Never Quit the Fight

By Ralph Peters

Book Overview

Drawing on his global experiences from Africa to Iraq, author Ralph Peters attacks today's crucial issues of our time head-on, with the clear eye and blunt voice that has won him a devoted following: Is Iraq worth it? What's the truth behind the politics? Are our defense dollars buying a strong military--or the wrong military? Are we missing great opportunities elsewhere while hypnotized by the Middle East? Must we accept that Islam itself is the problem? Will we face a war with China? What would such a war mean? Can Washington learn from its mistakes?

These are just a few of the controversial issues Peters takes on in a series of body blows to the status quo. Famed as the most original strategist of our time, Ralph Peters builds on the critical and commercial success of previous books, Wars of Blood and Faith (978-0-8117-0274-4) and New Glory (1-59523-011-4), to offer a stunningly fresh vision for our military, our country, and the world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811734404
• ISBN13: 9780811734400
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Collected columns written during the War on Terror. Agree or not, always worth reading

Ralph Peters is former military intelligence officer who is willing to express what he thinks no matter how different his view are from the conventional. At times, you might agree with him, and at others you might be on the fence, but at least once in awhile you might wonder what the world he is talking about. And that is great! We want opinion writers to push us and make us think about our assumptions and views. Those differences help sharpen us. This book is a collection of articles he has written during the war in Iraq, but the columns are on all kinds of military subjects. Politics shows up insofar as it interacts or has impact on military affairs. Peters writes well and has the ability to persuade, so this is an interesting book to read. At times you might find yourself agreeing with him and then catch yourself and ask, "I just agreed to what?". Peters believes in aggressive warfare and the doctrine that the enemy must be fought and destroyed (attrited) until he is convinced he has lost and sues for peace. Many of us wish this were what our leaders believed, but haven't since the Korean War. One might ask why they don't? Well, the world is a very complex place in the age of superpowers and nuclear weapons. When one party attacks another it must always be done with the notion of who else might join the fight (remember China and the USSR supporting the Koreans (and Vietnamese)? He also doesn't think maneuver warfare gets the job done without boots and aggression. He thinks the Air Force has become addicted to high tech weaponry and that our military leaders are hoping for enemies who will fight the wars we have prepared to fight with our vast weapons arrays, but that IEDs and car bombs and media manipulation have proven that scenario much less likely. He likes the Navy and feels it has a much bigger role to play in our strategic future than even they understand, and he believes we need more men and women soldiers who are trained, equipped, and prepared to fight with fighting leaders. Peters believes that the notion of having fewer, but more capable high tech weapons is a fool's errand. He notes that when someone says less is more that they are probably wrong, sometimes less is just less. Peters is for the mission in Iraq, doesn't like the way it is being fought, and was dismayed at the choices we were offered in the last Presidential election. These are just the things that come to mind after reading this book. There is a lot more to read, think about, and enjoy. Again, you might find some of it exasperating, and some you might feel your blood racing and wish that others in power thought like the author, however, the point is that you will find all the articles clear, thoughtful, and worth reading. Enjoy. This is an informative and worthwhile read. You might also want to check out his book from August 2005 "New Glory". He provides his views on what America's strategic alignments should be. Very unique view. My rev

Right, As Usual

More than most writers, Ralph Peters is entitled to a big "I told you so!" This collection of essays, prepared both for the general press (where he is reviled by left-wing pundits) and for professional military publications (where he is highly regarded)covers a wide spectrum. Peters (who favored deposing Saddam Hussein)points out the innumerable errors made by Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith in planning (or failing to plan) the post-invasion rebuilding of Iraq. He anticipates the current failure of Israel to defeat Hezbollah. Peters is no blow-dryed TV "personality." He goes to dangerous places. He has Kurdish friends. He speaks German and Russian. He is the genuine article. His thoughts are well worth contemplation. Thomas P. Lowry, author of CONFEDERATE HEROINES.

America's Military Intellectual

Once again Ralph Peters has issued an intellectual challenge to America. In a superbly edited series of contemporary essays, Peters forces readers to face unpleasant, harsh, even upsetting facts. He analyzes our defense and military establishment, the quality of the Islamist enemies we face, and the critical need to make hard choices that most Americans would prefer to ignore or defer. Peters is prehaps the most facile writer in his field regarding use of language. In a phrase, he writes beautifully. He constructs his cases with a solid grasp a of history and how it applies today in as compelling a manner as I've ever read. He exudes moral courage, in a way that distinguishes him from contemporaries and always demands respect. Never Quit the Fight is a philosophical paradigm for America fighting a war that we did not seek and still as a nation have not come to grasp in its entirety. Peters rips away the facade of euphemism and political correctness that slips from politicians' press releases and from glib, empty-headed media lips. With Peters you are going to get the truth in its most basic form, stripped of all moral equivalence or rationalization. This book needs to be in the hands of every American. It is a must read if we are going to prepare ourselves for the brutal, war-to-the-death situation that has been thrust upon us and for which we as a nation were, and to a large degree still are, woefully unprepared to fight and win. Buy this book now. Send another copy to your best friend.

Editor in Chief, Armchair General magazine

With impeccable, nearly uncanny, timing, Ralph Peters' newest book, Never Quit the Fight, hit bookstores on July 10, just in time - among other things -- to inform the on-going debate that's swirling around Capitol Hill over the question of what to do about the U.S. military presence in Iraq and other key issues surrounding foreign policy and the global War on Terrorism. This outstanding new book by America's most original strategic thinker ought to be required reading for the proponents on both sides of the troop withdrawal argument - the "cut and run" crowd and the "stay the course" supporters. For the rest of us, those whose only "vote" on such issues comes every few years at the ballot box, Never Quit the Fight is a clearly-written, cogently-argued, must-read - it's a "short course" on the otherwise often-confusing myriad of foreign policy issues growing out of the War on Terrorism that face America today. As comprehensive as any single volume you could read on the unbelievably broad range of foreign policy problems we face now as well as those looming in our future, Never Quit the Fight presents, in a single volume, Peters' insightful, on-target essays, written for the most part over the last three years. Taken individually, each of Peters' "no holds barred" articles -- from such publications as The New York Post, USA Today, The Weekly Standard, Armed Forces Journal, Parameters, and Army magazine -- hits readers like a glass of "Hey! Wake Up!" cold water splashed in their faces. Never Quit the Fight's superb collection - it contains 82 brilliant, hard-hitting articles -- is like getting the entire bucket all at once. Most readers will not have had the opportunity to read all of these articles when each was originally published in one of the several different periodicals. Therefore, Never Quit the Fight is their chance to read them all in a well-organized single volume, the articles placed in context by Peters' perceptive introduction. Publisher Stackpole Books (stackpolebooks.com) has, in effect, provided a real public service by producing this insightful, informative and very useful book. Given the shoddy, sensationalist reporting of the War on Terrorism by the media and the politically-driven rhetoric spewing forth from Capitol Hill, the essays in Never Quit the Fight are now made available just when we need them the most. You must read this book! As an essayist, Peters pulls no punches with his "tell it like it is" writing style. Absolutely clear in his cogent, highly-readable narrative, Peters' prose cuts right to the heart of each subject, giving readers what is usually so sorely lacking in reports from the mainstream media and in editorials written by "ivory tower" college professor "experts" -- a healthy dose of common sense seasoned with Peters' rare (in fact, it's nearly unique today) strategic insight. No one who reads Never Quit the Fight will end up scratching his head, wondering "What is this guy getting at?" Peters examines

THE best combination of strategy, psychology, & intelligence about REALITY

This is without question one of the finest and most ably organized collections of commentaries it has been my privilege to read in all these years. It suffers from one major flaw, not the author's fault: the publisher failed to include an index. The oversight should be corrected in the next printing, and ideally included as an Errata with the books now going out to bookstores. The author is a world-class strategist, warrior, psychologist, intelligence professional, and writer. He returns to four familiar themes, with all new refreshing insights: 1. America has no strategy and no official means of getting there. He ends the book by pointing out that drawing lines between the US, Spain, and Portugal to African and Latin American countries with colonial ties to these countries, and then lines of modern immigration and kinship back to the US, would be a de facto strategic network worthy of consideration. 2. America has the wrong military, with too few infantry, military police, and even truck drivers. He is brutally on the mark when he concludes that the current Administration's efforts to out-source everything led to the out-sourcing of America's honor. The author is on target when he revisits his long-standing beef with the U.S. Navy, which is still trying to build to "four carriers on the Kamchatka peninsula" and the rest on China. We need a 450-ship Navy capable of executing peace from the sea, and we need an Air Force capable of two Berlin Airlifts at once, with a budget for the peace goods they will need to carry to the 30+ failed states that spawn terrorism, infectious disease, poverty, environmental degradation, civil war and genocide, and of course crime. 3. Even with the right military--that is to say, a military able to dispatch single terrorists with a single bullet, able to mount punitive "in and out" expeditionary operations, and--where called for--invade and occupy for extended periods, but with proper planning for the post-war transition to peace--military intelligence is completely broken. It cannot find the targets known to exist at the individual and tribal levels, and it cannot anticipate emerging threats. I would add that civilian intelligence is just as broken. The current Director of National Intelligence and his senior agency heads are continuing the Cold War systems that are "inside out and upside down" and have no idea how to create a modern intelligence capability that is founded on multinational and inter-agency information sharing, and on making the most of what can be known from open sources of information in all languages. 4. Faith is a strategic factor. The author is compelling when he slams not just the radical Islamic terrorists, but the ideologically insane evangelical Christians in America, for religious degradation rather than religious charity. David Johnston, author of the very influential book on "Faith-Based Diplomacy" would certainly agree. The author excels at criticism of our mis-place