Description: In this stunningly detailed account of U.S. military power in the Obama era, Mark Moyar reveals how Obama's military decisions have led to the international catastrophes of his second term. While the current downward spiral did not become noticeable until 2014, Moyar finds its roots in Obama's first-term decisions to shrink the U.S. military and replace large overseas military commitments with "light footprints."
Moyar illustrates how Obama's policies led to the rise of ISIS and how conditions are primed for future cataclysms. He shows how the killing of the U.S. ambassador at Benghazi was the result of a light-footprint approach in Libya and reveals the problems stemming from our reliance on drone strikes. The ongoing military drawdown and international perceptions of Obama's passivity have heightened the risks to America from her enemies. Drawing upon the lessons of Obama's presidency, Moyar concludes by identifying a better way for U.S. national security in the twenty-first century. Strategic Failure is a timely and fascinating opening salvo in the looming 2016 showdown between Republican and Democratic presidential contenders.Brief description: Mark Moyar is the author of several books, including Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA's Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965, and A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq. He is a senior fellow at the Joint Special Operations University and the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a member of the Hoover Institution Working Group on the Role of Military History in Contemporary Conflict. From 2004 to 2010, he served as a professor at the U.S. Marine Corps University, where he held the Kim T. Adamson Chair of Insurgency and Terrorism. He has also taught at Texas A&M University, Ohio State University, Cambridge University, and the Foreign Service Institute. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications. He also makes frequent media appearances and speaks at a wide range of public and private institutions around the world. Mark lives in Washington, D.C.
Review Quotes:
"An extraordinary read for anyone who cares about the future of the United States of America."
--Lieutenant General Michael T. FLynn, USA (Ret.), former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency "Lieutenant General Michael T. FLynn, USA (Ret.), former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency"