Download Ebook Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers
Learn the technique of doing something from many resources. Among them is this book qualify Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers It is an extremely well understood publication Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers that can be referral to read currently. This advised book is among the all fantastic Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers collections that remain in this website. You will certainly likewise locate other title and also motifs from various authors to search below.
Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers
Download Ebook Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers
Simply for you today! Discover your preferred e-book here by downloading and install as well as getting the soft file of guide Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers This is not your time to typically visit the book establishments to buy an e-book. Below, varieties of publication Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers and also collections are offered to download and install. Among them is this Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers as your favored e-book. Getting this publication Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers by on the internet in this site could be understood now by checking out the web link page to download. It will be simple. Why should be below?
As we mentioned in the past, the innovation assists us to consistently recognize that life will certainly be constantly much easier. Checking out publication Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers practice is likewise one of the perks to obtain today. Why? Innovation could be made use of to supply guide Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers in only soft data system that could be opened every time you desire as well as all over you require without bringing this Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers prints in your hand.
Those are some of the perks to take when obtaining this Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers by on the internet. But, exactly how is the means to obtain the soft data? It's really right for you to see this web page due to the fact that you could get the web link page to download guide Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers Just click the web link offered in this write-up and also goes downloading. It will certainly not take much time to obtain this book Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers, like when you should choose e-book store.
This is additionally one of the reasons by getting the soft documents of this Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers by online. You might not need even more times to invest to check out the publication establishment and also hunt for them. Occasionally, you also do not locate the book Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers that you are hunting for. It will lose the moment. However below, when you see this page, it will be so easy to obtain and download guide Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers It will certainly not take sometimes as we mention previously. You can do it while doing something else in the house and even in your office. So very easy! So, are you question? Merely exercise what we provide here and review Eyes On The Horizon: Serving On The Front Lines Of National Security, By Richard Myers exactly what you love to check out!
General Richard B. Myers has unique insight into how the American national security system works. In Eyes on the Horizon, he recounts his military career and outlines a bold blueprint for a strategic overhaul of our security system, including the military, so that the nation is adequately protected and prepared to fight in this era of what he calls the "Grand Insurgency." As the principle military adviser to the president and others during the critical planning stages and execution of the invasion of Iraq, General Myers possesses a unique insider's view. Eyes on the Horizon contains major revelations regarding the planning, execution, and reconstruction phases of that war-addressing such controversial issues as adequate troop numbers and the suspension of the Geneva Convention-and exposes the mistakes made by the White House, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community. In the tradition of John Bolton's Surrender Is Not an Option, Eyes on the Horizon provides fascinating and informative insights into this unprecedented time in our nation's-and the world's-history.
- Sales Rank: #1739872 in Books
- Published on: 2009-03-17
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x 1.19" w x 6.12" l, 1.22 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
Review
"A good soldier turns in a dutiful memoir of life in uniform." ---Kirkus
About the Author
General Richard B. Myers retird as the 15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October, 2005, after serving over 40 years in the US Air Force. A native of Kansas City, Kansas, and a 1965 graduate of Kansas State University, General Myers has held command positions at every level, including Commander of US Space Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Pacific Air Forces, US Forces Japan, and two fighter wings. A fighter pilot with over 4,100 hous, General Myers logged more than 600 combat hours during the Vietnam conflict.
General Myers now sits on several public and non-profit boards and currently lectures nationally on national security issues and leadership. He is Foundation Professor of Military Histor and Leadership at Kansas State University and holds the Colin Powell Chair of Leadership, Ethics, and Character at National Defense University. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife, Mary Jo. They have two daughters and a son, and, to his great joy, a growing number of grandchildren.
Malcolm McConnell is the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller American Soldier with Tommy Franks and My Year in Iraq with L. Paul Bremer III.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
Sunshine and Smoke
September 11, 2001
Just before 8:45 on the bright Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001, I was waiting in the outer office of Georgia Senator Max Cleland on Capitol Hill. This was one of several scheduled courtesy calls before my Senate confirmation hearings as incoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America's senior military officer. I had been Vice Chairman since March 2000, serving in both the Clinton and Bush administrations in that capacity.
Max Cleland and I got along well, and he supported my nomination. Like me, Senator Cleland had served in combat during the Vietnam War. He lost both legs and one arm in 1968 when a grenade exploded near Khe Sanh. I had flown 240 "fast" Forward Air Controller, strike, and Wild Weasel missions in modified F4 Phantoms, many against SAM missile sites in North Vietnam. We had learned a lot about war as young men.
We also worked well as partners in America's enduring yet flexible framework of constitutional government. The military is part of the executive branch. The President requests funding for Department of Defense operations, but Congress controls those funds -- and reserves the power to declare war. Therefore the interaction between senior military and congressional leaders is a vital component of our democracy that ideally transcends politics.
Now, with both the Cold War and Operation Desert Storm -- our "last"large combat engagement -- ended more than a decade earlier, it was possible to
hope that there were no imminent major threats to our national security. But I also recognized that hope wasn't part of a senior military officer's job description. Under the oversight of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Hugh Shelton, the Joint Staff oversaw the preparation for worst-case war contingencies and the combatant commanders' myriad operational plans (OPLANs). The duties of the Vice Chairman are little known outside the corridors of the Pentagon. Beyond helping coordinate the OPLANs, one of my more exacting assignments as Vice Chairman had been serving as Chairman of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council -- which was composed of the four-star vice service chiefs -- who approved the requirements of weapons systems being proposed for procurement.
I also served on the National Security Council's Deputies Committee and as a member of the Nuclear Weapons Council. And I represented the Chairman on the Defense Resources Board -- which supported the fiscal and personnel structure to the DoD's sprawling bureaucracy. In a large civilian corporation, I would have been the COO, the chief operating officer.
This was very demanding work, but good preparation to serve as the Chairman.
Even if I'd been so inclined, this workload left me no time for politics. But it wasn't just the burden of work: It was against regulations and our military culture for an officer to take part in political activity. This was especially true for a senior officer. And I had always believed that a military career and politics didn't mix. Interaction with the executive and legislative branches, however, was an expected and essential part of being Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Like many of his colleagues, Cleland kept a television set in his outer office tuned to a news network. The first thing I saw on the screen was a live shot of the New York skyline, revealed through a wavering telephoto lens. Black smoke poured from the closer of the two World Trade Center towers, already darkening the bright September sky. At the bottom of the screen, the crawler text announced that a plane had hit the north tower.
Must have been a light aircraft, I thought. Maybe on a sightseeing flight.
I entered Cleland's private office, and we chatted a few moments about the aircraft accident in New York.
He had started preparing a pot of tea, but we hadn't taken a sip when a staff person came in from the outer office and informed us that the second tower had been hit. We both knew the interview was over and started out to the TV to see the south tower erupting with smoke and flame.
Cleland looked pale. I suppose I must have, too. This was no light-aircraft accident, but certainly an act of unthinkable terrorist savagery. The only precedent I could imagine for such an attack was December 7, 1941 -- Pearl Harbor.
My military aide, Army Capt. Chris Donahue, approached us on the way out.
"Sir," Donahue said, "General Eberhart's on my cell phone for you." Ed Eberhart had replaced me as commander of the North American Aerospace Command the year before. Obviously his call was urgent. In this emergency, I had to forgo the luxury of a secure encrypted Red Switch phone and use Donahue's cell.
"Dick," Ed said. "We've got several hijack codes in the system, and I'm working with the FAA to order all aircraft in the national air space to land." Two of NORAD's responsibilities were protecting American air space from enemy aircraft approaching our borders and warning of missile attack.
"That sounds like a good plan, Ed."
NORAD's only role with respect to hijackings was to scramble planes to shadow the hijacked aircraft. The Command was not authorized to order fighters to shoot down civilian airliners. That authority rested with the President alone.
Next, I got a call from Army Col. Matt Klimow, my executive assistant. As we spoke on Donahue's cell phone, the television showed pillars of black smoke erupting from the south tower.
"General," Klimow said in a calm, precise voice, "it looks like there's a major hijacking under way, and I recommend that you return to the Pentagon as soon as possible."
He added that the White House Situation Room had called at 9:16 a.m. to confirm that American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles had hit the north World Trade Center tower.
"We're on our way back to the Pentagon now," I told Klimow.
As we raced away from Capitol Hill, my security officer took an urgent call.
"Sir," he said, "the Pentagon's just been hit."
I immediately called Matt Klimow back to verify the situation and was relieved when he answered almost at once. "People are running around shouting on the ERing corridor," he said. "And all the fire alarms are going off."
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, sir. It must have hit on the west side of the building, near the helo pad."
The Pentagon was such a massive structure that even the crash of an airliner might affect only a portion of the building. In the event of an attack, standing procedures called for the Vice Chairman to move to an alternate command post at a remote location -- "Site R" -- while the Chairman held the fort at the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon. But Hugh Shelton was airborne on his way to Europe for a NATO meeting and couldn't be back for hours. By law, as Vice Chairman, I was designated acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during his absence. And with NORAD and the FAA grounding all flights already airborne in the country and diverting incoming flights from overseas, Hugh might not be able to return -- although I knew it wouldn't be easy to stop the combat-hardened former Special Forces paratrooper from heading to the heart of the action.
So my command post had to be in the burning Pentagon.
Looking down the Mall, I saw the cluster of government buildings near the White House. Instinctively, my gaze swept the sky.
"Sir," Matt added, "the White House advised that the combatant commanders will probably want to increase THREATCON as they see fit." In emergencies, the functional and regional commanders in chief had control to adjust the level of protection their forces needed in their geographical areas.
The THREATCON was the alert status that the regional or functional commanders -- Central Command, European Command, Space Command, Pacific Command, and so forth -- set to defend their forces and installations against terrorist or other threats. If terrorists were executing a complex and massive attack today, our isolated naval, air, and ground bases overseas might be especially vulnerable, so raising the THREATCON was essential. The THREATCON levels increased from Normal, through Alpha, up to Delta. In the next hours, I was sure, over one million American service members around the world would be at their highest level of alert.
Unfortunately, the senior military and civilian leadership in this country was stretched thin that morning. The Chairman was flying to Europe; President George Bush was in Florida, promoting his education initiative; and Secretary of State Colin Powell was in South America, so a significant number of the National Security Council were away from Washington.
At this point, the roles of the military and domestic agencies were being sorted out. Klimow added that the FBI had been designated the lead civilian agency in the crisis, with the military standing by as needed if the terrorist attacks involved weapons of mass destruction (WMD: chemical, biological, or radiological warfare agents).
There was only one current enemy that could have coordinated the suicide hijacking of three airliners, almost simultaneously crashing them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon: Islamic extremists -- no doubt commanded by the alQaida terrorist movement. This was confirmed later in the day. These terrorists had tried to destroy the Trade Center towers with a massive truck bomb in 1993. Later in the 1990s, their growing organization had attacked American embassies in East Africa. In October 2000, an alQaida suicide boat bomb severely damaged the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing seventeen of her crew and maiming many more. AlQaida's leader was wealthy Saudi radical Usama bin Laden.* Now, as my government sedan sped down I395 toward the Potomac, it was virtually certain that bin Laden had found the means to export his extreme violence to our shores.
I asked Matt if the National Military Command Center was up and running, knowing I'd need to be where we had the appropriate command and control apparatus. It was. "We're coming in,...
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
RICK GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "PRES. AUTHORIZED *WEAPONS-FREE"-PERMISSION TO SHOOT DOWN THE HIJACKED PLANE IF IT THREATENS WHITE HOUSE
By Rick Shaq Goldstein
This is the autobiography of retired General Richard B. Myers former Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The author shares his life story that ranges from his fear of air planes as a child due to a plane crash near his home in Kansas through his college years at Kansas State University as an engineering student and member of the ROTC. The reader is led with intricate detail through Myers entire military career that took him from Second Lieutenant up through his retirement as a Four-Star-General and the honor of being the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff. As you accompany Myers on his military career... there are so many assignments and transfers (I lost count after twenty) that I'm reminded... as an honorably discharged Viet Nam era veteran... of one of the many reasons I didn't want to make the military a career. The General acknowledges the hardships that his forty-plus-year military career placed on his family... when he states with admiration... that at one point in time "I was especially proud of our oldest daughter, Nicole, who was starting her fourth high school in three years when we arrived at Langley."
One of the most interesting parts of the book was during the time the General was a young fighter pilot during the Viet Nam War. Not only his time in the cockpit... but his thorough analysis in hindsight... of what America could have done better during the war. As he and many others summarized about the Viet Nam conflict: "WE NEVER LOST A BATTLE... BUT WE LOST THE WAR." It is this straight-forward character trait... that really "grabs" the reader's attention throughout this literal history of America's last forty-years of military action. The author does not "blink-an-eye"... nor even flinch... when he points out..."TWO OF THE MOST GLARING - AND DISASTROUS - EXAMPLES OF MUDDLED OPERATIONS WERE THE FAILURE OF THE IRANIAN HOSTAGE RESCUE MISSION IN APRIL 1980 AND THE BADLY EXECUTED U.S. INVASION OF GRENADA IN OCTOBER 1983." He was also very disappointed in America's response to Bin Laden's terrorist attacks in 1998 which he described as meager... and the reaction to the Cole bombing in 2000. As Chairman of the Joint Chief's perhaps his biggest goal was to have all branches of the military and government to be able to work as one cohesive unit on any incident affecting America or its allies. Potential readers will of course have a deeply personal behind the scenes look at our nations shock and response to the greatest attack on our shores on 9/11. The reader will also be fully schooled on tense situations that are constantly in the news... but there is so much more involved than the average citizen knows... or contemplates. Such as the importance and delicacy of the border between North and South Korea.
"This was the world's tensest frontier, with almost TWO-MILLION North and South Korean and American forces confronting each other across the line. The North Koreans had deployed thousands of truck-mounted heavy rocket launchers and self-propelled artillery pieces in hardened cave shelters dug into the north slopes of the ridges, shielded from direct fire from the south. IF THEY CHOSE TO ATTACK, THE COMMUNISTS COULD UNLEASH A HOLOCAUST ON THE SPRAWLING SEOUL-INCHON NATIONAL CAPITAL AREA - HOME TO TWENTY-THREE-MILLION SOUTH KOREANS. INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATED THE NORTH KOREAN ARMY COULD FIRE BETWEEN FOUR-THOUSAND AND TEN-THOUSAND ROCKETS AND ARTILLERY SHELLS A *MINUTE* IN THE INITIAL SALVO ON GREATER SEOUL."
The areas where this excellent book tends to plod periodically is whenever the author describes... and/or defines... innumerable unit commands... government groups... associations... divisions... task forces... et al. ... there are so many acronyms... so many alpha-numeric titles... in addition to prefacing each full name with a rank and branch of service or government... all the way up and down endless chain of commands... that the reader feels like they're in a temporary staging area... waiting for the next exciting tour of recent military history. That is the only reason I gave this four-stars instead of five.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
He knows what he is talking about...
By Frank L. Tullis
General Richard Myers has the experience to back up his words. While not all sane folks would believe a fighter pilot, Myers has walked the walk his entire career--now he has the tickets to talk the talk. And we better listen--we are at war, regardless of what the politicians want to call it, and we better develop and understand the strategy necessary to win this war--the consequences of not doing so will leave a sad and bloody leagacy for our grand children. I just hope our political leadership is listening...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Overshadowed by Rumsfeld.
By Hugh Claffey
Richard Myers is very familiar to the world, as the guy standing beside/behind Donald Rumsfeld in press conferences to do with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is his autobiography. One story, not in this book, that defines General Myers for me, is that during the conflicts he developed a habit of obsessively scratching his forearms. To me this exemplifies his frustration in dealing with Rumsfeld. In the book Myers describes a meeting (after he retired) with a banker who asks if it bothered him that he made so little money during his career, Myers says he didn't really think about it, but the banker persists saying it must have bothered him. Myers says that `talking all night ...would not have convinced the guy, so I backed off and found another conversation'. I think both of these vignettes summarise General Myers. He comes across as a cerebral warrior, very clear on how to develop technology for anticipated challenges, but he does not come across as a forceful individual.
General Myers came up through the airforce, flew in Vietnam and moved twenty five times in his military career. He has many interesting things to say about the technological development, the need for operational flexibility and the need for the US to develop an understanding of the muslim world so as to dissuade young muslims from joining the extremists. Its very clear that he is an very able, talented individual. I read Hugh Shelton's autobiography (his predecessor as CJCS) and it revealed him to have been a decisive character, dominant in his relationship with the secretary of defence. It is very clear that Gen. Myers didn't dominate Rumsfeld, and he rationalises this by saying that it is right to have civilian control of the military, and that even resignation (on the part of the Chairman) would be an act in the politicization of the military and it signify significant disagreement with policy. He says ` in the end, its not the military that judges the decisions the President or Secretary of Defense, make, its the other two branches of government'. In the light of the aftermath of Afghanistan and Iraq, this seems like rationalisation, in particular as, its arguable that the lack of sufficient ground forces to keep the peace in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion probably have contributed to the failure of the intent of the overall mission. It seems to me that the number of US forces in the invasion of Iraq was dictated by the interaction of Secretary Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks, the combatant commander on the ground, with the Joint Chiefs expressing an overpolite silence, with only Gen Shinseki making a career-limiting intervention. I think General Myers is going to try to excuse that for the rest of his days.
Overall the book is very interesting in the description of a high-flying career, but is also quite guilt ridden.
Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers PDF
Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers EPub
Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers Doc
Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers iBooks
Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers rtf
Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers Mobipocket
Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security, by Richard Myers Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar