Would you go hiking without a map? Would you work on your car without a manual? Then why would you even think about going to the Middle East without this book? Poole once again sets the standard in the industry for explaining the tactics, history, and mindset of the Islamic Extremist. From military commander to field grunt to civilian contractor, if you're headed to a desert combat zone do yourself a favor and BUY this book! I also suggest you read this book with a highlighter in hand...but you may just end up highlighting everything. This book undoubtedly has saved lives and will save more in the future!

Reading this book, and many like it, I'm reminded of the book by Christopher Hedges War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning The Arab resistance isn't the enemy of the American people, they simply want the state terror of the US to end. The Islamic militants are tired of our propping up dictators, the lethal economic policies, the occupation of Palestine and so forth.
It's sad to consider where Iran would be if the US hadn't overthrown its democractically elected leader, Mossadegh. And it's sad to consider where the US would be if a plutocracy hadn't taken over.
The policies of the US aren't actually the policies of our country, our foreign and domestic policies are actually being directed by lawyers and lobbyists of multinational corporations. Many in the military realize that, and will go ahead and do the fighting because it gives them meaning in their lives, and a career. As General Smedley Butler said, "War is a Racket."
US aggression has now killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people, and displaced two million. The PTSD rates for Iraqi children are astronomical.
I can't imagine what sort of mind-set it takes to commit such a crime against humanity, but books like Poole's give me an idea.
If people want to learn how the militants of the military industrial complex are manipulating the American people, I'd recommend Why We Fight
The fight against corporate fascism is the battle we need to engage.

Once again H. John Poole has pulled aside the Middle East veil of mystery to show us how the Muslim militants go about their business. Known as the "War on Terror" aka "4th Generation warfare", radical Muslim militants have worked out the ways to challenge the West collectively, on - and off the battlefield. Thus far, their efforts have cost the U.S.of A., not only lives, but billions of dollars, sowing anxiety and terror. How have they accomplished this with slender resources? Against the most technologically advanced armed forces in the world? Poole tells us how.
The book is divided into three parts:
The initial part updates the reader on the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan to the summer of 2005. How the Muslim militants have survived and continue to succeed against coalition armed forces without tactical victory, hi-tech resources or heavy arms; all the while they suffer heavy casualties and continue to burn through the resources - and resolve of the West - are addressed.
The next part examines, through the lense of ancient oriental texts on the principles of warfare, the stratagems employed by the militants. These are the most illuminating chapters: now the daily events in Iraq and Afghanistan make sense if one understands the militants' operational philosophy. Poole's explanations of tactical actions clarifies how these militants are playing "the Game" against coalition forces. What makes no sense militarily in Western understanding of warfare are perfectly acceptable to furthering these militants' ends.
The final section's chapters provide approaches to dealing with "4th Generation Warfare" situations, which Western military forces are more and more wont to encounter. Many of Poole's recommendations reflect the U.S. Marines' experience with the Combined Action Program (CAP)used in Vietnam during the 1960s. Essentially, special Marine units operated with Vietnamese local forces at the village level to root out and undermine the Viet Cong insurgency. He contrasts this approach to the reliance on hi-tech and heavy fire power, the preferred operational mode of U.S. forces. Further, Poole (pp 278-294) describes the changes in tactical philosophy that must come about if U.S. ground forces are to prevail against their current enemy. This, to my mind, is the best part of the book.
Poole's views on training and tactics in the last chapter, come closer to dealing with military cultural reform than in his previous wotks. While he addresses these subjects in other books, these last pages in MILITANT TRICKS come the furthest to combining these previous discussions into a coherent whole which reflects the grunt's eye-level ground view.
Hopefully, the powers-that-be are reading his works - effecting the necessary changes.

This book was kindly donated to my unit by the publishers when I was a Company Commander before I deployed. Everyone over here should read it. Regardless of how much money our government spends on high-tech equipment and contracts, until we gain a better understanding of our opponents sociological and theological motivations we will continue to waste a lot of our military resources. LTC Poole's emphasis on taking a humanistic approach and integrating our forces with the locals is sound, provided that the local forces are properly vetted and aren't infiltrated by insurgents.

This is the best book I have read so far on where and who the real enemy is and who is behind and against the U.S. supporting democracy and the liberation of the people of Iraq.
Breaks down in detail who is Sunni and who is Shiite.
How they work and how they are fighting U.S. Forces together.
How the real enemy is Iran with many proxies to gain control of Iraq.
How the U.S. must change to deal with fighting in Irregular Warfare now and for decades to come.
How the enemy is capitalizing on U.S. democratically controlled Congress to gain victory.

Heading over to OIF II in a few months, active duty CDR O5 who will be working in support of the bravest of the brave (EOD Forces defeating IED's). This book was instrumental in developing a understanding of what is really going on.

I would recommend this book for all Officers and enlisted personnel heading to fight this fight from E1 up.

CDR Bill Noel (Navy EOD Officer)

The sections where Poole details the tactics and tricks of the Insurgents in Iraq are amazing and depressing at the same time. They are an absolute eye-opener about what our soldiers and politicians are facing in the Iraq theater.

On the other hand, when he talks about the big picture items, like evidence of Iranian or Hezbollah support for the insurgents, he has a lot of "1+1=3" arguments. He tosses out some assertions, and then a conclusion that doesn't necessarily logically follow. It appears that he's assuming the rest of us know the missing piece of the puzzle, so he doesn't need to describe it.

I'm a student of the radical Islamic movements, and have done a LOT of reading on the subject. I'm no expert, but I certainly know more about the various groups and people involved than the average person. Poole still leaves me confused.

One short example (p. 66-7): "An article appeared in the Christian Science Monitor on 23 December 2004 claiming that the finding of Syrian photographs in Fallujah might mean that Iraqi Baathists were running the insurgency from Damascus. This would have reinforced the official view that Sunnis were the problem, if Syria's Baathist leaders were not Allawite (an offshoot of Shiism). The Iraqi and Syrian Baath Parties have seldom gotten along."

That's it. It's not a paragraph taken out of context. It's an entire section, under the heading, "Syria's Role in the Festivities". My reaction after reading that was to read it again, at least 5 times, and I was still sitting there scratching my head in confusion. I understand all three sentences, and a lot of what's behind them, but I don't get the point, or how they tie together.

And it's too bad, really. I want to buy what he's selling in this book. I agree with a lot of the points he's making. I just think he does a horrible job of writing it. He should have spent less time giving us hundreds of confusing anecdotes and examples, and more time carefully walking us through all the political connections and implications of just a few.

Like I said, it's a good book when he's talking about insurgent tactics and tricks, but it's horrible when he's trying to describe the international implications of the insurgency the US is facing over there.

The book gives a good acccount of the various Islamic militant factions and their interactions. The opinions seemed a bit "armchair general" and opinionated at times, but they made several good points. I'd recommend the book although it had the following drawbacks for me:
-The insertion of outside material to back up the author's words made for a sometimes disjointed read
-The sprinkling of "God (Christian) & country", stereotyping, etc. seemed unnecessary
-20% of the material was a repetition/reiteration of a particular point (not sure if this was to beef up the number of pages or to compensate for a shakey arguement)

First off, all John Poole's books should be read by the Secretary of Defense on down to the grunt in the field and more military outfits should go through his course. [...] Secondly, this particular book and his previous work Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Tactics should be MANDATORY READING for every soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. If you're headed that way buy these books! Put them in a ziplock bag and place them in your rucksack. If you have a loved one who's deploying to these theaters of operation and they don't know about these books buy them these books! These books may very well save their lives!

First off, all John Poole's books should be read by the Secretary of Defense on down to the grunt in the field and more military outfits should go through his course. (Check out his website at www.posteritypress.org for more information.) Secondly, this particular book and his previous work Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Tactics should be MANDATORY READING for every soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. If you're headed that way buy these books! Put them in a ziplock bag and place them in your rucksack. If you have a loved one who's deploying to these theaters of operation and they don't know about these books buy them these books! These books may very well save their lives!

Pooles's books reminds me of "the Game Of Nations" by M. Copeland, which was published almost 50 years ago. In it Copeland quotes Nasser, the dictator of Egypt, as saying that originally he thought that US foreign policy was very subtle and devious, then he realized that it was simply very stupid.

The following is from a review of Copeland's book at this web site: "....the many misguided U.S. policies ...how intentions and hopes of U.S. leaders ignored the realities and possibilities of their Arab counterparts."

Winston Churchill started off as a British Army officer and He wrote books about the campaigns he took part in, for example "The River War" and "The Story Of The Malakand Field Force". In these books Church criticized the British commanders for overdependance on technology and bad tactics. They both sound a bit like Poole's books. Not surpising, in 1940 when Churchill became Prime Minister he ordered the organization of commando units. These were highly trained mobile units that successfully raided the German Occupied coasts and forced them to keep forces in the west that would have been sent to Russia.

Its very difficult to creat a culture that encourages creativity and change in organizations whether they are in the private sector, civil government sector or the military sector. Large corporations innovate by buying out small companies with new technologies.

LTC John Poole hits the X-ring again with a book every military officer should be required to read before heading over to the sandbox. No other military writer puts more meat on the table than Poole. The book contains information that is amazingly well researched & is not fluffy and esoteric. "Militant Tricks" is a continuation of his fantastic book called, "The Tigers Way: A US Private's Best Chance for Survival". "The Tigers Way" should be read by all soldiers & marines. I've sent my son at the 82nd Airborne a copy & he has passed it around and he reports that it is well liked. He loved it & now has "Militant Tricks" as well. Besides looking at the war in Iraq, Poole also goes into current tactics of the Afghani guerillas. One Chapter is called, "The Afghan Guerillas Tactical Trends" & it is very current, according to my intelligence sources who have recently spent time in A-Stan.
A common theme in all of Poole's book is that the US military is overly fond of high-tech weaponry & firepower & that our future battles will be fought at the low end of the high-tech sprectrum of war where individual warrior skills (such as combat tracking) will keep a soldier alive better than a Pentagon budget buster computer system! The enemy knows how to get around our superior technology & firepower, but do our Generals know how to properly counter the insurgents? They could, if they read books from LTC Poole such as "Militant Tricks"!!

Pooles's books reminds me of "the Game Of Nations" by M. Copeland, which was published almost 50 years ago. In it Copeland quotes Nasser, the dictator of Egypt, as saying that originally he thought that US foreign policy was very subtle and devious, then he realized that it was simply very stupid.

The following is from a review of Copeland's book at this web site: "....the many misguided U.S. policies ...how intentions and hopes of U.S. leaders ignored the realities and possibilities of their Arab counterparts."

Winston Churchill started off as a British Army officer and He wrote books about the campaigns he took part in, for example "The River War" and "The Story Of The Malakand Field Force". In these books Church criticized the British commanders for overdependance on technology and bad tactics. They both sound a bit like Poole's books. Not surpising, in 1940 when Churchill became Prime Minister he ordered the organization of commando units. These were highly trained mobile units that successfully raided the German Occupied coasts and forced them to keep forces in the west that would have been sent to Russia.

Its very difficult to creat a culture that encourages creativity and change in organizations whether they are in the private sector, civil government sector or the military sector. Large corporations innovate by buying out small companies with new technologies.

The author makes some good points, but that is it. He repeats himself several if not 100 times during the book.

Things are not as simple as they seem. His suggestion that we only need 120,000 soldiers (combined between US and Iraqi forces) is absurd. He somehow believes that we can sustain ourselves by only having 12 US soldiers, 12 Iraqi soldiers, and 12 Iraqi police evenly spread out through most of the country. And that they go on foot patrol only.

In concept this a great theory. Because it would cut down on the fuel that needs to be delievered so we can continue to use our HMWVVs. But he fails to face facts, that that the IP and to some extent the Iraqi soldiers are corruptly. And it would only take a few insurgents to wipe out a 12 man squad living 10 miles away from the nearest patrol; that would have to walk to the FOB in case of an emergency.

He makes several other blunders by just throwing out certain facts such as when the IZ was attacked by two suicide bombers (one hitting the Green Zone cafe and the other the Bazaar). He does not tie these facts it into anything. Plus he left out the part that it was eventually revealed that an Iraqi LT COL got bribed to bring the explsovis into the IZ. And he forgot to put in the detail that the explosive in the cafe was facing the wrong direction, so it could have been even more devastating. He did not even include a picture. Just ask me, I got plenty of them.

He failed to include the part that the insurgents started to put electrical tape on their RPGs, because they borrowed the idea from Hamas, that believes it would make our armor penetrable. Don't ask me how they came up with that one. Or that our sunglasses had powers to see through the Burkas. Or that our body armor had built in air conditioning. He should have included some of these myths. But he did not.

And I would like to know what exactly he means by superior light infantry. Because last time I checked, we had several divisions that were dedicated to that mission.

I would have given it .5 stars, but 1 is the lowest I can go.

Militant Tricks provides the most detailed and insightful analysis of Islamic Insurgent warfare available today. The book has greatly helped me prepare for my upcoming deployment to Iraq where I will be an infantry platoon leader. Like all of John Poole's books, Militant Tricks wastes no time in getting directly to the vital information that can help save lives on the battlefield. You will not find a clearer or more comprehensive study of insurgent tactics.

John Poole's latest five-star book, "Militant Tricks" continues to expound upon asymmetric tactics, techniques and procedures employed by terrorists and insurgents, as well as provides ideas on how to counter them. Most authors addressing guerilla warfare or 4th Generation Warfare will focus on general concepts at the macro level, while John gives the reader concrete examples addressing the how, what and why the enemy conducts warfare at the micro level.

This book is rich in historical data and provides an interesting analysis addressing the intertwined relationship involving several Middle East and Asian countries. It is a rare piece of work that addresses warfighting techniques taught for generations that are still applicable today; strongly supporting the idea that the development of men who can act and think on the battlefield are more important and effective than simply having technological superiority.

This book is a must read.
The clarity with which John Poole lays out the truth yet hidden for most people is outstanding.
Another five star in his series of books that unravels the politics, strategies, tactics and tricks of the real opponent in the current struggle.

The information provided in this book may be needed by far more people in a short time.
Read it and you might understand some of the current headlines.

Thanks John - you save lives.

This work by LTC (R) Poole is an excellent treatise of not only current events in the Middle East, but also their relevence to ancient military history. In addition, even though some people dismiss the growing trend, "Militant Tricks" explains extensively in detail how Iraq has some unfortunate similarities to Vietnam (e.g. tunneling, over-use of firepower tactics, etc.). His work is both entertaining and enlightening. I would not only recommend this to the lay reader, but also to my fellow servicemen and servicewomen who may deploy to OIF soon.

J.Poole latest book, is an incredible accomplished piece of work. By far yet his best book yet. His vast military experience from his time in the Marine's , in the far fields of combat duty in Vietnam, to his current world treks of gathering militant terrorist intelligence, is put to work here for the reader.

Militant Tricks book is not ham-strung by political correctness and sanitation. This book is written for the battlefield Grunt, and for the average person who has little or no knowledge on the subject matter.

J.Poole as in his pervious books, always provides an historical background to substance the evolution of combat tactics, methods and beliefs of a militant terrorist, then weaves these facts into current situation(s)

Poole has broken the code again. This book eliminates any doubts about our fanatic enemies.

Militant Tricks is both insightful and realistic. Poole has over 50 years of military experience, both as a Marine leader and as a researcher. He provides a common sense approach on how to counter the insurgency. He has developed the strategies that will enable the small unit leader to train his personnel to defeat the enemy.

I recommend this book to all Americans, and our allies, who are effected by the Global War on Terrorism. As a member of the United States military, I found this book very useful in the training of my personnel and their wellbeing in a combat environment. For all military members, this book is a must read and a must own.

Absolutely outstanding contemporary description of the events, political alliances, intrigues, tactics, and goals in the war on terrorism as fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Poole provides a crystal clear, no holds barred description of militant tactics and coalition responses. Moreover, based upon his own rich background, he makes specific recommendations to counter what are "Militant Tricks".

How good is this book? I am sending a copy to a friend's son who is a Captain in the 101st Airborne with the feverent hope that some of the recommendations will be adopted by his unit.