The War After Armageddon
by Ralph Peters
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Book Reviews of The War After Armageddon
Book Review: The Only Disappointing Book Peters Has Ever Written
Summary: 2 Stars
In addition to being an insightful political analyst, Ralph Peters has had a long and successful career as a great novelist. He has written military novels with a fine sense of the military mind, he has written political thrillers with an insider's knowledge of the ways of Washington and he has written mysteries featuring a Civil War detective with a well developed historical sensibility.
I've read every novel he's ever written and I've never been disappointed.
Until now.
This novel begins strongly. Iran has gotten nuclear weapons and used them on Israel and certain cities in the US and Europe. A US Task Force led by General "Flintlock" Harris, a legendary soldier, invades the Middle East and engages with an army of Muslim fanatics. Electronic countermeasures has reduced warfare to pre-high-tech levels. Peters follows the course of battle at several levels, from a squad led by a Marine sergeant to a battalion led by lieutenant colonel up to General Harris.
But then the story quickly runs off the rails. America has become a nation of Christian extremists, the National Guard has been converted into a radical sect and plans are being hatched in Washington to commit genocide on a scale which dwarfs Hitler's. The plot becomes perfunctory and the "war after Armageddon" ends with another Armageddon.
All of Peters's novels have a point to deliver. They always reflect his view of the state of the world. If he really thinks that (a) America is on the threshhold of converting to radical Christianity and (b) Christian doctrine would ever sanction the cold blooded murder of a billion human beings, he is totally alienated from both America and Christianity. This is disturbing because Peters had a distinguished military career and this warped view might be indicative of a rift between the military and the rest of society.
Mr. Peters's skills as a novelist can still be seen in his deft sketches of characters and his ability to capture complex action sequences with coherence. But he really needs to have a plausible plot.
Book Review: Political Correctness and Armageddon: What a Bargain!
Summary: 3 Stars
Let's not bicker and argue over who killed who; this novel is supposed to be a happy occasion. Other than the great battle scenes where honestly patriotic U.S. Marines and U.S. Army soldiers go about shooting the enemy and blowing up stuff real good, the overall tone of the book is that Christianity and Islam are morally equivalent. L.A. is nuked (opinion withheld), and so is Las Vegas (OK, now those terrorists have gone too far!). These attacks spawn a Christian politicalization of the U.S. and a new Christian crusader army (apropos since all of the real action transpires in the Holy Land). The Christian general uses his influence to subvert the U.S. Constitution and to extend the war so as to attempt to annihilate all Muslims. Strangely, The Israeli general harbors no such ambitions even after his people lost an entire nation. While evil by man has transpired in the name of Christianity (history is full of such examples), evil is not done because of any true legacy of Christ. Can the same be said for those who follow the religion of pieces? Admittedly, Ralph Peters has been to many parts of the globe while I've only gotten about as far as Catalina, but my reading (including Peter's - The War in 2020) leads me to believe that there isn't a whole lot of love to be found in that religion that starts with an "I" and ends with a "slam". Read this book for the futuristic war story not for the theology.
Suggested reading:
-The Religion War, by Scott Adams (available on Amazon);
-The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion, by Robert Spencer (available on Amazon) and;
-The Sword of the Prophet, by Serge Trifkovic (available on Amazon)
-The War in 2020, by Ralph Peters (You know where to get it)
Suggested viewing: -Islam: What the West Needs to Know... [DVD] (available on Amazon)
Book Review: Soul-shattering future war scenario
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, this book is not the great American novel, or anybody's great novel. To assess the book from that perspective is to miss the author's point. Ralph Peters has a message for us, and that message is best delivered in a novel's format.
The message that Peters has is straightforward enough: beware the true believers on all sides lest they assume the powers they dearly believe are theirs. Democracy and its attendant privileges, often misunderstood as rights, is a most fragile affair. Peters argues that a cruel use of the nuclear genie by a few can cause a counter-reactionary avalanche that swallows the perpetrators, innocents, and what we understand as Western civilization's liberality all at once.
In his story, the only place of moral repose in severe crises, if we can call it that, is among the secular military. This small group, banished to backwaters by a religious government that fully supports an SS-like Military Order of the Brothers in Christ (MOBIC), retains the only sense of honor, duty and devotion to liberal principles within an America that has been violated by several nuclear explosions, all from true believers in the Middle East.
His characters generally are cardboard cut-outs. Don't read this to find a Prince Andre or a Pvt Cacciato or even a CPT Yossarian. Read this instead for the inter-connectedness of world ideas, events, and actions if things go wrong in a big way.
If you consider yourself a student of the military or military strategy, this book should be a foremost addition to your reading library. You may not like what you read, but it undoubtedly will make you think. And we must read these ideas, for the Hobbesian state of nature is not as far away as we would like to believe.
Book Review: powerful cautionary tale
Summary: 5 Stars
Israel has been nuked back to the Stone Age. Dirty bombs have devastated the major cities of Europe as well as Las Vegas and Los Angeles too. In fact L.A. is a radioactive desert. Muslin extremists are bringing Jihad to the West just like the West brought death squads seeking Islamic extremists.
The United Godfearing States of America elects an extremist Christian government. One of the first acts is to modify the National Guard into the Military Order of the Brothers in Christ (MOBIC). With a mess back home of fundamentalist Christians seeking a new Crusade that they hope will lead to the Rapture, Lieutenant General Gary "Flintlock" Harris commands troops on a beach assault of what is left of Israel. He and his fighting force are bringing the war to the Jihadists. High tech weapons of mass destruction have failed so fighting reverts back to pre electronic command and control. The world is on the brink of pandemic genocide as both sides in this religious war claim the Holy Land even if it is a wasteland.
This is a powerful cautionary tale that warns if present international and internal American relationships continue on the current path hell on earth will occur as religious fundamentalists who proclaim God's mandate makes them right will bring radioactive Crusades to the world. The story line is fast-paced from the moment that Flintlock leads his unit onto the beaches of what was once called Israel, but now is a radioactive wasteland called The Emirate of Al-Quds and Damaskus; a long way from what was Mt. Carmel. Fans will appreciate Ralph Peters' deep thriller except for those who are always righteously right.
Harriet Klausner
Book Review: Completely Implausible.
Summary: 1 Stars
The the author represents himself as a military strategist, although I still have yet to see his bona fides. Military intelligence covers a large area, strategy being a very, very small part of it. And more subject to the decisions of the Commanding General than one of his analysts.
What strikes me as particularly sad, especially coming from a former military officer, is the moral equivalance drawn between both the Muslim and Christian fascists.
While it appears more and more likely that war with Iran is soon on the horizon, and more numerous and severe attacks on the United States almost inevitable, the idea that the US would willingly turn itself over, politically or morally to an extreme right wing Christian junta is laughable.
We currently live in a society in which any politician who seriously promotes the idea of a draft is committing political suicide. We live in a society in which patriotism is considered quaint at best, and abhorrent at worst.
Our current administration, implicitly, most of the time, seems more willing to apologize to terrorists for our killing of their people with our buildings on 9-11, than they are of protecting the United States.
No. I sincerely doubt the United States, regardless of being in extremis, would willingly turn itself over to a theocratic dictatorship with the attendant SS.
Giving credit where credit is due, the combat scenes were well written and realistic. However, that cannot make up for cardboard characters, little to no plot, and a nonexistent message.
What was the point, Sir?
More importantly, what was the plan?