Free Republic

HH: Joining me to begin the conversation about the year around the globe, Robert D. Kaplan. He is the author of Imperial Grunts: The American military on the ground. He is also a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly. He has been a guest on this program before. Robert Kaplan, thanks for spending some time with us this afternoon. RK: It's my pleasure to be here, Hugh. HH: I love this book, and I want to tell the audience it's probably the most influential book of 2005, because it's the book the president is reading right now. That's always got to...

Bush reads up on Teddy Roosevelt, US troops Reuters CRAWFORD, Texas - President George W. Bush is spending part of his Christmas holiday reading about the post-presidential years of Theodore Roosevelt and the lives of U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Bush was reading "When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House," by Patricia O'Toole, and "Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground," by Robert Kaplan while on holiday at his Texas ranch, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy. The book about Teddy Roosevelt is about the former president's African safari and his attempt to re-enter politics...

The Good Key lessons from midlevel U.S. officers about how to address global threats. The Bad The author's assertions about a United States empire are misconceived. The Bottom Line Dispatches from far-flung places offer hope for the long run. At the turn of the 21st century, Army Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Parker Wilhelm turned down a plum Pentagon posting for a job in the boondocks. The fluent Russian speaker had decided that he could make more of a difference as a military attaché in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar than on the Potomac -- and he was probably right. When Wilhelm...