Kaplan's works, and perhaps his wikipedia page is actually sort of enticing for future theory and practice. 4/5 solid.

[JoséMaría BlancoWhite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hectic read, absorbing, masterfully told. This is one writer I am going to follow from now on. Whatever you think of his style, you are not going to go bored reading his stories. I was happily surprised to notice his lack of arrogance -as one would expect to find from a reporter among this class of American heroes. The stars are the real soldiers, the military. Kaplan is there alright, but in the background.

I loved the chapters on Colombia and the Philippines. But everything was very vivid and exciting. You get to have a global sightseeing tour of American forces over the planet. You feel the humidity, you see the landscapes they see, taste the same food and live the same experiences, battlefield included.

The last chapter on Iraq, Fallujah specifically was the best ending possible for this book. One can't help to identify oneself with the writer when, after the battle was ceasefired by political decision...

"in Dubai. In the lobby, on the way to my room, I noticed a newstand. The front pages were all about Fallujah. I felt like a person at the center of a scandal that everybody was reading about, in which even the most accurate, balanced accounts were unconnected to what I had actually experienced and the marines I had experienced it all with. I felt deeply alienated. After I ate and showered and scrubbed my backpack, I didn't want to talk to anyone. All I wanted to do was write."

The author has a clear idea -and so depicts it- of American society:

"The soldiers and marines I encountered during months of travel with the military -whose parents and grandparents had fought in Vietnam- thought of that war as every bit as sanctified as the nation's others. As for those who saw Vietnam differently, they were generally from the more prosperous classes of American society, classes which even back then were in the process of forging a global, cosmopolitan elite."

Want to know what the real world out there is like? Read this.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tough read, at least compared to the other Kaplan book I read, To the Ends of the Earth, but a comprehensive look at the American military on the ground. I found myself with very mixed feelings regarding our covert operations throughout the world many of which seem to have backfired. As a fan of openess and honesty the lying and treachery of political intrigue are pretty distasteful stuff. Liberty and Freedom as buzzwords playing second fiddle to political necessity defined by those with money and therefor power is not a concept I'm very comfortable with. The refreshing and entertaining part for me was the view of the warriors on the ground, the worker bees whose loyalty and dedication is unquestioned and carries on a tradition seemingly as old as civilization itself.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great survey of a lot of what our armed forces are like and what they're doing around the world today. The American system is an empire in all but name, and this book recognizes that reality and shows how that empire is being maintained and extended by many means.

A fascinating look into what's going on in many regions where our government has decided it has a stake in events and into the personalities and lives of some of our people in uniform. This is the first book of an intended series reporting on different dimensions of our military activities around the world. As a retired Marine, I found this fascinating and am looking forward to reading the rest of the books Kaplan writes in this series.

For anyone interested in geopolitics and/or the military, this is a must-read.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the kind of book I usually read in a sitting. And, I have been following Kaplan's pieces in the Atlantic (some of which make up this book) with great enthusiasm for several years. But, golly, I'm on page 72 and I just can't be fucked. It's boring, and I hate to say it, sloppy. Gonna give it a go just to learn about what the A teams did on Sept 12, but my initial impression is that this is jingoistic second-rate John McPhee.

I made it through the Colombia section then left this book behind. What can I say? I'm disappointed, and even more so, I'm surprised that I'm disappointed.

Maybe I'll pick it up farther down the road and finish it up, but for now, it's going on the new "didn't finish" shelf with a provisional 2 star rating.

[Bird · Rating 1 out of 5]

This seems like a good title until you realize that this must be Tom Clancy writing under a pseudonym. No overarching story, just a bunch of muscled well intentioned cookie cutter American good guys. Argh, what a disservice to actually understanding military men and women. Threw the book out my window half-way into it. What a poltroon. Reagan won the Cold War? Ass hat.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short version - If you want to understand what the US military was doing after Sept 11. Start with this. Even if you serve this is still very insightful. Often individual missions can leave us buried in the weeds. Kaplan takes the individual stories around the world and paints a vivid picture of American power.

[Eduardo Sturla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read from a great war reporter.

Kaplan again delivers an excellent look at the life of those serving in the wars of the 21st century. An indispensable look into the actual travails and efforts of the US military on the war on terror. Will surprise those that thought that US theatre of operations were only limited to Irak ans and Afghanistan. Highly recommended.

[Yifei Sun · Rating 1 out of 5]

Be prepared for some imperialist sh*t.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaplan’s book offers an interesting perspective on American foreign policy and the manner it’s carried out. He does this with a series of vignettes that create a feeling of what life and is like on the ground at the various locations he explores - Yemen, Columbia, The Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mongolia, etc.

His goal was to provide a balanced and realistic depiction of how the U.S. carries out it’s imperial goals. To demonstrate how the lower and middle managers (the mid-level military and civilian personnel in charge of implementing foreign policy) run the Empire, so to speak.

His account is respectful and from his point of view. Throughout the stories and locales he’s embedded with these units. He speaks their language, he lives with them and he encounters danger with them. But as an outsider he notices things that perhaps the military leaders he interviews and observes don’t. Kaplan brings a point of view that only a third party could, a third party that doesn’t want to push an agenda, but to see the truth.

Overall, its a fantastic book. As a military officer I found Kaplan’s perspective fresh and insightful. I learned several lessons from this. Mainly, that in the technological advanced and media run world of the 21st century the" behind-the-scenes empire of personal relationships is all that is possible anymore”. This statement suggests that military units need to embed themselves and form relationships with the people and cultures of the nations that offer strategic gains to the US. The soldier of the future will have to be a blend of scholar, diplomat and warrior. More so than they are now. The other big lesson was that the conflicts of the future will necessarily have to be small affairs, where small unit tactics dominate and those actions which create multiplier effects are most valuable. Running an empire is serious work, and Kaplan provides a fascinating look at its inner workings.

[Nate Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second time reading a book done by Rober Kaplan and again I am left with a great appreciation for the way he thinks about the geopolitical landscape and foreign affairs. Imperial Grunts is another masterpiece by Kaplan; chronicling both the lives of US soldiers spread across the world at the turn of the century and the effect that they are able to have on US foreign policy while working at the tip of the spear of the US foreign policy apparatus. Traveling around the world to get spend time with a variety of different soldiers Follet manages to encapture the personal stories of these men and demonstrate how these personalities are crucial to both the implementation of foreign policy as it is created back in Washington and the adaptation that is necessary to achieve these objectives in the field. Even after almost fifteen years, Kaplan's piece is still a great read and quite informative relating the scale of US military support across the world and offering critiques and predictions that in many cases are still applicable today. Whether it was during his piece on the US in Colombia or about his time in Afghanistan, the fact that Kaplan actually went to these places and traveled with the soldiers on the ground makes his analysis that much more intriguing and powerful, giving it a weight that quite simply wouldn't be there without his personal experiences. I am often left impressed by Kaplan's work, often wanting more than he is ever willing to give us, and this time is no exception. Kaplan manages to deliver a powerful message about US foreign policy in the new century while keeping the stories of the individuals he meet intact.

[Joel Robb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A snapshot the men who are the core of the US military -- the NCO's and junior/mid level officers of the US Army and USMC -- lives that are lived in the 21st century on the edge of the empire. Follows their contributions as spec ops (green beret) and peacekeepers, building relationships with the host country forces and people. A deep dive into the areas of the world we never think about or just pay attention to a quick news story and get on with our lives -- the Philippines, Colombia, Mongolia, Djibouti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen. This book is a bit dated, the author embedded with the troops in 2003-2005 timeframe; however, interesting to follow their perspectives from wars that had just begun. You definitely get the feeling that large US military ops and presence is unwarranted in the regions studied, and the less that we hear about US involvement (i.e. smaller footprint) probably the more successful the operations will be. A plug for the small war mindset versus a big war Pentagon fueled operation. The author gives a decent relevant but quick historical background of the regions before diving into the operations at hand. There is a firsthand perspective into the PRT's of Afghanistan and the Second Battle of Fallujah (Oct - Nov 2024), and some observations of the tactical versus strategic mismatch or mishandling of the ops. If you don't like military history, then this book is not for you.

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

_Imperial Grunts_ by Robert D. Kaplan is a brilliant and fascinating look at the American military's deployment in countries throughout the world today. Given how wide that deployment is (particularly thanks to the war on terror), the increasingly decentralized nature of command, and the impact individual units and even soldiers can have worldwide thanks to the global media, Kaplan felt it important to tell the stories of soldiers "from the ground up, at the point of contact." He was fascinated by just how important the actions of the "lowliest corporals and privates" could be even at the strategic level. Also, he was interested in how the U.S. was able to regulate and monitor an often chaotic world without large-scale wars and with only a minimal number of troops on the ground. Part military and political analysis and part travelogue, Kaplan visited American forces in Yemen, Colombia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Afghanistan, eastern Africa, and Iraq, embedding with American Special Forces and U.S. Marines.

Many factors necessitate often tiny American presences abroad. Congress has in the past passed legislation limiting the number of soldiers that can be present in a country at one time, leery of an uncontrolled escalation of forces and an unending commitment to a foreign conflict. The Pentagon (which many of those in Special Forces that Kaplan interviewed derisively called "Big Army") was itself leery of American causalities, hoping to limit that by deploying only small numbers of troops. Troop numbers can also be limited by the host country, often concerned about how such a presence would appear domestically and internationally.

So what could such small forces hope to accomplish overseas, particularly when one is discussing groups as small as 12 men or even single individuals? The United States sought to maintain order worldwide not through conquest but through the training of local armies. In fact the original point of the Green Berets (and still their main job today) is to infiltrate a region and train the local indigenous people, the military if the nation is friendly, the rebels or insurgents if they are American allies instead.

By training these armies, generally the elite units of these armies (and also training their trainers), several things are hopefully accomplished. A web or "empire of behind-the-scene relationships" is hopefully formed, cadres of American-influenced and American-friendly troops in troubled nations throughout the world, more amenable to the U.S. and its foreign policy, more professional and effective, and a point of access for U.S. policymakers. These American trained units can be "motors for change;" as a national army is essentially impossible to reform without widespread social and cultural change, the only hope to start change is to reform a military's elite units using America's own elite units.

Such actions have a long history. The frontier borders of empires have long been held by small numbers of lightly armed militias and friendly tribal auxiliaries; one need only look at the Roman Empire and it German troops, the British experience in what would be northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the American experience with the Native Americans in the Old West and in the southern Philippines against the Moros.

Additionally, these elite units often end up acting like "Peace Corps with guns," helping dig wells, build schools, treat sick people and even animals. By such actions, the U.S. hopes to win "hearts and minds," cultivate local intelligence sources, and undercut the propaganda and political and material appeal of enemies like Abu Sayyaf.

If the primary tool of imperialism was training local armies, the primary responsibility was to "grapple with countries that weren't really countries" and to contend with "the unwieldy process of modernization itself." Yemen was hardly united; the imposition of central authority hindered by rugged terrain, a 3,000 year legacy of separate Yemeni kingdoms, and "the anarchistic trinity of family, village, and tribe." Colombia was less a country "than a series of fortified city-states," perched 8,000 feet up in the mountains, "surrounded by ungovernable...tropical lowlands," dominated by anti-government narcoterrorists. The Philippines he wrote was basically the island of Luzon, with Mindanao and the various islands and island groups mere possessions, many of which were Islamic lands in a poorly-governed Christian-run nation, a series of remote, "poor, shantyish, unpoliceable islands" that formed with Malaysia and Indonesia a vast interconnected archipelago that was virtually ungovernable. Afghanistan never really was a true nation-state, as it best it existed only as a few major cities and towns and the roads connecting them, much like Yemen, its citizens were another "unreconstructed people of the mountains and high plains who had never been successfully colonized." Even under Saddam Hussein Iraq had a difficult time with central government, as the Iraqi dictator had to both coerce and co-opt local tribal leaders, particularly in Iraq's "sprawling, hard-to-control desert badlands."

Kaplan was enormously impressed with the American soldiers he found on the ground, finding time and again that they were dedicated, hard-working, intelligent men and women who loved their job.

Kaplan did however find problems. He found the bureaucracy of "Big Army" too stifling, top-heavy, and not conducive to quick operations, delaying so much at times on approving missions that they were diluted of any real impact. He felt it was too bound by regulations, not allowing for local leaders and troops on the spot to make the decisions that they needed to make and to blend with the culture (he mentioned the beards that many Special Forces grew to blend in in Afghanistan, something that really bothered "Big Army"). He felt that the American military was in many ways still geared up to fight World War II and the Korean War again, not the current reality of low-intensity, inconclusive conflicts. American forces needed to learn more community policing skills (such as crowd control and cultivating snitches). Rules of engagement could be too strict as well, which instead of making troops safer could make them more vulnerable. He found the lack of linguistic skills appalling and woefully in need of improvement.

[Julian Pritchard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unbelievably stupid. This book gets more absurd the further into it you get, uncritically repeating the perspective of the U.S. armed forces without pushing back at all. Most of this book is Kaplan trying to convince you that he’s “one of the guys” while also simultaneously trying to convince you that he’s witty and cultured. A lot of this book is empathizing with low class soldiers and criticizing “the elites,” and longing for a “simpler time” for the military. Several times he compares U.S. soldiers to Confederates.

This book is nauseating. It’s unfathomable to Kaplan that U.S. soldiers may kill civilians or act in ways that are unethical, and if it does happen, he claims that it is always punished. Whether or not U.S. intervention is necessary or in our national interest goes unquestioned, and Kaplan poses as a disinterested observer who is just neutrally reporting the facts. By the end of the book he is practically fawning over these soldiers, trying to fill this book with action-packed battle stories. He acknowledges that the U.S. is an empire, but thinks that is a good thing. This book is a weird mix of military history and travel writing. A lot of it is just generalizations or platitudes, and there is some interesting history in this book, but not enough to be worth reading.

[Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kaplan's visits to front-line (more or less) US troops throughout the world reveal him to be the grunts' best journalist friend. Many of the scenes he reconstructs here have the flavour of workers sitting around drinking beers tossing out "you know what I'd do to fix the world? lemme tell ya..." Constant harping about how the command structure doesn't understand how to run things, how the East Coast elites don't understand, how evangelicals are saving the discipline of the armed forces. Some make sense, most don't, and there are a number of internal inconsistencies.

It is valuable to get these perspectives, but Kaplan is using his own voice for this harping, and comes across as a highly credulous eyewitness who respects only the most obvious of analyses, where subtlety and nuance are for pussies. This got him access, no doubt, but weakens the book. His decision to employ the same "Indian country" motif used in many forms by the armed forces fits the imperialist theme but is squicky from the start.

One thing Kaplan gets right, and still sucks, is the lack of language skills and lack of emphasis on developing a passable linguistic facility among at least a sizeable subset of front-line troops. And also his obvious deep respect for the Marines.

[Tyson Packer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book as a part of a class and this review only encompasses a brief, surface level view of my thoughts on the book.

Kaplan offers an interesting view into the world of America’s foreign policy through the eyes and the actions of America’s front line troops. Throughout the book you feel as if you are really there with them in the strange corners of the world where they are stationed. You share in their efforts, their understandings, and mostly, in their frustrations.

For me, the book left me with an overwhelming sense of frustration. Frustration from the men in the book, frustration at the intricacies of politics, and frustration at the limitations put upon the men doing the work from the men forming the policy.

I believe this book is a great bridge between international relations/policy, unconventional warfare, journalism, and “winning hearts and minds” campaigns. I hope to read this book again on my own in the future and see what other insights I can glean from its pages.

[Blaine Welgraven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lucid and copious work, written by one of America's foremost foreign correspondents, Imperial Grunts captures the essence of the American military's "great middle" working class ethos while examining the complex realities of 21st century "soft" imperialism and unconventional warfare. Kaplan clearly earned the trust of the military units with which he was embedded, and his writing rivals that of any military correspondent I've read; however, it's Kaplan's deep fascination with (and knowledge of) world culture, regional geography and military history that elevates the content of Grunts to more than just journalistic excellence. When you read Kaplan, you are reading someone who understands, practically speaking, the cultural and historical realities behind complex geo-political situations, and it is this rich knowledge which makes Imperial Grunts a journey very much worth taking.

[Jim Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone ought to read this story of the US military’s attempts to adapt to the world of local terrorists with global reach. It explains a lot about today’s divided USA. I was in the peacetime Marines from 1959 to 1963 so I can identify with the tradition that shaped the reality in 2003 Kaplan describes. But I wasn’t part of the culture that spawned real Marines. I was part of the culture that was shaped by the pacifist blue Democratic urban elite. I can see through Kaplan’s eyes how deep that cultural divide was and still is in the USA. I wasn’t a grunt; I was a HQMF. This explains my visceral differences from the red Trump people who, in many ways are the real patriotic Americans who guard our walls against the chaos outside. Well done Robert Kaplan.

[David Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating true tales of the people fighting our wars. Again I say, why read fiction when the truth is more exciting. Great writing done by a real expert story teller. Now i am going to look into his other books that I never paid attention to before. I thank the author or honoring these great soldiers of every rank.

[Bookworm In · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the weaker Kaplan books. In essence it describes an overstretched empire trying to control an ever more fragmented world. While in the past the target was to export the American way of life, now it is just control. Well written but the lack of criticism on this misguided strategy makes me drop it to just 2 stars.

[Rory G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sections of this book were so cluttered with terminology that they were incomprehensible. Other portions were beautifully described (the martian landscapes stand out to me). However, I don’t think that this book was written or conceived as a whole, cohesive product, and it was hard to digest for that reason. Lots of area expertise, incomplete concept design.