Warheads: Cable News and the Fog of War

By Kenneth Allard

What happens when a nation loses an important part of its connection with history, when its heritage and even its roots are sacrificed to political expediency? When the offspring of The Greatest Generation out source national service to other people's kids? Finally, having distanced themselves from the harsh realities of war, what happens when an implacable enemy with an ideology of generations-long conflict attacks this country? The answer is that the nation watches the war on TV, the Electronic Coliseum that substitutes for the direct experience that our Founders always assumed would be a cornerstone of American democracy. Warheads reveals what goes on behind the closed doors of that coliseum, from the make-up rooms and TV studios of cable news to the E-ring conference rooms of the Pentagon. Written by one of the best-known members of television's elite cadre of military analysts, or Warheads, Colonel Ken Allard's hard-hitting and often hilarious narrative shows how he and his colleagues from MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News covered the events of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, and the invasion of Iraq-usually in hits of three minutes or less. In his book, Allard also considers the tough issues that the Warheads could seldom wedge into their hits: that technology is never the final answer in warfare and that, from Hurricane Katrina to the war on terror, no robot can substitute for the American soldier. He concludes with the highly provocative question: Are the American political and media establishments up to the challenges of a war from which there may be neither end nor retreat?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591140072
• ISBN13: 9781591140078
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Reporting On and Understanding the War

A beautiful book that is not likely to get the readership that it deserves. it is nominally on the subject of those retired military officers who work for the television networks and provide the 'in depth' coverage of what the military is doing - in three minute segments. As a 'talking head' that only gets called to the studio when there's a war on, one of them coined the term for themselves of 'warhead.' Secondly though, or perhaps even more important this book is about the situation between the military and the populace in the United States and indeed in most of the countries in Western Europe. Mr. Allard sees the problem of us as citizens becoming further and further away from the soldiers that come from typically the less well off, the less well educated, and often a membership in a minority. This is complemented by a congress that has less and less military experience or understanding, which is a direct result of the above. With the abolishment of the draft, America's elite doesn't join the military, doesn't understand the military, but does run from Congress. The result of this change in our culture will be interesting to watch as the overall Jihad against us is continued by the militant Muslim community.