The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies Read Online Free Page B

Blessedly, he looked again, and saw something he liked.
    Had it not been for his patience and vision and extraordinary leadership under some difficult pressure, I’d probably be renting surfboards at Second Beach in Middletown, Rhode Island. He is where I get the quote I use routinely when I counsel young people. “A leader is responsible for helping others see something in themselves and then helping them maximize their potential.” He did that in spades for me.
    That said, and lest you get the impression that he’s a softie, I received many a tongue-lashing from OC, and it was invariably as tough as anything I got at home. Maybe it’s something about Rhode Islanders—is there an independence and toughness in the people that come from that state?
    As most stories do, the Grenada story grew legs over time. Some said that I violated orders; I never did. That I jumped on an airplane to go to war; I did. That if it wasn’t for the rescue of the paratroopers, I might have been court-martialed; I doubt it.… Believe me, an ass-chewing from O’Connell was worse than any court-martial, and he gave me many. However, our platoon performed well on Grenada. We were there for only a few weeks, and the Cubans weren’t that effective at anything.
    Overall, the mythology of the Flynn Deployment to Grenada would live with me for my entire career, but when I look back it was what you would expect and want of a young platoon leader. Not only were the results successful, but the experience showed me that it’s vital to give your mid- and junior-level officers and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) plenty of running room. They are the keys to winning modern war, as was later proven in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    There’s a broader point, having to do with ideologically driven regimes and movements, and it is crucial in understanding today’s war. We captured a lot of documents in Grenada. They were brought back to Washington and are now in the National Archives. They tell a fascinating and important story, with great attention to little details, especially about the indoctrination of the populace and the close working relationship with Moscow (they are closely related, of course). Like the Soviets, the Grenadian Communists were confident of their ultimate victory—the “laws of history” guaranteed it—and they wanted to be sure that their part in the story was properly told.
    Today’s Radical Islamists have the same conviction, and are similarly at pains to document their intentions and actions. As I told the German magazine Der Spiegel in late 2015, talking about the Islamic State, “They document everything. These guys are terrific about it. In their recruiting and in interviews, they ask ‘What’s your background? Are you good with media? With weapons?’ It’s this kind of well-structured capability they have that then evolves into a very, very unconventional force.”
    There are many similarities between these dangerous and vicious radicals and the totalitarian movements of the last century. No surprise that we are facing an alliance between Radical Islamists and regimes in Havana, Pyongyang, Moscow, and Beijing. Both believe that history, and/or Allah, blesses their efforts, and so both want to ensure that this glorious story is carefully told.
    Grenada turned out to be a turning point in the Cold War because the defeat of the Communist regime there was the first time that a country had entered the Soviet Empire and was then removed from it. According to the Brezhnev Doctrine, named after the former Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev, once a country had embraced Communism, the laws of history dictated it could not change its political system. Grenada showed the doctrine was false.
    After Grenada, I went on to serve in my first of three training assignments and my second tour at Fort Huachuca (the Army’s Intelligence Center). This assignment gave me my first glimpse into future warfare. I was assigned as one of the instructors