Author Description

From one of the country's most prominent writers and one of the military's most outspoken generals comes the audiobook every American must listen to. Marine general Tony Zinni was known as the Warrior Diplomat during his nearly forty years of service. As a soldier, his credentials were impeccable, whether leading troops in Vietnam, commanding hair-raising rescue operations in Somalia, or -- as Commander in Chief of CENTCOM -- directing strikes against Iraq and Al Qaeda. As peacemaker, he made his mark conducting dangerous troubleshooting missions all over Africa, Asia, and Europe. While serving as Secretary of State Colin Powell's special envoy to the Middle East, disagreements over the 2003 Iraqi war and its probable aftermath caused him to resign. In Battle Ready, he is candid, thoughtful and blunt about both the good and the bad. Battle Ready follows the evolution of General Zinni and the Marine Corps, from the cauldron of Vietnam... Publishers Weekly In the lead-up to the Iraq War and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption. So says former U.S. Central Command commander in chief Zinni, who retired in September 2000 and has been outspoken ever since regarding the uses and abuses of the U.S. military. This book is the latest of Clancy's nonfiction Commanders series, which has previously featured collaborations with Gen. Fred Franks Jr. of the army, Gen. Chuck Horner of the air force and Gen. Carl Stiner, formerly U.S. Special Operations commander. As in those books, Clancy gives adequate background on his subject and his subject's context, then quotes him liberally, consigning tens of pages at a time to Zinni's italicized first-person reflections. Beginning the book with the 1998 CentCom-coordinated attack on Saddam Hussein (the unfortunately named Operation Desert Fox), Clancy and Zinni next move through 150