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spopovic's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting comparative study of several insurgencies of the recent history, starting with the American Revolution and ending with Russian's occupation of Afghanistan. Polk explains the ingredients of a succesfull insurgency and shows how most of the couterinsurgency measures taken by the occupant failed. He then concludes with an overview of USA's current involvment in occupation of other countries. The author has worked for the US Department of State during Kennedy's presidency and currently teaches Middle-Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago.
jimg's review
5.0
A terrific book. Many reviewers have already covered the book's contents so I will leave only the closing quote Polk cites from President Dwight Eisenhower: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging frm a cross of iron."
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