Death By a Thousand Cuts.

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Death By A Thousand Cuts

Review by James L. Abrahamson, Contributing Editor

Richard Hobbs, Death by a Thousand Cuts: Islam, Fiscal Irresponsibility, and other Threats to Destroy America, Sparks: Nevada, ColDoc Publishing, ISBN-10: 0-964-7788-8-2, 2012. 448 pp., $29.95

Death by a Thousand Cuts: Islam, Fiscal Irresponsibility, and other Threats to Destroy America takes its title from a method of Imperial Chinese torture-execution, which involved cutting a victim--sometimes over several days--until one of the cuts finally proves fatal. The book's subtitle suggests that many such "cuts" now threaten America's future. In fifteen chapters, Richard Hobbs provides readers an extensive analysis of developments, both foreign and domestic, that in his view threaten the United States and Western civilization: Islamic extremism; fiscal irresponsibility; immigration policy; changes in the world order; growth of the global population; and vulnerability to shortages of energy and fresh water. In short, this book is encyclopedic in its coverage and necessarily extensive in its research.

An extraordinary military and civilian career and several earlier books prepared Hobbs, a career army officer who retired as a colonel, to undertake this challenging task. He was graduated near the top of his West Point class in 1954. His choice to serve in the Infantry led to early training as a paratrooper, Ranger, and Pathfinder and assignment to the 82d Airborne Division. Later selection as an Olmsted Scholar opened new opportunities when he attended the University of Lyon, where he completed a doctorate. During two yearlong tours in Vietnam, Hobbs advised Vietnamese paratroopers and commanded a battalion of the 28th Infantry. Between those tours he taught international relations at West Point and later became a research associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Following service in the Pentagon, Hobbs became a Politico-Military Advisor in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.

In retirement, the author worked for Teledyne, which kept him in close touch with the departments of State, Commerce, and Defense and sent him on many trips to the Middle East, Egypt, and other parts of Africa. That background then prompted him to form his own consulting firm. To this, his latest of several books, Hobbs therefore brought a wealth of military and business experience and great insight into the state of our nation and the...

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