 So having read two of John Poole's books now, I'm pretty sure he just wrote one book, 16 or so different times. Hey everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and we are back with another edition of a tactical book review. Today's book is Strategic Rifleman, a key to more moral warfare by John Poole. This is the second John Poole book that I have read. I have a third one that's on my desk right now that I'll probably read after I read a couple other books. Because having read two of these books now, he tends to say the same stuff. Here seems to be, and again, I haven't read all of his books, okay? So don't know. But his main theme again, like it was in the Super Squad, the previous book that I read that I also reviewed on this channel, is that light infantry tactics are superior to modern American heavy infantry. So he would say, look, modern American soldiers, we call them light infantry, but they're heavy infantry. They're loaded down with gear and packs and tech and all this stuff that they have to do and transport and move around. And the American military tactic, or our paradigm is we are just going to bomb the shit out of something. We're gonna send lots of bullets and bombs and planes and artillery strikes and tanks and all this stuff in to destroy something and then we'll kind of send in the infantry to kind of clean up afterward. And he's saying that's how we've been doing it since World War II. And since World War II, we haven't won a decisively won a war, is would be his argument. And he would say the reason is, is because we are neglecting small infantry to our detriment. So he writes for the US military at large, you know, that's what his books are aimed at, to say, hey, we need slight infantry tactics. We need people to be able to sneak in between foxholes and do true 3G warfare and destroy material rather than men. And he'd say that we still fight a 2G war and that's a big problem. A 2G war just being trying to kill more of the enemy than they kill of you and that's how we think we'll win. And he's like, that's not how you're gonna win 3G and 4G warfare. You need to destroy material, you need to destroy morale. Replacing people is easy. Replacing stuff is not. So we need to equip our soldiers to do that better. We need better small unit light infantry tactics and we don't need to burden our soldiers with all this tech gear, equipment, whatever, whatever. So that's kind of his general purpose. And if you want to know more about that, you can read the book, okay? So when I first read his first one, I wasn't too one over. I'm kind of like, yeah, but, you know, when you look at the casualty numbers of all the major wars that he always refers to, we have less casualties, they have more casualties, so. But this one, he did start to kind of win me over. And the way he talks about different initiative and the frontline soldier who's about to live or die, getting to make the choice, whether or not they want to take this action or not take this action and being able to have the freedom and flexibility within a tactical plan to do that so that it is safer. They don't have to necessarily risk their life. If they're not feeling it or if it's not a good take or the situation is just wrong or whatever, I appreciated that. And I think there's some really good value in there. And then as I was thinking about this more, I thought, you know what, it doesn't matter if I believe him or not at some point. Because I'm not in the military. I don't have the ability to call in a patchy helicopters and artillery strikes or whatever. I'm just a guy. I'm just a guy who trains with some other guys who is trying to embrace my American military heritage. And whether or not I like it, I'm defaulted to light infantry, right? I just got me and my crew and our rifles. I mean, that's really about it, right? And so how do we think about that? How do I, as just an American who wants to embrace my military heritage, how do I train and think about that, right? What are the skill sets and the kind of trainings that I need to have? And again, like it or not, it's in the more light infantry tactics vein because just don't have the tech, don't have all the technology. I have night vision now, which is awesome. You should get night vision. I'll make a video about that later. But by and large, I don't have all the stuffs, right? And so I'm defaulted to the light infantry tactics as he describes them. And so the question is, how do I do that? How do I apply that? So I guess the book that I would like from John Poole is the book that details his training regimen, right? I would like John Poole's tactical manual. I don't need all the history. I don't need all the convincing arguments. I don't need all the stuff. I believe you. I've read the books. I've got the history now. What I would like to see from John Poole, and maybe this book exists. I haven't read all his books. So if you know that this book exists, tell me. I would like the John Poole tactical training manual. The book that says all the drills we should do, all the skills we should develop, all the stuff we need to know. That's the book I wanna read. And I wanna know, okay, so if I believe you, what now? Because I feel like I keep getting frustrated with both of his books where he goes through and gives all these details and makes all these arguments. But then when it comes time to be like, okay, what now? It doesn't really seem like he gives clear direction. He gives hints and little feints and stuff, but he doesn't very clearly explain very often what we can do. Okay, so if I believe you and I wanna capitalize on it, how do we therefore live? And I don't think he does that very effectively. So I would like to see that John Poole book. John, if you ever see this, please write me that book. I'll read it, okay? It'll be great. All that to say, I enjoyed this book. It's really not that long. It's only 200 and some pages. Overall, it was helpful. If you're interested in that whole thing, if you're interested in just being an American who's just a everyday guy and you want to train with your people about what do we do? I think this will give you some good, high level philosophical understanding of what light infantry is versus a standard American, what we're just gonna call heavy infantry and how that differentiates and what it means to be truly light infantry and kind of different things you could think about or do or whatever. I would recommend this book to you. I hope that was helpful. I think overall I'm developing more of an affection for John Poole and his work. I just wish he told me this stuff that I feel like he's leaving out. That's all I got. Do brave deeds and endure.