San Antonio College Library

Why was the Navy ready to clear the skies over the Persian Gulf, yet surprised by the mines laid under it? Why is it that the Army is always prepared for war in Europe, but was caught off guard in Korea and Vietnam? And why is the Air Force indifferent to "Star Wars"? In The Masks of War Carl H. Builder asks what motives lie behind the puzzling and often contradictory behavior of America's military forces. The answer, he finds, has little to do with...

Examines how the United States Army and Marines adapted to insurgency during the Iraq war, allowing them to improve their counterinsurgency techniques and improving their chances of winning the war.

Currently a major on active duty with the U.S. Army, Huelfer served as lead planner for the Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait in 2003. He argues that casualty aversion is not a new phenomenon in American history. Examining the "casualty issue" during the years between the World Wars, he finds that Americans demonstrated a strong aversion to combat casualties at that time, which visibly influenced the U.S. Army corps and its officers....

While scholars and non-scholars alike have debated the ethics of dropping the atomic bomb for more than half a century, rarely have they questioned the decision not to invade Japan as a means of ending World War II. Widely held beliefs about the strength of Japanese forces and the projected loss of American lives have justified the course of action taken by the United States. John Ray Skates, how ever, argues that the invasion plan, code named Operation...