Cat 5: The 2033 War
About this audiobook
Learn from losing three wars—or lose the next one in 2033.
Bing West is the only historian to serve on the front lines in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan—and at the highest levels of government. He fought in the battles he writes about, and he explains with firsthand insight why our grunts won the fights, but our presidents lost the wars. The cause, he argues, was hubris. Presidents and policymakers believed the nation was too powerful to fail. That same conceit now threatens America itself. Our elected leaders have hollowed out the military while expanding entitlements to buy votes. The result is a weakened defense and a debt approaching collapse.
By 2033, two forces—our unsustainable debt and China’s ambition—will collide in a Category 5 storm. Drawing on six decades of combat and policy experience, West shows how America arrived at this perilous moment and how to deal with a disaster of our own making. Cat 5: The 2033 War is a soldier’s warning and a historian’s verdict—an unflinching account of national pride, political failure, and the storm closing in. For the first time in our history, we face economic convulsion and confrontation with a mortal adversary—before a single shot is fired.
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About the author
Bing West writes with a Marine’s blunt clarity, a scholar’s discipline, and a strategist’s understanding of how nations win—or lose—wars. He is the only historian to have served on the front lines in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and later at the highest levels of government. The author of a dozen bestselling books, West has received two Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medals and three Marine Corps Heritage Awards. He has been called “the Grunt’s Homer,” and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives with his wife, Betsy, in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Newport, Rhode Island. He has four children and eight grandchildren.
Jason Culp, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, has been acting since the age of ten, and his credits include a variety of television, theater, and film roles. He is best known for his role as Julian Jerome on General Hospital. In addition to audiobooks and voice-over work in national commercials, he has also narrated documentaries for National Geographic and the History Channel.
