JANUARY 2014 - AudioFile
Kirsten Potter gives a suitably dispassionate reading of Robinson’s incisive look at how the war in Afghanistan has changed the way U.S. Special Operations forces conduct business. Robinson witnessed firsthand the spec-ops troops she describes. We hear of their work with Afghan villagers as the troops try to enable them to help themselves. We also hear of their combat with the Taliban and dealings with Pakistanis across the border. Her account details successes and failures, as well as performance strengths and weaknesses. Potter narrates clearly with a consistent pacing. Her performance is as professional as the subject matter. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
The New York Times Book Review - Paul R. Pillar
Linda Robinson's One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare is…a series of sketches and narratives about Special Forces teams working in eastern and southern Afghanistan between 2011 and 2013. Robinson…gives us a close-up portrait of how these small, highly skilled groups have gone about their mission of helping Afghan villagers and local leaders protect themselves from Taliban insurgents. Her treatment is rich and detailed. She repeatedly visited several of the sites where the teams lived and operated, and conducted hundreds of interviews with American and Afghan personnel. The book is a worthy addition to the literature on the war.
Publishers Weekly
Our elite forces fought brilliantly to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, writes senior RAND international policy analyst Robinson (Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq). Sadly, within a few years, the militant Islamist group was flourishing again. Its willingness to bully and murder its fellow countrymen and women created plenty of enemies, but the average Afghan kept quiet, expecting little outside help. American Special Ops leaders began brainstorming how they could change this pattern of silence, and after 2009, they were finally given the chance to put their ideas to the test. Here, Robinson delivers vivid, blow-by-blow accounts of a dozen Special Ops campaigns to train local Afghans to defend their communities. She recounts many victories—despite spotty cooperation from the Afghan government and conventional American forces—as well as a few failures. The success of counterinsurgency tactics can only be accurately assessed in the long term, yet America is committed to withdraw nearly all its forces from Afghanistan in 2014, and Robinson fears we may have started too late to see any lasting change. The author—who is no Pollyanna and is a much better writer than the average academic—delivers a painfully realistic account of how Special Ops have valiantly tried to turn matters around in Afghanistan. 8-page b&w photo insert. Agent: Philippa Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Oct. 8)
From the Publisher
ARMY Magazine
“Linda Robinson has enhanced her well-deserved reputation as an acclaimed military expert with her latest work, One Hundred Victories. She has appreciably added to the understanding of America's intrepid special operations forces, the ‘quiet professionals' in Afghanistan…One Hundred Victories is Robinson's third book and perhaps her best work to date. The book is a compelling group portrait of America's most dedicated warriors, and it will appeal to both serious and not-so-serious historians alike, as well as the casual observer looking for a good read.”
Howard Altman, Tampa Tribune
“If you want to get a good sense of the main mission of commandoes in Afghanistan, pick up a copy of Linda Robinson's recently released ‘One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare.'”
Booklist
“Sure to appeal to readers of military nonfiction….Ultimately, this isn't really a story about war; it's a story about how an organization—one so complex you might almost call it an organism—evolves under pressure and becomes something better and more efficient than it once was.”
Library Journal
“Robinson enjoyed very open access to special forces, a world ordinarily cloaked in secrecy…. Recommended to readers interested in delving further into the context of our special forces, the U.S. war in Afghanistan, or U.S. military affairs generally.”
Publishers Weekly
“Robinson delivers vivid, blow-by-blow accounts of a dozen Special Ops campaigns to train local Afghans to defend their communities. She recounts many victories—despite spotty cooperation from the Afghan government and conventional American forces—as well as a few failures. … The author—who is no Pollyanna and is a much better writer than the average academic—delivers a painfully realistic account of how Special Ops have valiantly tried to turn matters around in Afghanistan.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Robinson makes a sincere effort to understand these elite warriors on human terms…[An] approachable, detailed account of the men for whom extreme warfare is a daily job and the American policies driving their expanded mission.”
New York Journal of Books
“A timely work that is part military history and part after-action analysis… Ms. Robinson provides an excellent primer on how counterinsurgency is done at the village level, from the isolation and hardships the American endured to their patient cultivation of the trust of village elders to side with them in fighting the Taliban.”
Admiral William McRaven, Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, on NPR's “The National Conversation”
“Folks within the Special Operations community listen to Linda Robinson, and when they listen to her I listen to them.… When you listen to what she has to say and the power of her arguments, it's hard to argue with her. Linda, thanks for all the great work you've done.”
Admiral Eric Olson, U.S. Navy (Retired), Former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command
“Linda Robinson has again accurately captured the unique spirit, competence and complexity of special operations forces. As a long-time, close-up observer of SOF in action, Linda understands the organizations, capabilities and personalities that make them so effective in ambiguous and dangerous situations. I highly regarded her careful analysis and honest presentation of the facts and issues that dominate SOF's deployments and missions. Her writing is streamlined, very readable and thoroughly enjoyable."
New York Times Book Review
“Linda Robinson's ‘One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare' is a ground-level snapshot of American counterinsurgency in Afghanistan… Robinson, a senior international policy analyst at RAND, gives us a close-up portrait of how these small, highly skilled groups have gone about their mission of helping Afghan villages and local leaders protect themselves from Taliban insurgents. Her treatment is rich and detailed… The book is a worthy addition to the literature on the war.”
US Naval Institute's Proceedings
“[Robinson] is quite literally an expert without peer with it comes to the issues of SOF policy and SOF force application… Highly readable and paints a compelling picture of SOF in the 2010-12 timeframe… The result is a series of ground-truth, factual vignettes that provide a glimpse into the personal as well as the policy… This is a fine book, and Robinson is to be commended for her work in linking the future of SOF to his recent history in Afghanistan in such a personal and readable manner. ..We can count on Linda Robinson to keep us abreast of the current disposition and future of SOF.
Library Journal
10/01/2013
Robinson (senior international policy analyst, RAND; Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces) spent much of 2010–12 visiting U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan. In this resulting book, he describes how amid the very difficult environment of the U.S. policy debate on the country's strategy for Afghanistan and splintered and disorganized internal Afghan politics, U.S. Special Forces (all branches) changed their mission. From commando hunting/killing operations, they moved instead to advisory/teaching operations to create community security through strong local Afghan police, militia, and special forces. Robinson enjoyed very open access to special forces, a world ordinarily cloaked in secrecy. She advocates that an integral element of U.S. military force should be those units and their demonstrated success at advisory missions that create local self-defense capacity. They should not be solely a hidden asset that strikes at night and then returns to secrecy. VERDICT Recommended to readers interested in delving further into the context of our special forces, the U.S. war in Afghanistan, or U.S. military affairs generally.—MJ
JANUARY 2014 - AudioFile
Kirsten Potter gives a suitably dispassionate reading of Robinson’s incisive look at how the war in Afghanistan has changed the way U.S. Special Operations forces conduct business. Robinson witnessed firsthand the spec-ops troops she describes. We hear of their work with Afghan villagers as the troops try to enable them to help themselves. We also hear of their combat with the Taliban and dealings with Pakistanis across the border. Her account details successes and failures, as well as performance strengths and weaknesses. Potter narrates clearly with a consistent pacing. Her performance is as professional as the subject matter. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2013-10-01
A sympathetic academic examines how American special operations came to dominate the Afghanistan war. RAND senior international policy analyst Robinson (Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq, 2008, etc.) concludes that the overall role of "special ops" in American military planning "became increasingly cloudy over the decade in Afghanistan, and for that matter, in the global war on terror." The author argues that storied units like the Navy SEALs and Army Rangers will increasingly influence the scope of American military interventions, yet the challenges of their training, logistics and supply will keep such missions expensive and complex. Robinson focuses on the experiences of several officers, who have generally made sincere, clever efforts to reach out to Afghans in rural tribal regions beset by the Taliban and have had success training the fledgling African National Police. Yet they have been stymied by the clash of military and diplomatic bureaucracies and the tendency of special ops units to rotate out quickly: "The ever-changing cast of American units sent to Afghanistan did not help the US learning curve." Still, the author builds a narrative of special ops gradually fostering a network of reliable peers within Afghanistan's political labyrinth. Writing in a clear, perceptive, though often dry fashion, Robinson makes a sincere effort to understand these elite warriors on human terms: "Special forces tended to view themselves as the stepchildren of the army, unloved by their ‘big army' brothers." The author describes many remarkable operations yet underscores the limits of the special ops model by noting the rash of attacks in 2012 on team members by their Afghan trainees. Approachable, detailed account of the men for whom extreme warfare is a daily job and the American policies driving their expanded mission.
