As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.” Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies—corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.

General Editer: Shannon A. Brown. Based on the papers presented at an acquisition history aymposium called "Providing the Means of War" held on 10-12 September 2001. Provides a way for the acquisition community to learn about the past and illuminate our understanding of contemporary and future issues. Looks at case histories from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Shows that the acquisition process is a shared burden, with both private industry and the American government having important roles to play

A new era of great power competition places a strategic premium on the efficiency with which states can pursue their aims. There is therefore likely to be an expanded scope for partnered operations. Partner force capacity building has a long history, with very mixed results, yet there is little historical memory in the institutions tasked with carrying it out. War by Others’ Means uses archival research, interviews with practitioners, and observation of capacity building to understand why states undertake it, how they should select, train and equip their partners, and how they should manage the generation and withdrawal of trainers.

Providing the Means of War is an important anthology of papers by current and former acquisition officials, federal historians, and distinguished scholars on the history of defense acquisition. Sponsored by the Defense Acquisition History Project and the U.S. Army Center of Military History and held in Washington, D.C., on 10-12 September 2001, the Acquisition History Symposium offered a venue to increase the existing base of historical knowledge about defense acquisition matters and to stimulate interest by providing historical perspectives on how the federal government has acquired weapons since the middle of the twentieth century. Consisting of fifteen papers carefully edited by Shannon A. Brown, the anthology also includes Harvard Business School professor J. Ronald Fox's keynote address on a wide range of acquisition-related issues; the full 9/11 transcript of the roundtable discussion on the connections between national security strategy and resource management, which reflects the atmosphere of that fateful day; and ICAF professor B. F. Cooling's closing remarks showcasing the Defense Acquisition History Project as an important historical undertaking, a work in progress, to promote an understanding of how the nation's defenses are forged through acquisition-the foundation of its military strength. It is a volume with thought-provoking lessons and observations from the past that will resonate with today's acquisition professionals.

The manual describes the general strategy for the U.S. Marines but it is beneficial for not only every Marine to read but concepts on leadership can be gathered to lead a business to a family. If you want to see what make Marines so effective this book is a good place to start.