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“ARMS OF LITTLE VALUE”
“Arms of Little Value” is a former soldier and CIA officers
insight into the true nature of insurgency and how it will
continue to affect the United States, and by association the
allies if the USA, in the decades to come.
What we’ve seen recently in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and
at the moment in Syria is merely the beginning according to
G L Lamborn. He believes that we are entering an extremely
dangerous period in world history. He has been a student and
observer, and sometimes a participant, in various insurgencies
since his “initiation” in Vietnam in 1969.
“Arms of Little Value” strives to give the reader a thorough
understanding of the true nature of insurgency and a glimpse
at the reasons why we have not always dealt with it effectively.
This book is a distillation of Lamborns experiences and studies
gathered over forty years on four continents, including personal
experience with the recent American struggles in Afghanistan and
Iraq, as well as experience in working with insurgent movements
in the 1980s.
No other book to my knowledge has surveyed insurgencies in
such a comprehensive and systematic way, not merely on a
global and historical basis using case studies from the American
Revolution, Cyprus, China, and others, but with detailed analysis
of the root causes of revolutionary instability. Lamborn examines
insurgency from the perspectives of both the insurgent and
counterinsurgent, and lays bare glaring inadequacies in military
thinking and lack of preparedness by governments and civilian
populations to handle the dangerous “brushfire” wars of the
future.
Famed WWII air force General Jimmy Doolittle said “If we
should have to fight, we should be prepared to do so from the
neck up, instead of from the neck down” and Lamborns careful
consideration of insurgency is an important step forward in being
better prepared to “fight smarter” than we have been in the past.
G L Lamborns US National Defense career spans twenty forty-
two years, including twenty-six years with the CIA where he
worked in a variety of operational, analytical, and leadership
assignments in the Directorate of Operations and Intelligence, and
the Office of the Director. A trained operations officer, Lamborn
specialised in insurgency and influence missions in support of
national directives during the 1980s and 1990s. He has served
in various third world countries and in several successor republics
of the former Soviet Union. A Vietnam War veteran, he currently
lives in Texas.
Author: G L Lamborn
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 978-10612001-04-3
Price: £20.00
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