Military Law Books

In this book, Mr. Osiel contends that the military should be more proactive in prosecuting soldiers for violations of the law of warfare. Osiel contends that current policy generally leads to litigation only in cases of atrocity. To his credit, the author recognizes the complexities of the modern battlefield and the "real-world" impact of imposing new or thicker layers of control within the chaos that is war. He also recognizes the complexities that peace-keeping and peace-making operations pose for soldiers and leaders at all levels. Professional soldiers will find some of his example cases distracting, as they are clear violations of the law without imposing his higher standard to the situation. This book should be recommended reading for all Judge Advocate General officers and field-grade commanders that are participating in combined (international) operations. This book should generate some good discussion among professional officers as they digest his proposals for increased responsibility at all levels of the command structure. Any instructor involved in teaching ethics, leadership, or the Law of War will also find this work helpful.

I wouldn't call this book interesting in any regard, but it talked about my great uncle, Colonel Howard Bresee, who was involved in the war crimes trials after WWII. I bought this book to keep with Uncle Howard's gavel and trial documents. It really explains his role in the trials, which we never really understood. But unless you are related to the characters in the book, I don't think you would enjoy it.

The ideas put forward by Mr O'Hanlon in this slim volume roughly reflect the state of current western interventionist (or non interventionist as the case may be) policy regarding the use of force to serve humanitarian ends.

Although Mr O'Hanlon communicates an obviously extensive knowledge about international affairs, his guide to establishing military criteria for forceful intervention falls short of the goal. Although the author sets out some useful guidelines about what methodologies, barriers, and costs policymakers and the public should expect in operations of peace enforcement, he fails to make a strong case that intervention is in fact a desirable policy goal for the western nations.

On the whole, I see this slim volume as adding nothing new to the debate in world affairs, particularly in regards to peace enforcement as an extension of western economic imperalism. It's an interesting summation of the ideas that have flowed from men such from Ginggrich to Shawcross, however it lacks originality of ideas and presentation. Other people have made explained the issue much more provactively, and with a great deal more authorial flair. It's not a bad book, but I wouldn't put it first on my list.

Israel had been in existence only a decade before this historic trial. A special law had to be instigated for this heinous crime called the Nazi and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law; it passed and was used as the basis for the process of trying Adolf Eichmann.

He had grown up in Austria, but considered a failure by his family and himself. At the age of 26, he joined the Nazi Party, received SS military training and, in Berlin, he worked to establish a Freemasons Museum.

He became an expert on Zionism and was sent back to Vienna to rid Austria, then an annexation to the Third Reich, of all Jews through forced emigration. For the first time in his life, he was a success -- by forcing 116,000 to leave that country.

He worked up to the rank of colonel in the SS before the collapse of the Third Reich. He worked his kind of magic again (in Hungary) where his efforts had half a million of Hungarian Jews deported less than a year before the defeat of Nazi Germany. At first, the Jewish people were sent to eastern Europe and later to the extermination camps.

He was never a policy maker, but carried out his orders to rid the Nazi controlled territories of those born Jews. Taking the alias Ricardo Klement, he was joined by his wife and children where he went from Europe to Argentina nine years until his capture. It took two and a half years for the inner workings of the new country of Israel to get its information confirmed as they were doubtful that an important Nazi would choose to live in such a poor, low-class neighborhood. He was turned in by a half-blind Jew.

Almost a year after his capture in Argentina, a 4-month trial was held in Jerusalem, then four months transpired before the sentencing. There was an appeal by his German defense counsel three months later; two years after his capture (two days after the appeal was refused) this 'arch-criminal' was hanged at the age of 56. This writer was able to interview the German Attorney who broke his 35-yr. silence to talk with her for this book.

The graphic testimony showing the horrors of the Holocaust revived all the pain and abhorrence toward such by the whole world. At the time of his capture, it was assumed he had been a top leader. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. He had obtained a visa from the Vatican to relocate to Argentina.

He was what might call a "petty" (nonessential) officer and, to upset the modern world twenty years after the war atrocities had occurred, on such a minor player in the scheme of things was a mistake by the independent state called Israel. Things are never quite what they seem.

During the 1950s Israel was a society in the making and the Holocaust survivors were an important element of the culture of this settlement. Due largely to their demographic attributes, the survivors there in Israel were active and influential group of immigrants. The author thought that this trial symbolized 'the beginning of Israel's coming of age.'

Many people remember in great detail what they were doing at the moment they learned of Eichmann's capture on May 23, 1960. Few events in the life of a nation leave a permanent impression on the lives of its population, events of the kind that make people forever remember where they were and what they were doing at the exact moment of its happening. This is what happened with the survivors of the Holocaust who lived in Israel.

In the USA, it was November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet to his head which will forever stay in American's memories.

Mr. Beaton's book reads like a WWII version of M*A*S*H and proves that, just because a man wasn't on the front lines, life could still be plenty hard - and dangerous!

"Where Duty Calls: The Story of Sarah Emma Edmonds" is a recently published, fictionalized account of the life of Union spy Sarah Edmonds. The plot of the story itself is quite interesting, chronicling the adventures of a female who poses as a male spy during the Civil War. The book, although not noted as relevant to a certain age category, is more suitable for younger children. Although it includes excerpts from Edmond's autobiography, and does well in sticking to the facts, it reads like a young adventure novel. It is definitely a more fictionalized account of Edmonds life, and doesn't go into the more intellectual and historical issues of gender roles and Union spies. If you would like a well-written, simplistic overview of Edmonds' life; or if you know a young child who likes to read about real life spies, then "Where Duty Calls" is the book for you.

To anyone considering buying this book, I suggest you read it in the store. It is definitely not worth a dime. As for reviewers calling Malkin "the best of the best" know tha t unless you know nothing about history or ethnic studies, you will probably be impressed by this. The reader is drowned by her conviction and well, that's about all that keeps this historical fantasy a page-turner. Just read her blog for a dose of hate, it's free.

This book really adds nothing new in the way of critical thought for a serious topic - the internment of 70,000 Japanese-American citizens and 42,000 others of Japanese ancestry. Instead, like Malkin's other books, it strings together a few anecdotes, shoddily tied to footnotes and endnotes, puntuated here and there with shrill calls for sweeping fixes, which are generally simplistic, unworkable, or contrary to the Bill of Rights and American values.
Although the topic is the WWII large-scale relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans and residents of Japanese heritage, the book's pretext is to justify the 21st century singling out of swarthy young men for everything from extra patdowns, or deportment, as well as internment. Her research is what the average high school senior could string together in a typical week using the online Encyclopedia Britannica and the local library.

The WWII Japanese internment started when, with FDR's blessing, Gen. John DeWitt issued Public Proclamation No.1, informing all those of Japanese ancestry that they would, at some later point, be subject to exclusion orders from "Military Area No. 1" (essentially, the entire Pacific coast to about 100 miles inland), and requiring anyone who had "enemy" ancestry to file a Change of Residence Notice if they planned to move.

MALKIN WRITES THAT IT'S A MYTH THAT INTERNMENT WAS UNJUSTIFIED.
Civil liberties icon and FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover opposed the internment of Japanese Americans. Refuting General DeWitt's reports of disloyalty on the part of Japanese Americans, Hoover sent a memo to Attorney General Francis Biddle stating, "Every complaint in this regard has been investigated, but in no case has any information been obtained which would substantiate the allegation." Any student of history knows Hoover was very thorough when it came to 'investigating' disloyalty.

Furthermore, Malkin glosses over internment in Hawaii, as it was minimal. Actually, the topic of Japanese-American internment there undermines her entire thesis. Curiously, internment barely took hold in Hawaii, which was not yet a U.S. state, but a 'territory.' Of all places, Hawaii is where one would have expected Japanese-Americans to be interned, with Pearl Harbor and all. But only ca. 1500 Japanese-Americans and immigrants were interned there, out of 50,000 with Japanese heritage. The military resisted interning those of Japanese heritage as they were 1/3 of Hawaii's population of 150,000, and thus needed to keep the economy moving. No notable acts of espionage or sabotage were reported. (Actually the greatest damage to Hawaii resulted from FDR's neglect as Commander-In-Chief to ensure Pearl Harbor was on alert for attack by the Japanese Navy.)

She also forgets that America actually apprehended, either by U.S. agents or by the relevant countries' authorities, 2200 persons of Japanese ancestry from 12 Latin American countries for internment in America. Of these ca. 1800 were Japanese Peruvians. I suspect Malkin overlooks this because of the post-war legal problems encountered. After the war, 1400 were not allowed to return to their Latin American homes and more than 900 Japanese Peruvians were involuntarily deported to Japan. Three hundred fought deportation in the courts and were allowed to settle in the United States. The original plan was to deport all of these Latin American Japanese for entering the U.S. without passports or visas. Later Court of Appeals decisions overturned this Kafka-esque finding, pointing out that they had been brought into the country against their will by acts of official kidnaping. (Sounds eerily similar to Malkin's beloved extraordinary rendition)

MALKIN STATES INTERNMENT WAS NOT UNPLEASANT; BARBED WIRE ONLY SYMBOLIC.
Wrong! Internees were housed in tar paper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind. Many internees sent to concentration camps in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho were only allowed the clothes on their backs, and unprepared for the harsh Rocky Mountain winters.
As for the 'symbolic' barbed wire, there are documented instances of guards shooting internees who unwittingly attempted to walk outside the fences. One such shooting, that of James Wakasa at Topaz, led to a re-evaluation of the security measures in the camps.

MALKIN WRITES THAT THE INJUSTICE OF THE INTERNMENT WAS ONLY PERCEIVED.
Well, she seems to know more from her paltry research than Republicans such as Ronald Reagan, Alan Simpson, and George H.W. Bush, all of whom were involved in apologizing for the internment and/or paying over $1.6 billion in reparations to the internees. Also, during WWII, Colorado's republican governnor Ralph Carr publicly apologized to Japanese-Americans, even going a step further by issuing this REAL AMERICAN, unMalkin-like proclamation on how Colorado should treat Japanese-Americans, "If you harm them, you must harm me. I was brought up in a small town where I knew the shame and dishonor of race hatred. I grew to despise it because it threatened the happiness of you and you and you."

Furthermore, in several 1980s cases of writs of 'error coram nobis'(loosely translated as remedies for major court screwups resulting in sentences and convictions), federal district and appellate courts ruled that newly uncovered evidence revealed the existence of a huge unfairness. The courts found that, had it been known at the time, this evidence would likely have changed the Supreme Court's decisions in several internee's constitutional challenges to internment and curfews.

These new court decisions rested on a series of documents recovered from the National Archives showing that the government had altered, suppressed and withheld important and relevant information from the Supreme Court, most notably, the Final Report by General DeWitt justifying the internment program. The Army had destroyed documents in an effort to hide the fact that alterations had been made to the report. The 'error coram nobis' cases vacated the wartime convictions of Fred Korematsu and Gordon Hirabayashi related to curfews for Japanese-Americans. Minoru Yasui, who challenged his conviction for violating the exclusion zone order, died before his case was heard, rendering it moot.

Lastly, should the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf ever find its way to America, detonating a suicide bomb here and there, perhaps Malkin may find her relatives rounded up and interned in the manner her book espouses. Maybe Malkin herself could end up behind the 'symbolic' barbed wire. If you're still willing to waste your money, you can buy a used version of this book for less than $1.00 on Amazon.

Painfully anti-intellectual. Irresponsible. Inaccurate. Laughably desperate in its attempt to sell copies through controversy. The author is a hack version of Ann Coulter, which is just about as low on the subhuman species food chain as one can go.

Grab a copy if you desire, but be forewarned: your IQ will plummet as a result.

Michelle Malkin is no doubt on the admitted federal payroll for journalists. What she has spewed forth here is pure psychotic dribble. She is the newest nauseating, made-up face of Fox news, who I am quite sure, will be rolled out to the masses right about the time that HomeLand Security and troops are filling your streets and taking "dissidents" to the local FEMA camp. Make no mistake here folks. Malkin is a wicked banshee, and in my opinion, there will come a day when her and her ilk will be brought to justice for their treasonous assault on this country.

I'm afraid that I was not able to get all the way through this book. I was too repulsed by the extreme racist views of the author. It makes you wonder who's side she was on in World War II.

I am amazed at the content of this book. What Miss Faulkner did is important. It was the proper time for women to be admited to The Citadel. However Miss Faulkner was the wrong women. She repesented her entire gender horribly when she arrived at the school. She was not at all prepared for the hardships of knob year. She was a embaressment to all women. Miss Faulkner stayed at the actual Citadel for 4 hours before she quit. The rest of her hell week was spent in the infirmary where her tender nerves were attended to. She did this to prove a point and all she did was embaress herself and her gender. The author takes a view of someone who has heard only the bad facets of the school, but that is to be expected considering who provided her information.
StevensJ@citadel.edu

The first time I saw the behaviour of Nazi soldiers in Schindlers List I said to myself "they remind me of the cadets in the Lords of Discipline". The Lords of Discipline is fictional account of the Citadel. A fact was confirmed after seeing pictures of Citadel cadets dressed up as Nazi's in their yearbook.

I found this to be a wonderful and engrossing book and I am frankly not surprised that most of the negative reviews come from Citadel attendies. In his books The Boo and The Lords of Discipline Pat Conroy (who for years was villified by his alma matter) basically stated that most of those who attended the Citadel thought that it was paradise on earth and "God created it on the eigth day after he rested". Obviously some have problems with criticism of their school and can't handle it. The Citadel has always fascinated me and I was intrigued by this book which I actually read in record time. The book gives a fascinating account of the school, and the history of Charleston.

Yes this book is at times is harsh and does not reflect the school in a good light. But it isn't as if Ms. Minegold is the first to do so. Numerous news organizations among them 60 Minutes have done pieces on the school and their handling of the comming of women. To this date I really don't think that I have read one positive piece on the Citadel which does not make the school into a factory for bullies and sadists. Hopefully one day one graduate (hopefully female) will give a true and balanced acount of the school.

From what I have seen lately it seems as if the school has done some growing up and is truly trying to change their reputation.

I found the history of the Citadel very interesting, but the story of Shannon Faulkner ultimately disappointing. To surrender to threats after all she had been through to become a cadet didn't seem in character with the stubborn, proud, and gutsy Shannon we saw in most of the book. Of course, I couldn't understand why she would want to go there in the first place. The atmosphere at the Citadel doesn't seem one to produce the new kind of leaders we need for present day situations, and I wondered how the "knobs" ever got any academic work accomplished.

Title sounded like a good book for our AAUW book group - a woman facing an all-male educational establishment in the conservative South. A great deal of Southern/Charleston history thrown in - interesting, but besides establishing what most students of history already knew, had little to do with Ms. Faulkner's story. Never got to know her as a person, and court dialogue not included at all in this book. Where were the taunts, controversy, the meat of the trial? Was Ms. Faulkner suffering from heat exhaustion (and if so, why was she so physically out of shape, given she'd had 3+ yrs. to prepare for Hell Week), or was it an emotional breakdown/letdown after all those years of fighting?
Manegold writes like a journalist, giving facts, but little insight to the feature character's final days at the Citadel. Most disappointing! I will not recommend this to my book group.

This book sets out to be many things. It succeeds at none of them. As a result, it's is not only disjointed and confusing, but soaked through with bias as well.

One the one hand, author Catherine S. Manegold, a defense reporter for the New York Times, writes of the fight over the admission of Shannon Faulkner to The Citadel as a metaphor of South versus North. At the same time, she presents the chronology of a legal battle. And a biography of Ms Faulkner. And a sociological study of life at a military college. If Ms Manegold had concentrated on any one of these things, the book might have been more successful.

But apparently she couldn't decide which tack to take, and so the book ends up muddled. Long biographical introductions are given to people who end up playing minor parts in the drama. Lines are drawn for a conflict of cultures -- hidebound, traditional, inbred, hypocritical Charleston versus dynamic, hip, multicultural, liberal New York City -- but this allegory is abandoned as soon as it's developed. The central legal battles are disposed of in a series of 'the lawyers said ... the judges said,' and then, presto!, Ms Faulkner is in the door.

Ms Faulkner herself is the central figure in this drama, but at the end of the book, many questions about her remain unanswered. Did she apply to The Citadel purely on a whim, as it seems at first? Did she want the luster that comes with a Citadel ring (the ring is practically totemic), the 'network' and 'connections,' without understanding that the network depends on the shared experience of surviving the Citadel? Were her energies so focused on the legal fight that she was unprepared for what she found when she got in? When she left The Citadel, she complained that she had no friends in the school or the Corps. Was she really so naïve as to expect the school she and her lawyers had spent years attacking to offer her a warm embrace once she battered the doors down? None of these questions are adequately answered. It's not even clear whether the days Ms Faulkner spent in the infirmary were due to heat stroke, a mental or emotional breakdown, physical collapse, or something else entirely.

Instead, we get strange asides, like the bizarre suggestion that harassment of Ms Faulkner was connected to Caribbean voodoo rituals. Or four irrelevant pages rehashing the charges against one of the Left's favorite targets, the School of the Americas.

Interestingly, two of the most evocative sections of the book -- a harrowing account of Hell Week and the strangely moving epilogue 'Fear is like a Tree' -- contain barely a mention of Ms Faulkner at all.

Most Americans probably don't have real strong feelings about The Citadel one way or another. On the extremes, though, are people who really, really love the school, and others who really, really hate it. It's pretty clear whose side Ms Manegold is on.

Unlike Dr Laura Fairchild Brodie, who wrote about the 'assimilation' of women at VMI, Ms Manegold is not 'the band director's wife.' Not, that is, someone who knows the story from the inside. She seems not to have even residual sympathy for The Citadel as an institution, for the young men (and women) who attend it, or for the administrators wrestling with how to adapt to a society that has rejected nearly everything they value. Considering the patronizing, even sneering, tone she sometimes takes toward the military and people who serve in it, it's surprising Ms Manegold could have endured a career as a defense reporter.

As Ms Manegold tells it, the original sin of The Citadel was to have been founded for the purpose of training militias in the suppression of slave revolts and the perpetuation of the planter-dominated caste system. The Citadel apparently is tainted by this sin forever, and neither the school nor the author can ever overcome it: she mentions it frequently, often gratuitously. After the War and the end of slavery, The Citadel turned inward, and cadets practiced on one another the social suppression and physical abuse they could no longer impose on slaves. This is what passes for sociological analysis in this book.

That's too bad, because there is clearly an interesting and important story here. Maybe someday, someone will find a more effective, less polemical, way to tell it.

Because I wasn't at the army, I found it very helpfull.
It covers a wide range of things that an new one can learn so easily.
I suggest it.

In a "manual" available to anyone, one cannot expect magic on the pages. This book covers the basics, which any operator knows, all advanced training IS mastery of the basics. No book, manual, video, or seminar makes one a super SWAT/SEAL/Ninja/Ranger/Sniper/HRT man. For a new team starting off, this is a decent manual to outline the realities and requirements for hostage rescue. Leroy Thompson has spent more time in the field than most operators have spent in service. I enjoy his articles and books and you should too.

This was bought for me as a gift so I can't complain about the price, but the content is sadly lacking. Black and white photos and no substance. If you have ever been in the military or in law enforcement, you already know whats in this book if not more. This is more for archair commandos and wannabees then professionals. And it is certanily not, a how to manual.

This book provides only a shallow overview of some of the many aspects of hostage rescue and dynamic entry. It may be suited to give an outsider a brief glimpse of what's involved in hostage rescue, but it has little to offer to anyone in the business. Billing it as a `manual' is somewhere between an overstatement and outright false advertising.

This book actually covers most topics concerning hostage rescue. It is well written and easy to read.
But it doesn't offer any details, just some short overview.
E.g. it deals with hostage negotiation for about 3 pages, whereas I got a professional book that has almost 300 pages just about this topic.
If you are a professional already, or if you will rely on many other sources of information, than you should consider buying this book in order to have a nice summary of all main topics.
But don't get the idea, this book alone will help you doing your job - it'll be lethal!
I personally am really disappointed and will send it back to amazon!!

The book grabbed me when I opened it and I did not put it down until I finished reading it early the next morning. While I realize the story line is fictional, it sounds plausible and realistic to me. I have studied this subject matter, and I understand that while the air ways for trafficing out of the Andean Ridge have been largely shut down, the waterways have not. I looked for major reviews before buying the book and thought the Kircus Review, a highly prestigous literary review, was extraordinary.

Highly recommend this title to anyone looking for the US to fight a real war on drugs and not continue to use the needle in a haystack approach of trying to stop it at the border with limited success at very high cost.

The back flap contains a terrific letter of support from Senator Orrin Hatch, the Chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, the organization responsible for many elements of combatting drugs and its attendant crime.

Really, really enjoyed this book, receives my highest recommendation.

The anti-drug moralizing forced me to stop reading it as did MANY technical goofs - 2 times where the author described M16s as having 40 round magazines, that a .357 Mag could penetrate a car's engine block, that most SEALs are built like NFL players and can bench 400 pounds.

Drugs are evil but every good character in the book gets crocked on booze.

Lots of typos and errors. This was like reading a first draft.

I enjoyed this book and the few areas which might be considered discrepancies were little more than a matter of perspective. The author did a great job combining information with a smooth reading experience.

Unfortunately, I did not read the reviews of this book prior to purchasing it - I thought it was a factual accounting of US Navy Special Warfare efforts against the drug cartels. Had the author stuck with keeping this factual, it would have been a much more valuable read.

Gave up about half way thru. Great premise and some good details but the anti-drug ranting just became WAY too much. The author is on a personal crusade against drugs of the South American variety and it really comes thru in the writing. Continuous moralizing about how all drugs are evil and the US, actually the world, is about to collapse because of the War on Drugs, but it's OK when all of the good characters drink alcohol. eg - when the FBI agents meet and get crocked.

Author annoyingly, and for no reason, keeps bringing up a backstory about Modular Products as if he's trying to set the background for his next novel.

Many typos and errors - was this a first draft that no one proof read? Glaring technical errors that an author with friends in law enforcement should know: p90 - .357 bullets can penetrate a car's engine block, p33 and p26 - M16s with "40 round" magazines.

Too many analogies of how SEALs are like NFL players and can all bench press 400 pounds - HA!. Also, for a guy that supposedly was in BUD/S, he says Hell Week was 7 days - it's really 5. p26 - the SEALs wear "dark jungle striped" camo! Another goof.

Tried hard to like it but the moralizing and faulty details really turned me off.