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To: epicure who wrote (4403)	11/9/2003 11:02:36 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 20773

Excellent review of what looks to be a fantastic book: 'Intelligence in War': Secrets and Surprises By JOSEPH E. PERSICO Published: November 9, 2003 he literature of espionage flows on with unabating popularity and durability. Yet in the first sentence of his latest work, the military historian John Keegan, author of such instant classics as ''The Face of Battle'' and ''The Mask of Command,'' poses this question: ''How useful is intelligence in war?'' By the end we will have Keegan's unequivocal answer, one likely to jar the conventional wisdom. Advertisement Though ''Intelligence in War'' carries the subtitle ''Knowledge of the Enemy From Napoleon to Al-Qaeda,'' Keegan has written not a history, but several case histories, measuring the contribution that intelligence made to victory. He is put off by the romantic notion generated by espionage fact and fiction that spies somehow win battles, even wars, by ruses, pilfered secrets and cracked codes. His own conclusion, hammered home again and again, is that ''decision in war is always the result of a fight, and in combat willpower always counts for more than foreknowledge. Let those who disagree show otherwise.'' nytimes.com