The Field of Fight

Michael T. Flynn, in whose voice the book is written, His co-author Michael Ledeen is a neoconservative historian who is the "Freedom Scholar" at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is well known in security circles as a long-standing opponent of Iran, advocating regime change there and previously supporting the 2003 Iraq War. The Field of Fight emerged from an op-ed that Flynn co-wrote with Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. St Martin's Press announced in December 2015 that it would be publishing the book the following July. In a press release, Flynn said: "I am writing this book for two reasons: first, to show that the war is being waged against us by enemies this administration has forbidden us to describe: radical Islamists. Second, to lay out a winning strategy that is not passively relying on technology and drone attacks to do the job. We could lose this war; in fact, right now we are losing. The Field of Fight will give my view on how to win." After its publication on July 1, 2016, The Field of Fight briefly entered the Publishers Weekly bestseller list for the week ending July 17. It reached #9 in the chart but fell out of the top 10 the following week. ==Synopsis==

Current situation After a short autobiographical account of Flynn's career, The book argues that the US government is hampered by a lack of intelligence-gathering against its enemies and pays insufficient attention to their ideological motivations. Flynn asserts that the US faces "a working coalition that extends from North Korea and China to Russia, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. We are under attack, not only from nation-states directly, but also from al Qaeda, Hezbollah, ISIS, and countless other terrorist groups." He describes this as "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." Flynn argues that this alliance is based on a shared hatred for the United States and "a contempt for democracy and an agreement—by all the members of the enemy alliance — that dictatorship is a superior way to run a country, an empire, or a caliphate". Iran's on-and-off support for al Qaeda is cited as evidence of an alliance between the two; Flynn asserts that for political reasons, the Barack Obama administration has refused to release evidence of this link from Osama bin Laden's captured documents. Russia would also be an "ideal partner for fighting Radical Islam" if it shared the same worldview on the issue. and acknowledges that Vladimir Putin would probably not welcome cooperation with the US. The US should work with allies—Flynn specifically names Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, India, Argentina, Britain, Australia, France, Germany and Italy—to weaken, overthrow or defeat jihadism and enemy regimes. The book urges the United States to define the enemy more clearly, declaring that "[w]e've got to stop feeling the slightest bit guilty about calling them by name and identifying them as fanatical killers acting on behalf of a failed civilization". He describes jihadists as a "tribal cult" and "a messianic mass movement of evil people" who are waging "a global war ... waged against us by all true Radical Islamists in the name of Allah." He compares the situation to that which the West faced in World War II and the Cold War, when ideology was an integral part of the struggle against Nazism and Communism, and argues: "We can't win this war by treating Radical Islamic terrorists as a handful of crazies ... The political and theological underpinnings of their immoral actions have to be demolished." ==Reactions==

The book received mixed, and generally politically polarized, reviews. Several reviewers found the book unsatisfactory for its contradictions. William McCants of the Brookings Institution's Center for Middle East Policy describes the book's argument as "muddled", commenting that "[i]t's strange to find a book about strategy so at odds with itself." He notes that while it offers "two very different views of how to exercise American power abroad", its contradictory perspectives leave the reader unable to decide between them. Christopher J. Fettweis notes in The National Interest that the book strongly reflects Michael Ledeen's "oft-expressed worldview" and wonders how much Flynn had to do with it. Writing in The Washington Post, Carlos Lozoda comments that the book reflects two sides of Flynn—"respected intelligence officer" and "rabid and influential partisan". It "oscillat[es] between straightforward analysis and vague, impassioned diatribes, untroubled by contradictions or evolutions." The Chinese government, which has faced Islamist violence in its western region of Xinjiang, also pushed back on Flynn's assertions of an alliance between China and al Qaeda/ISIS. A foreign ministry spokesman urged people to "base their opinions on facts when taking a position." In the New York Observer, Jason Criss Howk calls the book "concise and straight to the point" while conceding that the authors "use some terminology I, as a Middle East specialist, don't agree with", specifically in conflating "radical Islam" and "radical Islamism". Nonetheless he describes the book's proposals as "spot on and [they] create a recipe for upgrading our capabilities". Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post praises the book as "a breath of fresh air in the acrid intellectual environment that Washington has become during the Obama administration" and says that it contributes "essential insights to the discussion of the global jihad". Not all conservatives were supportive of the book. Daniel Larison of The American Conservative called its worldview "deranged", describing its identification of a "non-existent 'global alliance'" as foolish, dangerous, grossly exaggerated and distorted. He summed it up as "reheated Cheneyism with a dollop of Santorumesque hyperbole". ==References==