Blood Year

The Unraveling of Western Counterterrorism

By: David Kilcullen

Narrated by: John Pruden

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

2014 has the potential to go down as a crucial year in modern world history. A resurgent and bellicose Russia took over Crimea and fueled a civil war in Eastern Ukraine. Post-Saddam Iraq, in many respects a creature of the United States because of the war that began in 2003, lost a third of its territory to an army of hyper-violent millennialists. The peace process in Israel seemed to completely collapse. Finally, after coalescing in Syria as a territorial entity, the Islamic State swept into northern Iraq and through northeastern Syria, attracting legions of recruits from Europe and the Middle East.

David Kilcullen was one of the architects of America's strategy in the late phases of the second Gulf War, and also spent time in Afghanistan and other hotspots. In Blood Year, he provides a wide-angle view of the current situation in the Middle East and analyzes how America and the West ended up in such dire circumstances. This is an essential book for anyone interested in understanding not only why the region that the US invaded a dozen years ago has collapsed into utter chaos, but also what it can do to alleviate the grim situation.

©2016 David Kilcullen (P)2017 Tantor

How we got where we are

Excellent writing and reporting on how we got where we are with ISIS and how it has taken hold and spread .

Kilcullen is on point in all his assertions/review

Kilcullen is on point in all his assertions/review. His experience and in depth understanding of counterterrorism and the etymology thereof is second to none

best I've heard so far on the subject

The best part was the more or less play by play he calls on how the GWOT played out so far. The frustrating but understandable thing is that he really never answers the 'other aspect' of counter-insurgency which is finding the path by which the threatened modern governments will or can come to effective governance. It is a great book overall but there just seems to be much more yet to be understood.

Must Read!

Must read for anyone who wants to really understand what happened militarily for 2001 to 2016. Unbelievable insight; as someone who has lived a lot of the same stuff, he hits it right on!

It's a thinking men's war.

David Kilcullen teaches the public what conflict is really about. It's not just what we are thinking about, the enemy also has it's own viewpoint and objectives, great book. " hail o infantry"

Honest Analysis

I appreciate all of David Kilcullens work. This was another great analysis of recent events. The narrarator somehow failed to pronounce even some English words correctly however. Good overall.

A review all of America needs to hear!

Amazing, in-depth dive into the how and why of the threat driving the Global War on Terror.

Crazed War Monger

I am not left wing or any other 'wing whatever that means in the current context but, in my humble opinion, is that Kilcullen should be held under house arrest in Australia, forbidden to travel, and be denied the right to leave the country.
There is a great deal to know about War especially the state of endless war we have embarked on since 2001 especially as to who is financing all these conflicts and the means by which they are financed which would be the sales of guns, oil, and drugs.
I expected a level of information from this writer commensurate with his reputation as he is almost as responsible for the mess the US wanders into ever deeper.
Kilcullen thinks 50 or even 100 years of War is what is needed trying to pacify the entire Globe.
Ask yourself why the US the US instigated civil war in Afghanistan during the Carter Administration- what the goal was then- and the millions and millions of killings since then.
It is no longer possible to stop the war Machine as in 1974 when the insane generals were cut off by Congress as we are well past that. Then of course the US had been involved in Indochina from 1945-74 so you want to stay as far away from the meat grinder as possible.