The War After Armageddon

I dont understand how people can say this book doesnt have a plot? It not only has a plot, and damn good one, it has MANY twists. If you like Clancy and Harold Coyle then you will love this book.

I do not understand why some reviewers think this books premise is so far out of possibilities. If we do not get off our butts and get educated on our politicians and problems then it is a very likely scenario. But dont want to turn political, this book is awesome and was one of the best books I have listened to. I got the audible version. Wish his other books were available in audible.

Peters' first novel in six years, The War After Armageddon is a dark near-future war story about reason versus fanaticism. There's much more battlefield stuff - this is war, not espionage or politics - than anything he's done in a long while, and it's drawn in a way Clancy has reason to bitterly envy... the tech is there, it's plausible (as you'd expect from a guy like Peters), but the people are more important.

Peters has always drawn people well - he's sophisticated and intelligent and his main characters do tend to be far more than cardboard cut-outs. Especially good is the cynical fanatic Gen. Sim Montfort, a driven man turned Christian butcher - brutal, calculating, but also human.

If there's anywhere the book's lacking, it's in the backstory. Europeans overreact against Muslims, Israel is wiped out, the far edge of the Christian right takes uncontested power in the States and begins instituting a theocracy - interesting stuff that could have (and should have) been fifty pages, glossed over in three or four. Yes, the story isn't about how things came to be, but it would have been interesting. A prequel wouldn't be too much to hope for?

Not that the story we get isn't excellent. Dark, but Peters isn't known for happy endings anyway. Fast-moving, realistic, some very well-drawn characters. I couldn't put it down, sped through it in an evening. One of the best war stories I've read in years.

Ralph Peters is one of the most accomplished of current writers: fiction, non-fiction, essays, reportorial, and opinion, he does it all with professionalism and aplomb. His previous essays reflect much of what he has set to fiction in Armageddon as a warning for what could come if we are complacent about our future.
In this book Peters sees through a glass darkly, but the scenario is not at all far-fetched, a thought that ought to energize all readers to become more involved.
This book - a forecast of a world after nuclear strikes from terrorists and rogue states - may be less a flight of imagination than a harbinger of terrible days to come.
Some reviewers have mis-cast this work as somehow being anti-Israel and nothing could be further from the truth. Peters is one of Israel's most loyal supporters, and selecting that ground as a setting for a culmination of a terrible confrontation - on many levels - is absolutely germane to the world we face today.
Regardless of the implications for today's world, Peters has produced yet another page-turner in his long string of successful works. Even if one overlooks the highly germane geopolitical implications,the sheer suspense and adroit plotting and character development will entertain and enthrall almost everyone.
Readers will be hooked from the opening sentence to the close, with only one regret: how unfortunate that it had to end! That to me is the mark of an extraordinary work.
I recommend this book to everyone and warn you beforehand: set aside some time to read it because you will not want to put it down!

This novel reads like the typical military novel of a possible apocolyptic future where the USA after having several cities taken out by nuclear terrorism goes all out in war against the middle east. Most of the military action takes place in what is today Israel but in the future is part of an Islamic theocracy. Unfortunately, the USA is also a theocracy.

This novel pulls no punches in describing the Fascist country that America becomes due to the Christian Right taking over the country. Interestingly, the main character, General Harris is a devout Christian. The contrast between his ethical faith and the hypocritical faith of the people who have taken over America is made clear. The leadership of both sides is almost undistinguishable in their fanaticsm, oppression of women and dissidents, and religious bigotry.

The ground level military action is the best part of the book. There is typical soldier humor, combat action and most interestingly, the depiction of how the military would operate in a low tech environment.

After seeing Ralph Peters on C-SPAN and reading his columns, I was looking forward to his futuristic book.

I was not disappointed. After several nuke strikes on the US, Christian Fundamentalists take over the government and create another Christian based Army (MOBIC). The overarching theme is the battle between Christian Fundamentalism vs. Moslem Fundamentalism.

General "Flintlock" Harris as a bastion of the real Army is fighting the favoritism of MOBIC for resources and fighting the Moslems in the Holy Land.

Along with the combat scenes, Peter's captures all the back room political maneuvering that goes on. The skillful combination of both makes this a hard book to put down.

Peter's has highlighted the results of fanaticalism no matter which side it comes from. I am not sure how probable the scenario but it was a fascinating excursion.

I could not put the book down. Several twists made me stop and ponder. The narrator of the story at the end of the book makes for a great final twist to the story.

Like Frankie said, this book could have been huge - in size and impact. This is a story about the military engagement after the US is nuked in LA and Vegas, and the religious right rises up to form its own military arm to fight back. The ol' US Army and Marines are left to fight with the left-overs that the Evangelical avengers leave behind. And the US Army general, "Flintlock" Harris, is a great character who could have withstood so much more fictional development. A religious man himself, he wasn't one to get taken in by any form of extremism. Ultimately this was an interesting take on a future that COULD happen if cooler heads do not prevail. Unfortunately the book was too short and choppy, but maybe someone else will come along and run with something similar, if it hasn't already been done without me gettin' the memo.

A well written military novel. It presents a grim vision of the future. I doubt the possibility of a new Christian extremism taking over the United States. On the other hand, I fear that his projection of militant terrorism eventually provoking an equally militant reaction is far too likely, even though it may not take the form he has envisioned.

The book really is fantastic. It has a great story and great characters. Ralph Peters has long been one of my favorite writers. Right up there with Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn.

My main problem, as I search through reviews, is that people are reading it like it is an 80% probability weather forcast. Yes, the story is dark, bleak and based on the tireless analysis of a retired military officer, but is it probable? Hardly. I find it unlikely that even the first premise of the book will become a reality in our time: a destroyed Israel.

Israel is a strong country more than up to the task of tackling Iran's nuclear arsenal and the Islamic nutjobs within and without its borders.

Other things I have a problem painting into reality are a U.S. inavsion of the Holy Land using a Christian based theocratic military.

I admit its a great story, but its still a story.

Israel has been nuked back to the Stone Age. Dirty bombs have devastated the major cities of Europe as well as Las Vegas and Los Angeles too. In fact L.A. is a radioactive desert. Muslin extremists are bringing Jihad to the West just like the West brought death squads seeking Islamic extremists.

The United Godfearing States of America elects an extremist Christian government. One of the first acts is to modify the National Guard into the Military Order of the Brothers in Christ (MOBIC). With a mess back home of fundamentalist Christians seeking a new Crusade that they hope will lead to the Rapture, Lieutenant General Gary "Flintlock" Harris commands troops on a beach assault of what is left of Israel. He and his fighting force are bringing the war to the Jihadists. High tech weapons of mass destruction have failed so fighting reverts back to pre electronic command and control. The world is on the brink of pandemic genocide as both sides in this religious war claim the Holy Land even if it is a wasteland.

This is a powerful cautionary tale that warns if present international and internal American relationships continue on the current path hell on earth will occur as religious fundamentalists who proclaim God's mandate makes them right will bring radioactive Crusades to the world. The story line is fast-paced from the moment that Flintlock leads his unit onto the beaches of what was once called Israel, but now is a radioactive wasteland called The Emirate of Al-Quds and Damaskus; a long way from what was Mt. Carmel. Fans will appreciate Ralph Peters' deep thriller except for those who are always righteously right.

Harriet Klausner

I have read hundreds of books like this, and this one's perhaps one of the best I have ever read.

There are unexpected turns, and the pacing is excellent.

The future is plausible, and it's too bad there's really no way to continue it.

Of Ralph Peters credentials their can be NO doubt that the man knows about what he speaks. But when it comes to writing credible characters, he still needs some speech lessons. If you take the three main antagonists, Al-Ghazi, Simon Montfort and Gary Harris, you'll don't have a real person among the crew. Granting Mr. Peters some leeway, I will say the Montfort is even more of a caricature that Bugs Bunny. Anyone who has been in the military would know that a guy like this would have been bounced out of VMI, much less been able to work his way up the promotion ladder to a place of power.

The MOBIC idea holds no water because of the volunteer army. Troops would never stand having raving fundamentalist as their officers, since most volunteers are just normal patriotic Americans. So the idea that the majority of service personnel and officers would move over to MOBIC is an absurdity. Neither (I hope) would the country (only ten percent fundamentalist christian), never even thirty percent arch-conservative allow there to be a established of a christian army without there being a fight on the floor of Congress and in the street.

For whatever the 'jihadis' could throw at us, this country would rise up as it did during the Vietnam War and force out the 'radicals'. This is a moderate, centrist nation, and always has and will be. Do you think that 40 million catholics would let themselves be made second class citizens? What about the Latinos and Blacks who make-up well over 50% of the enlisted personnel?

Does anyone think that if there was a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel, that the US, Russia and China wouldn't pulverize whatever the Israelis didn't? The Russians who are still as paranoid as they ever were, would never stand for a nuclear presence in the Middle East after the first nuke was detonated. They are way to close to 100s of millions of Muslims to sit on the sidelines. The Chinese could easily lose 1 billion and still have 300 million people left.

For alternate history to be good, it must be reasonable, and this isn't even plausible. After the first US city was nuked, there would be a couple dozen nuclear submarines parked off the middle east and 'let God sort it out' after. We could then spend the next thirty years figuring out how to pump oil out of the ground, without getting it contaminated.

Remember, in this country, there is always some one willing to stick out his neck and say that, 'the emperor is naked', beware the man behind the curtain.

Zeb Kantrowitz

Got this in a grocery store. The general scenario of the story is interesting, though improbable, however the author, in a note at the end of the novel, disavows any presentation of probability. A promo blurb from a newspaper review proclaims Peters to be "the thinking man's Tom Clancy." Don't see on what this claim could possibly be based, I do not see that Peters has anything on Clancy. Although he does use a lot more five-dollar acronyms to signify a variety of things in his book. If this means his work is more thoughtful in some way than Clancy, well then, whatever. But the dialogue often reads like it came from a comic book, with the American characters often coming off like foul-mouthed Hardy Boys. The Arab characters talk like they came from a Saturday Night Live skit. The action does not grip me like a Clancy story does. There are occasional gaffs in spelling, tense, syntax- more than what should be tolerated in a published author or his publisher's editor. Also, coming from an Air Force background myself, it becomes grating when Peters never misses an opportunity to diss the United States Air Force. Perhaps he should have written stories for MASH.

The combat sequences are quite entertaining, but the overall story is quite far-fetched, and the ending is a definite let-down.

The idea that the "nuking" of LA & Las Vegas (I always figure it will be LA & SF that actually get taken out first), would lead to a "right wing takeover", is a notion that is basically sound - however, the idea is stretched far past the breaking point, and by the end of the book, it reaches complete absurdity.

Had I read other reviews prior to purchasing this book, I might not have bought it or read it. But once I started reading, I was hooked. Not being familiar with other books on the subject or with Peter's other writings, I found the book interesting, then emotional, then thought provoking, to say the least. I don't know that Mr. Peter's is trying to sell a particular perspective or not, but I understand he is who he is because of his own background. I can appreciate that and say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and am now interested in reading another. The subject matter is heavy-deep, emotional and significant, but as I said, I found his take on it enjoyable and fascinating at the same time. I loved the character he wrote for Flintrock Harris and have to say I agreed with the character's life outlook. Bully!

Would you like a gripping read, with a frightening premise, a breakneck pace, and a terrifying conclusion, one that leaves you with dark thoughts for days after the closing page?

And a story that shows the ultimate weakness of the US Army and the US Marines -- a sense of honor. But more about honor in a moment.

This story is not just unlikely horrors such as Hannibal Lecter's cannibaliam or Stephen King's hyperactive imaginings, but a full-scale, all-out, apocalyptic, messianic vision of a final war of extermination between Moslems and Christians. This may seem unlikely to Americans, who live largely sheltered by two oceans and our willful blindness to history.

Perhaps a few reminders might help. In the years after 1492, through disease and guns, Christians killed 90 percent of all the inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere. Hitler killed 6 million Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals -- and 50 million Russians. Stalin killed tens of millions of Ukrainians. The Christian Taiping Rebellion killed 30 million Chinese. Mao Zedong starved to death 40 million Chinese. In 1258, Hulagu killed every man, woman, and child in Baghdad, nearly a million civilians. In 1099, the Christian Crusaders slaughtered most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem -- Moslems. Jews, and native Christians. In the Fourth Crusade, Roman Christians massacred the Eastern Christians of Constantinpole. In the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Catholic Christians murdered nearly 30,000 Protestant Christians. And today's Wahabi and Salafist Moslems rejoice in slitting throats, cutting off heads, and blowing up girls' schools -- and posting shameless videos of their sadism. The list could on. The point is man's boundless capacity for enormous evil.

But even American Christianity has its extremists. Tens of millions believe that men and dinosaurs co-existed; fossils are merely the Devil's snare. There is an informal network linking survivalists, skinheads, neo-Nazis, "birthers," and clinic bombers, egged on by radio conspiracy-mongers who make millions stoking the fires of paranoia. Someone is out to get you. Islam makes an easy target, with its terrorist violence and rage again the West. Christian and Moslem radicals, each beliving that the other deserves eradication.

Add in a few technical details.The Chinese have perfected shooting down satellites; without them, we have no GPS and a paralyzed military. The "smart" aircraft and vehicles, peddled so ferociously by America's military suppliers to a compliant and ignorant Congress, are woefully vulnerable to electroc jamming. The US Air Force, in love with the image of zoomy silver birds and steely-eyed Top Gun pilots, buys planes too fast for ground support, while dragging their heels into an all drone future.

But we must return to honor. The US military tradition follows a code of honor, honesty, and duty. Peters raises the question -- are these useless virtues in a world increasingly run by religious zealots, callous, unscrupulous, and hypocritical, with murder in their hearts?.

Take all these premises, each factual, add an author who a is real military man (a former lieutenant colonel), add the touch of a master story-teller, whose moral compass is the Sermon on the Mount, and you have a timely, moral, engrossing, and deeply unsettling book. I commend it highly.

In addition to being an insightful political analyst, Ralph Peters has had a long and successful career as a great novelist. He has written military novels with a fine sense of the military mind, he has written political thrillers with an insider's knowledge of the ways of Washington and he has written mysteries featuring a Civil War detective with a well developed historical sensibility.

I've read every novel he's ever written and I've never been disappointed.

Until now.

This novel begins strongly. Iran has gotten nuclear weapons and used them on Israel and certain cities in the US and Europe. A US Task Force led by General "Flintlock" Harris, a legendary soldier, invades the Middle East and engages with an army of Muslim fanatics. Electronic countermeasures has reduced warfare to pre-high-tech levels. Peters follows the course of battle at several levels, from a squad led by a Marine sergeant to a battalion led by lieutenant colonel up to General Harris.

But then the story quickly runs off the rails. America has become a nation of Christian extremists, the National Guard has been converted into a radical sect and plans are being hatched in Washington to commit genocide on a scale which dwarfs Hitler's. The plot becomes perfunctory and the "war after Armageddon" ends with another Armageddon.

All of Peters's novels have a point to deliver. They always reflect his view of the state of the world. If he really thinks that (a) America is on the threshhold of converting to radical Christianity and (b) Christian doctrine would ever sanction the cold blooded murder of a billion human beings, he is totally alienated from both America and Christianity. This is disturbing because Peters had a distinguished military career and this warped view might be indicative of a rift between the military and the rest of society.

Mr. Peters's skills as a novelist can still be seen in his deft sketches of characters and his ability to capture complex action sequences with coherence. But he really needs to have a plausible plot.

Reading Ralph Peters' dark new novel, The War After Armageddon, is, in a way, much like driving by a grisly traffic accident - the view is horrific, but you just can't look away. Peters' novel is, indeed, compellingly horrific, the plot driven along by a realism that only a writer with this author's background, experience and vision can achieve and pass along to the reader in a dramatic narrative. Peters, today's most insightful strategist when observing in print or in his many TV appearances as guest commentator what is really taking place in the dangerous world around us, has the rare ability to think through and vividly imagine the second-, third-, and even fourth-order effects of policy decisions today's world leaders are making. The hellish world vision that Peters' describes in The War After Armageddon may on the surface seem far-fetched; yet, he's skillfully applied his superb insight as a strategist, experienced intelligence officer, and veteran world traveler to show us what might happen in a world where mankind's oldest motivators - faith and blood - have succeeded in trumping reason and good will.

Two major errors in Peters' worldview: first of all, the fundamentalist Christians I know (Jewish kid from Chicago who practiced medicine for 7 years in Alabama and 5 years in Kentucky, in addition to college and med school for 8 years in Texas---yeah, I know my Bible Belt as well as Peters' knows his intel) don't act like that---they have a fine concern for political freedom.

Second, the Europeans are pusses going to their inevitable demographic doom. Now. Wilders is not a popular figure throughout Europe. From whence come their death squads?

You want to read a novel by a military man that covers a lot of the same ground---the VASTLY superior Caliphate by Tom Kratman. Or heck, pick up The Lotus Eaters and work backward through his Legion series. War in 2020 by Peters was awesome. This isn't in the same league.

For me this was a very disturbing book. It presents a vision of a future for the United States that while at odds with our historical love for freedom and individuality, given the right circumstances could be all to possible.

Picked this up at Walmarts along with two others that I have read reviews on at the store..Too much religion in it for me..not what I call a post apocalyptic novel although it comes up everytime when I type in post apocalyptic on the the store search..7.50 + tax I could have spent on something else I probably would have enjoyed better..like a crossword puzzle book..seems like Im disappointed with the PA books I purchase of late..I think being a serious prepper I tend to think PA books should be more realistic in terms of what life will be like post apocalyse..none of the guns dont work ..wiccan Godesses or fantasy stuff.

The heading "The Thinking man's Tom Clancy" sold me on this book. The story was pretty interesting and somewhat plausable. However his view of world domination, massive ethnic cleansing was not believable. The extent of devestation in the US coupled with the fact that we are quite ethnically and Religion diverse would make it impossible for some dictator to go around eradicating populations based on color or religion. It was plain stupid and written by a distrubed individual. It must be critically acclaimed to write a story where you are so far outside of the mainstream that people think you are deranged. Then you will win a writing award. I suspect his next book will advocate raping children. It is about the only place more unbalanced than his drivel. Just IMHO.

The the author represents himself as a military strategist, although I still have yet to see his bona fides. Military intelligence covers a large area, strategy being a very, very small part of it. And more subject to the decisions of the Commanding General than one of his analysts.

What strikes me as particularly sad, especially coming from a former military officer, is the moral equivalance drawn between both the Muslim and Christian fascists.

While it appears more and more likely that war with Iran is soon on the horizon, and more numerous and severe attacks on the United States almost inevitable, the idea that the US would willingly turn itself over, politically or morally to an extreme right wing Christian junta is laughable.

We currently live in a society in which any politician who seriously promotes the idea of a draft is committing political suicide. We live in a society in which patriotism is considered quaint at best, and abhorrent at worst.

Our current administration, implicitly, most of the time, seems more willing to apologize to terrorists for our killing of their people with our buildings on 9-11, than they are of protecting the United States.

No. I sincerely doubt the United States, regardless of being in extremis, would willingly turn itself over to a theocratic dictatorship with the attendant SS.

Giving credit where credit is due, the combat scenes were well written and realistic. However, that cannot make up for cardboard characters, little to no plot, and a nonexistent message.

What was the point, Sir?

More importantly, what was the plan?

Yes, Ralph Peters clearly was influenced by THE TURNER DIARIES, except that book is far more to the point and intellectually honest.

The only word for this book is PUTRID. It strikes a moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam, for which Peters will have to answer to a higher authority. When have Christians targeted civilians while hiding behind their own civilians? When have Christians carried out suicide attacks?? Peters clearly hates his own worse than he hates our enemies.

And the scenario makes no sense whatsoever. If and when Israel is nuked, she will unleash her 200 or so nukes on every major Arab city, so their will be no Syria or Jordan. And the Israeli military don't all live in Tel Aviv - there will be plenty of Israeli firepower to stop what's left of the neighboring Arabs. Finally, Americans are more likely, in the case of nuclear attacks, to turn to secular military leaders than to the Christian Right.

This is a hate book, no less so than TURNER DIARIES.

I spotted this book at Barnes & Noble, and it piqued my interest because I like anything that has to do with the Middle East. The plot started off ok, but I could tell right away that the writing wasn't that great. It's like watching a B or C movie and knowing within a few minutes that you've made a mistake, and you have only two choices: quit right then and there or slog through in the vain hope that it'll get better. I chose the second option and I regret wasting time reading what amounts to a badly written, badly constructed and badly told story. It could have held together if the author hadn't piled up one implausibility after another. The environment he chose (the Middle East conflict) is rich enough in components he could have used to build a rich, credible and suspenseful thriller, but alas.... His characters are all caricatures, the dialogs poor, the scenes gratuitously gory... and the epilogue ridiculous. This smells like a cheap novel hastily written... and not surprisingly it is a big disappointment. This is the first novel I have ever read from this author, and it will be the last. Don't waste a dime on it.

I honestly don't remember ordering this item. It really isn't something I would read.
I know that I order books listed as 'used - like new' and I don't feel this book fit that description. It showed up with the spine bent off to one side and the pages dog-eared.