Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges dishes on his latest book, and the relationship between the U.S. and Europe

The Spark

Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges served in the military for 38 years. He has been making appearances in Pennsylvania including the Midtown Scholar Bookstore and the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle. Hodges most recently published a book called Future War and the Defense of Europe.

“I wanted to write a book that would help wake people up about what needed to be done. And to be honest, as a, somewhat of an amateur historian myself, I mean, that's part of your professional education is looking at, past wars. And how did we get where we got. I never wanted to be accused at some point of somebody saying, hey, you were the commander, and you never told us that we were unprepared, or you never told us that we were not ready.”

He started and ended his career in Germany. In 1981, he was a lieutenant during the height of the Cold war in West Germany.

“My last three years in the Army, I was the commanding general of U.S. Army Europe. So bookended in Europe. I served one year in Korea as a young officer. I did, two tours in Iraq, first as a brigade commander and 101st Airborne Division, and then second time as a staff officer, the chief of operations, for Multinational Corps Iraq in Baghdad. And then I did, a 15-month tour in Afghanistan in 2009 and ten, where I was director of operations. But I also served in the Pentagon three different times, as working in what we call Army congressional liaison, helping explain, the Army's requirements to the Congress, to our oversight committees, as well as answering questions from, members of Congress on constituent issues or from oversight committees.”

His last assignment was as Commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. A big threat he believes Europe is facing is complacency.

You know, since the end of World War Two and with the creation of NATO, there had not been any land war in Europe except for in the 90s with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. And then you had conflict between Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia. And NATO was able to step in and help implement the Dayton peace accord. So, except for that, there hadn't been a conflict in Europe. So, people became complacent.”

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