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Kaplan, Robert D. Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground. New York: Random House, 2005. 421pp. $27.95
Robert Kaplan's book Imperial Grunts is an account of a war journalist cum travel writer visiting U.S. military commands worldwide. Kaplan travels through "barracks and outposts of the American Empire," from Yemen to Colombia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa, introducing readers to "imperial grunts" (U.S. Marines and Army troops and the Navy and Air Force personnel who support them) at these forward-deployed locations. His ten previous books include foreign affairs accounts (Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Vintage, 2001) and travelogues (Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea, Vintage, 2003). Kaplan is currently a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly.
Kaplan lauds the personal initiative...