Militant Tricks: Battlefield Ruses of the Islamic Insurgent

This book was on the U.S. Army's most prestigious reading list. Since 9/11, our deployed troops have learned many things. Though the war in Afghanistan has just ended, many of their hard-won lessons have yet to be assimilated by the Stateside bureaucracy. To help, "Militant Tricks" has recounted America's progress in Iraq and Afghanistan from the standpoint of East Asian battlefield deception. Both countries were part of the Mongol Empire for over 200 years and thus prone to every sort of ancient Chinese illusion. Militant Tricks also contains the tactical techniques with which to counter an Islamic extremist's urban offensive. While some of these nontraditional techniques were risked during the Baghdad Surge, they may soon be forgotten.

Through an inverted military career, H. John Poole has discovered a few things that more promotable people miss. After spending his first two years as a combat commander, he did his last seven as an enlisted tactics instructor. That allowed him to see why American troops have so much trouble quelling insurgency. The techniques in their small-unit tactics manuals are quite simply outmoded. Those techniques are so unlikely to surprise anyone as to be "premachinegun" in format. This oversight on the part of their commanders and how it can be corrected forms much of the framework of Poole's work. Since retirement from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1993, he has has traveled extensively in the Communist and Islamist worlds and written many other U.S. tactics manual supplements. He has also conducted multiday training sessions for 40 U.S. battalions, 9 schools, and 7 special-operations units from all four service branches. As most U.S. intelligence personnel know too little about the Eastern thought process and evolution of squad tactics, these supplements also provide currently deployed GIs with a rare glimpse into their opponent's intentions. While on active duty, John Poole was stationed four times in Asia. Since retirement, he has visited Mainland China (twice), North Korea, North Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Malaysia, Tibet, Nepal, Bangladesh, India (five times), Pakistan (twice), Russia, Morocco, Israel (to include the West Bank), Dubai, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, and Tanzania. Between early tours in the Marine Corps, he worked for two years in Chicago as a criminal investigator for the Illinois Bureau of Investigation.