Others are marred by mistakes of fact -- the 78-day campaign over the skies of Kosovo involved not "450 allied sorties" but more than 10,000. Some of Huchthausen's conclusions are also off, as when he argues that as a result of the air strike President Ronald Reagan ordered against Libya in 1986, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's "overt support of terror attacks ceased." Two years later, Gadhafi's intelligence agents arranged the bombing of Pan Am 103, the most murderous act of Libyan terror ever, which cost 270 lives.
Perhaps the most frustrating shortcoming of America's Splendid Little Wars is the author's tendency to touch on big themes without developing them. Thus, he limns the growing importance of special operations forces but never details how halting progress has been in putting these exceptionally trained and lavishly equipped warriors in the field. Though billions have been devoted to building up the fabled Army Delta Force, Navy Seals and others, commanders have been averse to employing them -- often to the exasperation of their civilian masters.
In the 1991 war against Iraq, General Norman Schwarzkopf wanted little to do with the "operators," and almost a decade later the brass in Washington was reluctant to use special forces to capture wanted war criminals in Bosnia. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld aims to change that aspect of the American Way of War, which favors great massed forces often to the exclusion of small, highly mobile contingents.
Similarly, Huchthausen observes that "each military engagement in this history demonstrates the progression of a blend of battlefield hardware, improved communications and command-and-control technologies." Yet he never addresses head-on how the advent of "stand-off" weapons like cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions or stealth technology have changed the face of battle.
Also, while he says his greatest obligation is to those who fought, he tells us little about who they are -- those who joined the all-volunteer military and, especially, those who fill the contemporary officer corps.
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