Max Boot - Articles

Blame Canada

Commentary Magazine

February 2012

Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles Along the Great Warpath that Made the American Way of War

By Eliot A. Cohen

Free Press, 432 pages

In the popular imagination, the “American Way of War” developed in major conflicts such as the Civil War and World War II: costly wars of attrition that mobilized the full might of the economy and were fought until the enemy was annihilated. The strategist Eliot A. Cohen begs to differ. In his new book, Conquered into Liberty, he argues that the American approach to warfare originated in battles fought hundreds of years ago along a 200-mile stretch of land and water from Albany to Montreal. The Indians called this the Great Warpath, according to Cohen, and from the early 18th century until the early 19th century, it was the scene of unrelenting conflict.

Measuring the Man in Charge

Wall Street Journal

January 23, 2012

A general's life story and an inside look at his year in command in Afghanistan

All In: The Education of General David Petraeus

By Paula Broadwell, with Vernon Loeb

(The Penguin Press, 394 pages, $29.95)

Paula Broadwell, a 1995 West Point graduate and former Army officer, went to work in 2008 on a doctoral dissertation at King's College London on Gen. David Petraeus and his role in U.S. military innovation in the post-9/11 era. When the general, after striking success with the troop "surge" in Iraq, was appointed as the senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan in July 2010, Ms. Broadwell decided to try to spin off a book from her research. She found a high-powered agent, she says in "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus," who persuaded her to "go big" with a book of considerably wider scope and greater sales prospects than her dissertation. Vernon Loeb, an editor at the Washington Post, was recruited as her co-author.

Obama's Defense Strategy

Council on Foreign Relations

Media Conference Call

Speakers: Richard K. Betts, Adjunct Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations and Max Book, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations.

January 10, 2012

Overspending the Peace Dividend

Los Angeles Times

January 8, 2012

Some might argue that there is nothing wrong or damaging in Obama's plan to cut defense spending; that we always downsize our military after the conclusion of hostilities. But is it so wise to repeat history?

In unveiling a new strategic review Thursday, President Obama warned that "we can't afford to repeat the mistakes that have been made in the past — after World War II, after Vietnam — when our military was left ill-prepared for the future."

Slashing America's Defense: A Suicidal Trajectory

Commentary Magazine

January 2012

The U.S. armed forces have spent the past decade fighting two of the largest counterinsurgency campaigns in their history. In Iraq, they have dramatically reduced the threat from al-Qaeda and Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdist Army, and they are now in the process of doing the same to the Taliban and the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Iran Won't Close the Strait of Hormuz

Wall Street Journal

By MAX BOOT and BRADLEY S. RUSSELL

Direct hostilities would risk retaliation against Tehran's nuclear-weapons program.

January 4, 2012

Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz last week, in response to U.S. and European Union moves to apply sanctions on its oil industry. Only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, the strait sees the passage of roughly 28 tanker ships a day, half loaded, half empty. Some 17 million barrels of oil—20% of oil traded in the world—go through this chokepoint. If Iran really could close the strait, it would do great damage to the world economy. But it would also damage its own already shaky economy because Iran relies on the strait to deliver oil exports to China and other customers.