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Pat is currently writing nonfiction works exclusively in the areas of
national security, foreign affairs, and military history. The following
are projects on which he is currently working. Pat also accepts
solicitations for articles and essays in these areas. To submit a proposal,
click here.
Adobe Acrobat is required to view all of
the articles and documents on this page
- Ideas to Die For: Lessons from the
American Revolution for the War on Terrorism
(Book-length manuscript, ~250 pages,
June 2010)
“Only days after the 11
September attacks, in a speech before a joint session of Congress, President
George W. Bush declared a 'global war on terror.' But, no matter how hard it
tries, the United States can never kill its way to victory in this war.
There is no government to force to capitulate. Moreover, the population that
must be compelled to abandon salifist jihadism is so vast and spread over
such a large area that the task is beyond both the United States’ capacity
and its will. In short, this threat defies war as a solution. The US needs
an alternative way to persuade the Muslim World to reject the salifist
jihadism idea
“It turns out that the nature
of the threat the United States now faces isn’t actually that new. A little
over two hundred years ago, another population embraced a violent, radical
idea and formed a movement that challenged the might of the world’s greatest
empire. That empire responded with the largest overseas military campaign
every mounted. Yet, the more violence the British inflicted, the more the
people of its thirteen American colonies flocked to the independence idea.
Not only were the British defeated, but the spirit of liberty unleashed in
the American Revolution followed their army back to Europe, ignited the
French Revolution, and finally transformed Great Britain itself.
“This example doesn’t provide
much hope that the United States will find a way to defeat salifist jihadism.
Luckily, however, Great Britain also provides an example of a successful
campaign to defeat an insidious, international idea. At the same time Great
Britain was waging a war to extinguish liberty in America, the embers of a
different liberation idea were smoldering in Great Britain itself. These
embers ignited into a global anti-slavery movement that ultimately succeeded
in defeating the slavery idea and ending slavery, a practice that had
persisted since before the beginning of human history. And they did it
without firing a shot.”
For inquiries concerning this
work, contact Pat's literary agent, Grace Freedson. For contact
information,
click
here.
Proposal: Ideas to Die For: Lessons from the American Revolution for
the War on Terrorism
- Media War: The Media-Enabled Insurgency in Iraq
(Book-length manuscript, ~250 pages, complete)
In
Operation Iraqi Freedom, insurgent and terrorist groups have
demonstrated the capability to use small, relatively insignificant
tactical attacks, amplified through the megaphone of the media, to
dramatic effect on the will of the American public to prosecute the
war. This capability has neutralized the overwhelming advantage the US
military has in firepower in Iraq by bypassing it completely. Recent
trends (including Israel’s abortive war in Lebanon in 2006) suggest that
this capability is proliferating and will characterize every enemy the
US military faces for the foreseeable future. Left unchecked, this
capability will weaken the United States’ ability to project military
power for all but the most finite, decisive future conflicts.
This manuscript is currently
under consideration by
CSI
Press.
Proposal: Media War: The Media-Enabled Insurgency in Iraq
- Clausewitz 101
(Nonfiction article, 3,500 words, complete)
You may have never heard
the name Carl von Clausewitz, but if you have even a passing interest in
current affairs or military history, you have almost certainly heard the
“quotable” Clausewitz. He is best known to Americans for saying, “War is
the continuation of politics by other means.” Terms he coined, like
center of gravity and the fog of war, have become the vocabulary for
American military thought. A post-Vietnam rediscovery of Clausewitz
shaped the Powell Doctrine and the US military that was so successful in
the first Gulf War. Some say it is the legacy of this revival that is
causing the US military so many problems in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
This article was written for
Armchair
General Magazine. It will appear in the magazine in 2010.
"Clausewitz 101" excerpt
- An Unlikely Start to a World War
(Nonfiction article, 1,500 words, complete)
The Forks [the site of modern day Pittsburgh]
became ground zero for a clash between two great empires which ignited
the first true world war. This war began with the unlikeliest chain of
events and most colorful cast of characters. Among them was a young
colonial officer who would one day be a household name.
This article was written for
Armchair
General Magazine. It will appear in the magazine in 2010.
"An Unlikely Start to a World War" excerpt
- The
Vietnam "Surge"
(Nonfiction article,
5,800
words, complete)
After the loss of both houses
of Congress in midterm elections in 2006, President George W. Bush doubled
down on his Iraq war policy. In a dramatic change in strategy that has come
to be known as the Iraq “surge,” he authorized the deployment of an
additional 20,000 troops to Baghdad and al Anbar province in a last-ditch
effort to salvage the war. He also replaced Gen. George Casey with Gen.
David Patraeus and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with Richard Gates.
Along with more troops and a new security team came a new strategy: instead
of watching from forward operating bases while Iraq ripped itself apart, US
forces struck deals with Sunni insurgents and moved out into the cities to
focus on protecting the population.
Four decades earlier, the Vietnam War saw
similar, wholesale changes. After the Tet Offensive, senior military leaders
were replaced and the strategy changed dramatically. And, just as in the
Iraq war, the changes netted positive results: North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
and Viet Cong attacks were less frequent and less effective, American
casualties decreased, American troops came home by the thousands, and, most
importantly, the South Vietnamese government was more stable than it had
ever been. Yet, unlike in the Iraq war, this change in strategy did not
yield a dramatic change in public opinion. After an initial “bump,” public
support for the war cratered. Nixon was finally forced to accept a
humiliating compromise peace with North Vietnam that set the stage for the
eventual destruction of South Vietnam.
"The Vietnam 'Surge'"
excerpt
-
Message versus Perception in the Early Days of the Vietnam War
(Nonfiction article,
6,000
words, complete)
Over the forty years since the
beginning of the Vietnam War, a historical narrative has developed that the
Johnson administration deceived the American people into war. Yet this
article clearly shows, through an examination of the media of the day, that
the American people were not deceived. The American press had a very clear
picture of the growing American commitment in Vietnam and clearly
communicated this picture to the American people. In fact, dramatic, growing
escalation in Vietnam was overwhelmingly the dominant media narrative of the
war at the time, filling the pages of America’s most influential news
sources.
This article is currently under consideration by
The Historian.
"Message versus Perception in the Early Days of the Vietnam War"
excerpt
- The Information Engagement Band-Aid
(Nonfiction article,
2,700
words, complete)
While the sentiment is
laudable, the solution is suspect. Putting public affairs and PSYOP together
on a chart or explicitly calling public affairs an information operations
(IO) capability does not address the underlying problem. Public affairs is
the only discipline designed to communicate in the media and it seeks only
to inform, not influence, while PSYOP seeks to influence but cannot
effectively use the media. This new Army IO construct, even if applied to
the entire US military, cannot cure the US military’s fundamental inability
to fight effectively in the media battlespace.
This article is currently under consideration by
the
Artillery Journal.
"The Information Engagement Band-Aid" (~2,700 words)
- Defining the Media Battlespace
(Nonfiction article, 3-5,000 words, complete)
The
past half century of warfare has seen a military revolution, the
telecommunications revolution, which has fundamentally reshaped warfare
and society in dramatic ways. The US military embraced this revolution
and successfully reshaped itself by embarking on a revolution in
military affairs, becoming networked and computerized. By doing so, it
temporarily gained an asymmetric advantage over every other military in
the world. However, it has been caught completely unprepared for a
second revolution in military affairs (RMA), the media-enabled
insurgency, and now finds itself at an asymmetric disadvantage to its
enemy in Iraq.
"Fighting in the Media Battlespace" is currently under consideration by
the
Air
and Space Power Journal for publication.
"Defining the Media Battlespace" (short version-3,000 words)
"Defining the Media Battlespace" (5,000 words)
"Fighting in the Media Battlespace" (5,000 words)
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