The Portable Pat Lang

W. Patrick Lang

Description

A must-read anthology of the best essays and short historical fiction by one of America’s finest soldiers, scholars, and spy masters, Col. W. Patrick Lang (USA-ret.).
An anthology of articles, speeches, and commentaries on contemporary affairs by one of America’s leading soldiers, scholars, and spymasters, Col. W. Patrick Lang (USA-ret.). Must-read for anyone wishing to dig deeper into contemporary Middle East history, the twists and turns of the US intelligence community, the Iraq War, the state of Islam, and modern US military strategy. The anthology includes short fiction by the author focused from the epoch of the Crusades and the US Civil War aftermath. Col. Lang is the author of six books, including an historical fiction trilogy of Civil War espionage, a memoir, and a primer on human intelligence. His website turcopolier.com has had over 40 million unique visits and hosts an active committee of correspondence.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Agencia Central de Inteligencia
• Al Qaeda
• Israel
• Iraq War
• Crusades
• Middle East
• Al-Qaida
• Crusade
• Islam
• Civil War
• History
• Intelligence
• Central Intelligence Agency

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 14 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663248435
• Langue: English

Extrait

Other Books by W. Patrick Lang
        Strike the Tent Trilogy:
               The Butcher’s Cleaver
               Death Piled Hard
               Down the Sky
        Tattoo: A Memoir of Becoming
        The Human Factor: The Phenomenon of Espionage
THE PORTABLE PAT LANG
 
ESSENTIAL WRITINGS ON HISTORY, WAR, RELIGION, AND STRATEGY
 
 
 
 
W. PATRICK LANG
 
 
 

 
 
ESSENTIAL WRITINGS ON HISTORY, WAR, RELIGION, AND STRATEGY
 
Copyright © 2022 W. Patrick Lang.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
 
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.iuniverse.com
844-349-9409
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4842-8 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4844-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4843-5 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022922384
 
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 12/12/2022
Contents
INTRODUCTION
PART I: THE INTELLIGENCE PROCESS
A National Intelligence Fantasy
Humint: Against the Islamic Zealots
Speaking Truth to Power
“Bureaucrats Versus Artists…”
“Civic Virtue Took a Holiday”
Clandestine HUMINT in Counterinsurgency—The Vietnam Example
Counterinsurgency – a much failed strategy?
Human Terrain Teams
“Peter Rabbit”
The Pogo Factor - How Cultural Blindness Has Infected America’s View of the World
Lessons from Vietnam in How to Flip an Enemy
Untitled and Undated Memorandum
The Spooks versus the Hawks
Webb’s Dog-Tags
PART II: STUDIES IN ISLAM
Twelver Shiism and Political Power
Varieties of Islamic Faith
Wahhabism and Jihad
Al-Qaeda and the Jihadis
Al “Kayda” or “Al Ka’eeda,” which is it?
PART III: SHORT STORIES FROM THE CRUSADES ERA
“The Most Beautiful Men in the World”
Dorylaeum
Melisende and Fulk
A Voyage to Aigues-Mortes
PART IV: THE IRAQ WAR
Drinking the Kool-Aid
Book Reviews: Cobra II and Iraqi Perspectives Report
Iraq Fantasy: What the US Government Does Not `Get’ in Iraq
“Politics” in Iraq
Giving Peace a Chance
Two Book Reviews: Fiasco and Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Iraq
The Last Best Chance In Iraq: New Plans of Action
A Hidden Danger: Lines of Supply in Iraq
What will happen in an American withdrawal of forces from Iraq?
PART V: SHORT STORIES FROM THE POST-CIVIL WAR PERIOD
Sharpsburg
La Brigade. 1870 – Paris
Ruqqiya: An American soldier in Egypt
Clotilde Jarai
The Hog’s Snout (An alternative history)
PART VI: MIDDLE EAST STRATEGY
A Concert of the Greater Middle East
A Survey of the Situation in the Middle East
Is there a Profound Change Coming in the United States Foreign Policy in the Middle East?
Bargaining is not Appeasement
Middle East Policy Council Capitol Hill Session: “Iraq, Iran, Israel, and the Eclipse of US Influence—What Role of America Now?
Deterrence
“Defense” Can Win!
Israel’s Juvenile Ground Army
Death of a Legend: A Loss of Deterrence
Post-Iraq War Gaming in D.C.
Lebanon Again on the Brink
Natural Allies?
The Heat’s Turned Up
The Neocons are Selling Kool-Aid Again
What did happen?
PART VII: STRATEGIC AND HISTORICAL STUDIES
“Dear Hearts Across the Seas”
Creighton Abrams’ Army
The President is not CinC of the US
Why Humiliate Russia?
Two Very Different Wars
Letter to the Editors, Washington Post
“You are not who they say you are.”
America Cannot and Will Not Succeed in Afghanistan/Pakistan
Book Review of the Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor
PART VIII: A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE
Carolina in the Mornin’
Introduction
A Lifetime Of Experiences Presented Here
After decades of dedicated service to his country as a Colonel in the United States Army, as a Military Attaché in the Middle East, as founder, along with his wife Marguerite, of the Arab language and Arabic studies program at West Point, as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s global humint (human intelligence) service, and as the Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, W. Patrick Lang embarked on new careers in the private sector. He did international business consulting, was a regular analyst on major news networks, was an expert witness in several trials related to the Espionage Act and served on the board of a major philanthropic foundation.
In the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he created his own blog which to this day still serves as a committee of correspondence for a large network of former military and intelligence officers, diplomats, and scholars of international affairs.
Since its launch in 2005, Col. Lang’s Turcopolier website has had over 40 million unique visits.
He is one of America’s most prolific analysts of current affairs.
Since leaving the government, he has also authored five books, including a Civil War espionage trilogy, a memoir of his years in government service, and a primer on human intelligence.
This present volume—his sixth book—is an anthology of some of his most important writings. The book is organized into eight sections, grouping his writings by topics. The material is not organized chronologically in all instances. There are three sections of historical fiction.
The content speaks for itself. So have at it.
HARPER
November 3, 2022
PART I
The Intelligence Process

This section is focused on the process of intelligence gathering and analysis, as told by an author with three decades-plus of active-duty experience. Some of the essays provide an overview of the structure and responsibilities of the intelligence organizations (there are 16 separate agencies that make up the U.S. Intelligence Community), while others focus on the intelligence failures that led up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
A National Intelligence Fantasy
(October 2002)
It is one of the most important responsibilities of the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to supervise the writing of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) An NIE is a considered judgment by the major agencies of the national intelligence community with regard to some particular issue of national importance. Once approved, an NIE becomes the “ground truth” of the United States Government. It is the document always cited in deliberations leading to the most serious and dangerous decisions made by the government. The judgments given in a fully coordinated NIE are usually determinative in establishing the basis of presidential decisions. NIEs are usually, but not always drafted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), negotiated as to the judgments and evidence in it with the major agencies, and then voted on by the heads of the major agencies in a meeting of the National Foreign Intelligence Board (NFIB) with the DCI himself in the chair and voting. In spite of this apparatus of consultation and consensus, there is no doubt in the mind of anyone in the intelligence community that an NIE is the DCI’s document. No one else in the community has the authority to initiate an NIE. His own agency (CIA) almost always drafts it and only he can approve it before it goes to the president and other senior authorities.
These facts make the NIE published in October 2002 on Iraq’s WMD programs uniquely the property of George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence. As a retired official of the intelligence community, I often participated in the writing, editing, and approval process of NIEs. After watching George Tenet’s spirited defense of his conduct of his office at Georgetown University, I was moved to re-examine the publicly available portions of the WMD NIE because the Bush Administration has heavily relied upon that document as a justification for the decision to go to war in Iraq.
The NIE in question is the worst constructed, most illogical and indeed dishonest document of its kind that I have ever seen. The NIE makes assertions concerning the existence of Iraqi weapons stocks and active programs that are unqualified on their face. “Baghdad has weapons of mass destruction…” “We assess that Baghdad has begun renewed production of mustard, sarin, GP (cyclosarin), and VX,” would be examples. At the same time the document states, “We lack specific information on many key aspects of Iraq’s WMD programs.” One may fairly ask how it could be that the DCI, George Tenet, thought himself justified in making judgments to be given to the president of the United States which might lead to war on the basis of his expressed belief that he “lacked…information…on key aspects” of the programs in question.
This NIE is “riddled” with statements of “evidence” conditioned by words and phrases like “could make” (nuclear weapons), “chances are even that…” (smallpox as a part of Iraq’s BW holdings), “Probably has developed…” (genetically engineered BW germs) or most spectacularly, “although we