![]() Lost in the many great vignettes and secretarial sea stories is the fact that the last chapter of this book, “Reflections,” is a mini-war college, full of the kind of wisdom that can only come from years of strategic analysis, and a world class resume: Deputy National Security Advisor, head of the Central Intelligence Agency, President of Texas A&M, and Secretary of War for two Presidents with vastly different styles and priorities. Robert Gates’s memoir, Duty: the Memoirs of a Secretary at War made tremendous splash for its hard-but-fair critique of two Presidents, the firing of a few generals, its blow-by-blow description of the battle inside the Pentagon to improve support to war-fighters, and, surprise to many, the emotional bond that this tough secretary forged with the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. ![]() It ends with a call for help from the Small Wars Journal readership. What follows is not just a review essay, but also an exploration of lessons encountered, but not yet learned. This review essay looks at: the memoir of a Secretary of Defense, a recent RAND study, the cri de coeur of a retired general, and the memoir of a combat veteran and leading coindinista. While the Long War continues to march, four new books have presented challenging and sometimes contradictory conclusions about the war and its lessons for the future.
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