Endless War: Middle Eastern Islam vs. Western Civilization – Book Review

By Jerry D. Morelock

Endless War: Middle Eastern Islam vs. Western Civilization, by Ralph Peters. Stackpole Books, 2010. 288 Pages, hardcover. $27.95.

Brutally honest, Peters asks the questions that others – including our political and military leadership — fear to even raise.

Ralph Peters shows once again why he is today’s most insightful strategist on global affairs in his latest “must read” collection representing his best recent columns and articles on today’s most vitally important issue – the assault of militant Islam on Western civilization, values and culture. A retired U. S. Army intelligence officer whose globe-trotting has gained him valuable first-hand experience in over 70 countries (including Iraq and Pakistan’s troubled Afghan border region), Peters is the author of 25 acclaimed books, a regular columnist in newspapers and magazines, and a popular on-air media strategist. While most contemporary pundits seem to be “lost in the weeds,” content to carp about battlefield tactics and troop levels, Peters demonstrates his firm grasp of the Big Picture, the fundamental underlying nature of the struggle between militant Islam and the West that began fourteen centuries ago and still rages. Endless War’s superb collection of essays, articles and columns – each one carefully selected by the author – represents a priceless primer on the 21st century’s defining conflict. Peters’ superbly argued introductory essay, “History and Hysteria” — a plea for the importance of reading and understanding history – is alone worth the price of the book. The author’s well-known provocative, hard-hitting, “tell-it-like-it-is” prose style has never been more compelling and revelatory. Endless War should be read by America’s political and military decision-makers and by the public at large – before it’s too late.

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Peters, a provocative and highly popular on-air guest in his frequent media appearances, became Fox News’ first strategic analyst in 2009 – reading Endless War clearly demonstrates the wisdom of Fox’s selection. Brutally honest, Peters asks the questions that others – including our political and military leadership — fear to even raise. He laments that “after fighting in the Middle East for nearly a decade, we still don’t know how we got there,” pleading with those who plan and execute strategy, media reporters who produce hysterical headlines instead of news of substance, and a public at large afflicted by “historical ignorance” to “read some … history, for God’s sake!” Peters warns that “those who deny history die of myth” – reading his outstanding new book is an excellent first step in self defense.

We are particularly pleased that Peters selected a number of his insightful Crisis Watch columns and ACG feature articles he wrote to include in this outstanding collection. Notably, readers of Endless War are placed on firm historical footing regarding the militant Islam-Western civilization conflict in the book’s first two chapters with the inclusion of two superbly-written feature articles previously published in Armchair General. Crescent Triumphant! traces the rise of militant Islam and the Ottoman Empire, recounting the Islamic victories that conquered the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of southwest Asia and Europe, and pointing out that “the deadly annoyances of the present are indisputably an extension of a competition that began in the seventh century.”

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