From Lexington to Baghdad and Beyond

Decisions about when where and why to commit the United States to the use of force and how to conduct warfare and ultimately end it are hotly debated not only contemporaneously but also for decades afterward. We are engaged in such a debate today quite often without a solid grounding in the country's experience of war both political and military. This book by a political scientist and a career military officer and historian is premised on the view that we cannot afford that kind of innocence. Updated and revised with new chapters on the Afghan and Iraq wars the book systematically examines twelve U.S. wars from the revolution to the present day. For each conflict the authors review underlying issues and events; political objectives; military objectives and strategy; political considerations; military technology and technique; military conduct and 'the better state of the peace' that is the ultimate disposition of the original political goals.