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A Different Perspective DESERT WARRIOR: A Personal View of the Gulf War by the jpoint Forces Commander. By HRH Gen Khaled bin Sultan with Patrick Seale. HarperCollins, New York, 1995, 492 pp., $35.00. (Member $31.50)
Desert Warrior is a fascinating story about the Gulf War from the Saudi Arabian point of view. This book is must reading for anyone who aspires to a command or staff billet in any joint or combined operation.
Gen Khaled has two stories to tell. First, he provides an interesting glimpse into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not since the two books on the Saudi monarchy (Robert Lacey's The Kingdom and Holden and Jones' The House of Saudi), both published in 1981, has there been a more forthright display of the workings of the inner circle of King Fahd and the Saudi government. Second, Gen Khaled tells a no-holds-barred story of his monumental struggle to hold a most unlikely coalition of former enemies and sometimes allies, together.
The first story of the rise of a young prince to the command of all "Joint Forces" in the Gulf War, starts from childhood through training at Sandhurst, Leavenworth, Newport, and other special military training and acquisition assignments, that prepared Gen Khaled well for his difficult task in 1990.
If the Republic of...