Great! Just What I Need!

Another book to read! Do you know how far behind I am? While I am sitting here blogging....when I should be in bed, I have full day tomorrow, I am listening to Charlie Rose. Normally, he bugs me, but it was the topic was "A Discussion about Iraq, Counterinsurgency and Lessons Learned from the war in Algeria" with Alistair Horne, Andrew Bacevich, Henry Kissinger, and Tom Ricks. Mr. Horne's premise is that the French fighting in Algeria from 1954 to 1962 is a better parallel to our current situation that Vietnam. The show was hugely interesting and now I have another book to read!

A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962
This is an excerpt from the The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com review.
When Americans talk about the raging insurgency in Iraq, they often draw parallels with the Vietnam War, but a better analogy is probably the French war against nationalist rebels in Algeria from 1954 to 1962. That's one reason why the landmark history of that conflict, Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace, has been an underground bestseller among U.S. military officers over the last three years, with used copies selling on Amazon.com for $150. Indeed, "Algeria" has become almost a codeword among U.S. counterinsurgency specialists -- a shorthand for the depth and complexity of the mess we face in Iraq. Earlier this year, I referred to Horne's book while conversing with one such expert in Taji, Iraq, and got a grim nod of agreement.

Kissinger and Ricks also recommend watching "Battle of Algiers".

Now I am going to bed. I have to be sitting in the hairdresser's chair first thing tomorrow morning so I can be young and beautiful again.