Iâ??m not a big fan of reviews that hail something as â??importantâ?Â, but Ralph Peters new book Never Quit the Fight, is the exception to the rule. Given the state of the Middle East, and of our own resolve here at home, I am quite comfortable with that statement. Ralph Peters is telling some cold hard truths that we ought not ignore.
Peters has unassailable credibility as a strategist and as an honest broker. Read a few sentences about Rumsfeld and the occupation of Iraq and his agenda becomes clear, he is about fixing problems and positioning freedom for future success against tryanny.
Had we planned to botch the occupation of Iraq, we hardly could have done worse than the administration did without a plan. Despite inadequate support and abysmal civilian leadership, our troops saved us from disaster.
This is classic Ralph Peters, he is a realist and an optimist.
He has a keen understanding of the threats we face because he has talked with the enemy, traveled in their countries and studied their religion. He displays supreme confidence that we can win this struggle, if we chart the right course.
His conclusions as to how we do that are not for the meek or politically correct. His assessment of Islam is brutal. His takedown of Europe is devastating.
They can dish it out abundantly, but continental Europeans can no more take criticism than their welfare armies could have taken Baghdad.
…For Europeans..-â??freedomâ? means freedom from things; from social and economic risk, from workplace insecurity and personal responsibility, from too much competition in the marketplace or too much scrutiny of governing elites.
For Americans, freedom means the freedom to do; To make our own way, to struggle, to achieve, to rise (to climb social, educational, or economic ladders), to move beyond our parentsâ?? lot in life and give our children better chances still.
His critical words are not spared for the US military or the government. His warning about the corrosive impact of mass media is spot on.
A paradox of our time is that the overwhelmingly secular global media-a collection of natural-born religion-hatersâ??have become the crucial accomplices of the suicide bomber fueled by rabid faith. Mass murders are lionized as freedom fighters, while our own troops are attacked by the press they protect for the least waywardness or error.
This book really makes you think, about the long-term war we face with Islamic radicals, and about the immediate needs we must address in order to fully, robustly meet this challenge. As events unfold daily in the Middle East, Peters book becomes an essential resource. Every news and political junkie will be better off for reading Never Quit The Fight.