Although it may not seem likely, if you simply look at our career choices, the author and I have much in common, so take this review with a large grain of salt — perhaps enough to dehydrate several white-tailed deer.

It’s true that he’s a former United Nations weapons inspector and well-respected expert in all things military, which in the United States perhaps ranks at the top in terms of popularity and respect among American citizens.

And I am now and have always been just a journalist, a job which Americans often rank below lawyer and used-car salesman in terms of popularity and respect.

But in support of my argument that we might have been separated at birth, I submit the following:

He’s an Air Force brat, as am I.

He’s an ex-jock, as I was in high school.

He’s a committed, principled individual who believes in pursuing both peace and justice, and I think it’s fair to say that I share those qualities.

And I think it’s fair to say we’re both thoroughly disappointed with the state of our nation.

Early in the book, Ritter quotes this article he wrote for AlterNet.org, published April 1, 2006, which was the genesis for the book:

“With the United States now entering its fourth year of illegal war in and illegitimate occupation of Iraq, and the pro-war movement moving inexorably toward yet another disastrous conflict with Iran, there is an increasing awareness that the cause of the antiwar movement, no matter how noble and worthy, is in fact a losing cause as currently executed. Despite all of the well-meaning and patriotic work of the millions of activists and citizens who comprise the antiwar movement, America still remains very much a nation engaged in waging and planning wars of aggression and has become a nation that increasingly identifies itself through its military and the wars it fights.”

Well, the war is now entering its sixth year, and it doesn’t look like it will end any time soon.

Why should those who sent American troops — including my nephew — to Iraq do anything different? What force is inflicting enough pain to cause the pro-war crowd to back off?

Sen. John McCain has suggested that we may be there 100 years from now. People scoffed when they heard that idea, but we’ve been in Korea almost 60 years now. Korea’s a different conflict, to be sure — a legal one, for example — but it has been and remains potentially even more dangerous.

In this book, Ritter shows a remarkable patience with those who have been trying to lead the antiwar movement.

It’s remarkable because he clearly doesn’t like the fact that his side, the antiwar side, is losing. Especially when it doesn’t have to be so.

This book presents some basic strategies and tactics that he believes could turn the situation around.

Among them are the following:

The OODA Loop: This is a cycle of battle that stands for observation (of your opponent’s actions), orientation (of your resources to fit that reality), decision (upon a certain tactic) and action (to implement the tactic). Once action is taken, the proponent observes, orients, decides and acts again, each time increasing pressure on the opponent, until he quits or is destroyed.

Strategy versus tactics: Strategy, of course, is the general plan for pursuing a goal, while a tactic is a particular type of specific activity designed to help reach the goal. A strategy would be to persuade the people of the United States to oppose unjust, illegal wars of aggression. A tactic would be to engage in activities (e.g., produce a documentary) to inform the people of the United States of the costs to individual innocent children of the waging of such unjust, illegal wars of aggression. (These examples are mine, not Ritters.)

Intelligence preparation of the battlefield: This is basically the effort to gather and analyze information about the particular arena where a tactic will be executed, and the players in that arena — opponents, bystanders and one’s own supporters. In a peace movement context, that might, for example, involve analyzing the demographics and socioeconomic characteristics of people who are undecided about the war in Iraq.

Organization and incident command: In this chapter, Ritter discusses the need to train activists how and when to follow, lead or get the hell out of the way. He notes that peace movements in nations with strong labor movements (decidedly not the United States) tend to have activists who are already accustomed to this material.

Ritter’s a former Marine officer, and proud of it, and it shows in the rhetoric of this book. He asks peacenik readers to look beyond his militaristic terms to the strategies themselves, which he believes could drastically enhance the effectiveness of the peace movement, which has had few victories in this nation’s bloody history.

I think he’s right.

But you knew that.

Incidentally, Ritter’s work is really only 102 pages long. A copy of the U.S. Constitution (which he advocates as the centerpiece of the antiwar movement), the United Nations Charter and the index take up the rest of the book.