THE FOURTH STAR
THE FOURTH STAR
Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army
By David Cloud and Greg Jaffe
This book is about four generals David Petraeus and Peter Chiarelli, who led the transformation, and George W. Casey Jr. and John Abizaid, who were ultimately left behind by it. Instead of planning how to fight the next insurgency, the Army went right back to preparing for what it loved to do: fight big battles against big, uniformed armies just like itself. Training in guerrilla war, as Cloud and Jaffe show, was banished from the Army’s curriculum.
In the months before the war in Iraq began in March 2003, many American soldiers took part in huge mock tank battles against a mythical army known as the Kraznovians. Then the real war in Iraq began, and the American Army found itself disastrously unprepared for the conflict that unfolded. The Army transformed itself in Iraq, and not a moment too soon.
Abizaid, Casey, Chiarelli and Petraeus all began their Army careers in the 1970s, when the Army was at its post-Vietnam nadir - when drug abuse was so rampant and morale so low that it was said the military was incapable of actually fighting. All four men were exceptionally bright and hard-working, rising through the ranks as the Army struggled to rebuild itself.
George Casey, the son of a two-star general killed in Vietnam, was determined to ensure that the experience of that war would not be repeated. Peter Chiarelli, perhaps the most down-to-earth general in the Army, started his career teaching social science and never abandoned his thoughtful approach to soldiering.
But the hero of “The Fourth Star,” as of the Army itself, is David Petraeus, the brightest and most driven of all the bright and driven men around him. Chiarelli and Petraeus served in Iraq during this period, too, first as division commanders and then in more senior posts. Both men realized very quickly that the Army’s heavy-handed approach to fighting was driving the Iraqis away.
Abizaid and Casey, for all their talents, conceived and directed the strategy in Iraq that brought America to the brink of defeat. The essence of that strategy was to train Iraqi forces as quickly as possible so that American soldiers could come home. The result was anarchy and civil war.
Casey was promoted and brought back to Washington, Abizaid retired, and Petraeus took charge. (Chiarelli also went home, to become vice chief of staff of the Army, after serving an unhappy tenure as Casey’s deputy.)
“The Fourth Star” is a very good book, readable, detailed and rich. The profiles of Abizaid, Casey, Chiarelli and Petraeus are nuanced and well drawn; the generals really come to life, as does the Army itself. You could have the book here.
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