4.
THE LAW OF THE NETWORK
How does one build a team with seven thousand swim buddies?
—GENERAL STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL
It wasn’t a fair fight. The U.S. Army’s Task Force in Iraq in late 2003 was arguably the world’s most sophisticated fighting machine with abundant resources and advanced technology. It was facing a poorly resourced, ill-educated bunch of extremists. So why was the U.S. Army losing?
The Task Force was led by one of the army’s star commanders, General Stanley McChrystal, who took charge in October 2003. He had at his disposal unmatched firepower, armored vehicles, cutting-edge surveillance, and new technologies such as precision weapons, GPS, and night vision. Descending from blacked-out helicopters that could locate a specific rooftop ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access