A General Battles His Own Army

Fred Kaplan's book The Insurgents was reviewed in the New York Times.

According to Fred Kaplan’s new book about Gen. David H. Petraeus and his attempt to re-envision American military strategy, the general had a philosophy about publicity. “I have a ‘Front Page of The Washington Post’ rule,” he told attendees at a counterinsurgency field manual workshop in 2006. “If you don’t want to see something on the front page of The Washington Post, then don’t do it, don’t say it.”

But as Mr. Petraeus would learn in 2012, when he made front-page news with an embarrassing personal transgression, not even the best-made rules cover all conceivable challenges. That point is central to The Insurgents, a very readable, thoroughly reported account of how, in American military circles, “counterinsurgency” became a policy instead of a dirty word.