Afghanistan The Perfect Failure

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Afghanistan

Author : John L. Cook
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1479720704
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (797 download)

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Book Synopsis Afghanistan by : John L. Cook

Download or read book Afghanistan written by John L. Cook and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-09 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LONG BOOK DESCRIPTION: Unparalleled access to all levels of the Afghan government and coalition forces is the result of John Cook's tenure in Afghanistan. Over the past four and a half years, he has developed an intimate and alarming insight into what has become a hand-wringing quagmire of politically correct, socially and culturally sensitive policies and programs that continue to be implemented, and that can only result in catastrophic failure for the United States, the coalition and the average Afghan. Mr. Cook offers unprecedented insight as he digs deep to rip away at the misguided and destructive policies, including the infamous "Rules of Engagement" that doom our soldiers for the sake of political correctness and cultural sensitivity. This raw and disturbing account covers the truths regarding the appalling and cruel treatment of women, the squandering of foreign aid by, and corruption of, the "Karzai-centric" government that includes the betrayal of its own people. He presents eye-opening insight into the tribal structure that has traditionally guided the Afghan mindset and, despite efforts to "westernize", will not go away. He details the inexplicable and infuriating policies regarding failures associated with poppy eradication, and it is the poppies that are the fuel for terrorist activities. He further provides explanations for the Taliban's continuing control and the problems associated with our "well-intentioned" but misguided counterinsurgency strategies against the Taliban and al Qaeda - strategies that fail our mission and our soldiers. In this reasoned, forceful and intellectually honest treatise, he also courageously dissects the disturbing role of Islam and forces the reader to come face to face with the reality that Islam, not the Taliban, is the real enemy in Afghanistan. After reading Afghanistan: The Perfect Failure, we can only conclude we must no longer turn a blind eye to what is happening in Afghanistan. Mr. Cook's dissection is powerful and provocative. The American public deserves more than the thin veil of reporting that has been done on the subjects in this expose. Due to his longevity in this war torn country and high- level access, few, if any, have had the opportunity to gain the inside and knowledge afforded John Cook; none have had the courage to publicly reveal the shameful truth.

Afghanistan: the Perfect Failure

Author : John L. Cook
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1479720712
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (797 download)

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Book Synopsis Afghanistan: the Perfect Failure by : John L. Cook

Download or read book Afghanistan: the Perfect Failure written by John L. Cook and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-09-26 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LONG BOOK DESCRIPTION: Unparalleled access to all levels of the Afghan government and coalition forces is the result of John Cooks tenure in Afghanistan. Over the past four and a half years, he has developed an intimate and alarming insight into what has become a hand-wringing quagmire of politically correct, socially and culturally sensitive policies and programs that continue to be implemented, and that can only result in catastrophic failure for the United States, the coalition and the average Afghan. Mr. Cook offers unprecedented insight as he digs deep to rip away at the misguided and destructive policies, including the infamous Rules of Engagement that doom our soldiers for the sake of political correctness and cultural sensitivity. This raw and disturbing account covers the truths regarding the appalling and cruel treatment of women, the squandering of foreign aid by, and corruption of, the Karzai-centric government that includes the betrayal of its own people. He presents eye-opening insight into the tribal structure that has traditionally guided the Afghan mindset and, despite efforts to westernize, will not go away. He details the inexplicable and infuriating policies regarding failures associated with poppy eradication, and it is the poppies that are the fuel for terrorist activities. He further provides explanations for the Talibans continuing control and the problems associated with our well-intentioned but misguided counterinsurgency strategies against the Taliban and al Qaeda - strategies that fail our mission and our soldiers. In this reasoned, forceful and intellectually honest treatise, he also courageously dissects the disturbing role of Islam and forces the reader to come face to face with the reality that Islam, not the Taliban, is the real enemy in Afghanistan. After reading Afghanistan: The Perfect Failure, we can only conclude we must no longer turn a blind eye to what is happening in Afghanistan. Mr. Cooks dissection is powerful and provocative. The American public deserves more than the thin veil of reporting that has been done on the subjects in this expose. Due to his longevity in this war torn country and high- level access, few, if any, have had the opportunity to gain the inside and knowledge afforded John Cook; none have had the courage to publicly reveal the shameful truth.

Why We Lost

Author : Daniel P. Bolger
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 0544370481
Total Pages : 565 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (443 download)

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Book Synopsis Why We Lost by : Daniel P. Bolger

Download or read book Why We Lost written by Daniel P. Bolger and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2014 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A high-ranking general's gripping insider account of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how it all went wrong. Over a thirty-five-year career, Daniel Bolger rose through the army infantry to become a three-star general, commanding in both theaters of the U.S. campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. He participated in meetings with top-level military and civilian players, where strategy was made and managed. At the same time, he regularly carried a rifle alongside rank-and-file soldiers in combat actions, unusual for a general. Now, as a witness to all levels of military command, Bolger offers a unique assessment of these wars, from 9/11 to the final withdrawal from the region. Writing with hard-won experience and unflinching honesty, Bolger makes the firm case that in Iraq and in Afghanistan, we lost -- but we didn't have to. Intelligence was garbled. Key decision makers were blinded by spreadsheets or theories. And, at the root of our failure, we never really understood our enemy. Why We Lost is a timely, forceful, and compulsively readable account of these wars from a fresh and authoritative perspective.

The Afghanistan Papers

Author : Craig Whitlock
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1982159014
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

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Book Synopsis The Afghanistan Papers by : Craig Whitlock

Download or read book The Afghanistan Papers written by Craig Whitlock and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Washington Post Best Book of 2021 The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock. Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives. Distracted by the war in Iraq, the US military become mired in an unwinnable guerrilla conflict in a country it did not understand. But no president wanted to admit failure, especially in a war that began as a just cause. Instead, the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations sent more and more troops to Afghanistan and repeatedly said they were making progress, even though they knew there was no realistic prospect for an outright victory. Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains “fast-paced and vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) revelation after revelation from people who played a direct role in the war from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government’s strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground. Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn’t know the name of his Afghanistan war commander—and didn’t want to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he had “no visibility into who the bad guys are.” His successor, Robert Gates, said: “We didn’t know jack shit about al-Qaeda.” The Afghanistan Papers is a “searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials” (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.

Our Latest Longest War

Author : Aaron B. O'Connell
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022626579X
Total Pages : 387 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Our Latest Longest War by : Aaron B. O'Connell

Download or read book Our Latest Longest War written by Aaron B. O'Connell and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American and Afghan veterans contribute to this anthology of critical perspectives—“a vital contribution toward understanding the Afghanistan War” (Library Journal). When America went to war with Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, it did so with the lofty goals of dismantling al Qaeda, removing the Taliban from power, remaking the country into a democracy. But as the mission came unmoored from reality, the United States wasted billions of dollars, and thousands of lives were lost. Our Latest Longest War is a chronicle of how, why, and in what ways the war in Afghanistan failed. Edited by prize-winning historian and Marine lieutenant colonel Aaron B. O’Connell, the essays collected here represent nine different perspectives on the war—all from veterans of the conflict, both American and Afghan. Together, they paint a picture of a war in which problems of culture, including an unbridgeable rural-urban divide, derailed nearly every field of endeavor. The authors also draw troubling parallels to the Vietnam War, arguing that ideological currents in American life explain why the US government has repeatedly used military force in pursuit of democratic nation-building. In Afghanistan, as in Vietnam, this created a dramatic mismatch of means and ends that neither money, technology, nor weapons could overcome.

After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests

Author : Ted Rall
Publisher : Hill and Wang
ISBN 13 : 1429955589
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests by : Ted Rall

Download or read book After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests written by Ted Rall and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unflinching account—in words and pictures—of America's longest war by our most outspoken graphic journalist Ted Rall traveled deep into Afghanistan—without embedding himself with U.S. soldiers, without insulating himself with flak jackets and armored SUVs—where no one else would go (except, of course, Afghans). He made two long trips: the first in the wake of 9/11, and the next ten years later to see what a decade of U.S. occupation had wrought. On the first trip, he shouted his dispatches into a satellite phone provided by a Los Angeles radio station, attempting to explain that the booming in the background—and sometimes the foreground—were the sounds of an all-out war that no one at home would entirely own up to. Ten years later, the alternative newspapers and radio station that had financed his first trip could no longer afford to send him into harm's way, so he turned to Kickstarter to fund a groundbreaking effort to publish online a real-time blog of graphic journalism (essentially, a nonfiction comic) documenting what was really happening on the ground, filed daily by satellite. The result of this intrepid reporting is After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests—a singular account of one determined journalist's effort to bring the realities of life in twenty-first-century Afghanistan to the world in the best way he knows how: a mix of travelogue, photography, and award-winning comics.

Afghanistan Declassified

Author : Brian Glyn Williams
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812206150
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis Afghanistan Declassified by : Brian Glyn Williams

Download or read book Afghanistan Declassified written by Brian Glyn Williams and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-09-22 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly 100,000 U.S. soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan at the height of the campaign, fighting the longest war in the nation's history. But what do Americans know about the land where this conflict is taking place? Many have come to have a grasp of the people, history, and geography of Iraq, but Afghanistan remains a mystery. Originally published by the U.S. Army to provide an overview of the country's terrain, ethnic groups, and history for American troops and now updated and expanded for the general public, Afghanistan Declassified fills in these gaps. Historian Brian Glyn Williams, who has traveled to Afghanistan frequently over the past decade, provides essential background to the war, tracing the rise, fall, and reemergence of the Taliban. Special sections deal with topics such as the CIA's Predator drone campaign in the Pakistani tribal zones, the spread of suicide bombing from Iraq to the Afghan theater of operations, and comparisons between the Soviet and U.S. experiences in Afghanistan. To Williams, a historian of Central Asia, Afghanistan is not merely a theater in the war on terror. It is a primeval, exciting, and beautiful land; not only a place of danger and turmoil but also one of hospitable villagers and stunning landscapes, of great cultural diversity and richness. Williams brings the country to life through his own travel experiences—from living with Northern Alliance Uzbek warlords to working on a major NATO base. National heroes are introduced, Afghanistan's varied ethnic groups are explored, key battles—both ancient and current—are retold, and this land that many see as only a frightening setting for prolonged war emerges in three dimensions.

Little America

Author : Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1408831201
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis Little America by : Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Download or read book Little America written by Rajiv Chandrasekaran and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City (winner of the 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize) now gives us the startling, behind-the-scenes story of the struggle between President Obama and the US military to remake Afghanistan.

The Wars of Afghanistan

Author : Peter Tomsen
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1610394127
Total Pages : 914 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis The Wars of Afghanistan by : Peter Tomsen

Download or read book The Wars of Afghanistan written by Peter Tomsen and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2013-12-10 with total page 914 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Ambassador and Special Envoy on Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, Peter Tomsen has had close relationships with Afghan leaders and has dealt with senior Taliban, warlords, and religious leaders involved in the region's conflicts over the last two decades. Now Tomsen draws on a rich trove of never-before-published material to shed new light on the American involvement in the long and continuing Afghan war. This book offers a deeply informed perspective on how Afghanistan's history as a "shatter zone" for foreign invaders and its tribal society have shaped the modern Afghan narrative. It brings to life the appallingly misinformed secret operations by foreign intelligence agencies, including the Soviet NKVD and KGB, the Pakistani ISI, and the CIA. American policy makers, Tomsen argues, still do not understand Afghanistan; nor do they appreciate how the CIA's covert operations and the Pentagon's military strategy have strengthened extremism in the country. At this critical time, he shows how the U.S. and the coalition it leads can assist the region back to peace and stability.

Why Nations Fail

Author : Daron Acemoglu
Publisher : Currency
ISBN 13 : 0307719227
Total Pages : 546 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (77 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Nations Fail by : Daron Acemoglu

Download or read book Why Nations Fail written by Daron Acemoglu and published by Currency. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

No Good Men Among the Living

Author : Anand Gopal
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0805091793
Total Pages : 319 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis No Good Men Among the Living by : Anand Gopal

Download or read book No Good Men Among the Living written by Anand Gopal and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Told through the lives of three Afghans, the stunning tale of how the United States had triumph in sight in Afghanistan--and then brought the Taliban back from the dead In a breathtaking chronicle, acclaimed journalist Anand Gopal traces in vivid detail the lives of three Afghans caught in America's war on terror. He follows a Taliban commander, who rises from scrawny teenager to leading insurgent; a US-backed warlord, who uses the American military to gain personal wealth and power; and a village housewife trapped between the two sides, who discovers the devastating cost of neutrality. Through their dramatic stories, Gopal shows that the Afghan war, so often regarded as a hopeless quagmire, could in fact have gone very differently. Top Taliban leaders actually tried to surrender within months of the US invasion, renouncing all political activity and submitting to the new government. Effectively, the Taliban ceased to exist--yet the Americans were unwilling to accept such a turnaround. Instead, driven by false intelligence from their allies and an unyielding mandate to fight terrorism, American forces continued to press the conflict, resurrecting the insurgency that persists to this day. With its intimate accounts of life in war-torn Afghanistan, Gopal's thoroughly original reporting lays bare the workings of America's longest war and the truth behind its prolonged agony. A heartbreaking story of mistakes and misdeeds, No Good Men Among the Living challenges our usual perceptions of the Afghan conflict, its victims, and its supposed winners.

The Right Way to Lose a War

Author : Dominic Tierney
Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 0316254878
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (162 download)

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Book Synopsis The Right Way to Lose a War by : Dominic Tierney

Download or read book The Right Way to Lose a War written by Dominic Tierney and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why has America stopped winning wars? For nearly a century, up until the end of World War II in 1945, America enjoyed a Golden Age of decisive military triumphs. And then suddenly, we stopped winning wars. The decades since have been a Dark Age of failures and stalemates-in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan-exposing our inability to change course after battlefield setbacks. In this provocative book, award-winning scholar Dominic Tierney reveals how the United States has struggled to adapt to the new era of intractable guerrilla conflicts. As a result, most major American wars have turned into military fiascos. And when battlefield disaster strikes, Washington is unable to disengage from the quagmire, with grave consequences for thousands of U.S. troops and our allies. But there is a better way. Drawing on interviews with dozens of top generals and policymakers, Tierney shows how we can use three key steps-surge, talk, and leave-to stem the tide of losses and withdraw from unsuccessful campaigns without compromising our core values and interests. Weaving together compelling stories of military catastrophe and heroism, this is an unprecedented, timely, and essential guidebook for our new era of unwinnable conflicts. The Right Way to Lose a War illuminates not only how Washington can handle the toughest crisis of all-battlefield failure-but also how America can once again return to the path of victory.

The American War in Afghanistan

Author : Carter Malkasian
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197550797
Total Pages : 601 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis The American War in Afghanistan by : Carter Malkasian

Download or read book The American War in Afghanistan written by Carter Malkasian and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book Winner of 2022 Lionel Gelber Prize The first authoritative history of American's longest war by one of the world's leading scholar-practitioners. The American war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, is now the longest armed conflict in the nation's history. It is currently winding down, and American troops are likely to leave soon but only after a stay of nearly two decades. In The American War in Afghanistan, Carter Malkasian provides the first comprehensive history of the entire conflict. Malkasian is both a leading academic authority on the subject and an experienced practitioner, having spent nearly two years working in the Afghan countryside and going on to serve as the senior advisor to General Joseph Dunford, the US military commander in Afghanistan and later the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Drawing from a deep well of local knowledge, understanding of Pashto, and review of primary source documents, Malkasian moves through the war's multiple phases: the 2001 invasion and after; the light American footprint during the 2003 Iraq invasion; the resurgence of the Taliban in 2006, the Obama-era surge, and the various resets in strategy and force allocations that occurred from 2011 onward, culminating in the 2018-2020 peace talks. Malkasian lived through much of it, and draws from his own experiences to provide a unique vantage point on the war. Today, the Taliban is the most powerful faction, and sees victory as probable. The ultimate outcome after America leaves is inherently unpredictable given the multitude of actors there, but one thing is sure: the war did not go as America had hoped. Although the al-Qa'eda leader Osama bin Laden was killed and no major attack on the American homeland was carried out after 2001, the United States was unable to end the violence or hand off the war to the Afghan authorities, which could not survive without US military backing. The American War in Afghanistan explains why the war had such a disappointing outcome. Wise and all-encompassing, The American War in Afghanistan provides a truly vivid portrait of the conflict in all of its phases that will remain the authoritative account for years to come.

Not a Good Day to Die

Author : Sean Naylor
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101204613
Total Pages : 476 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Not a Good Day to Die by : Sean Naylor

Download or read book Not a Good Day to Die written by Sean Naylor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning combat journalist Sean Naylor reveals a firsthand account of the largest battle fought by American military forces in Afghanistan in an attempt to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. At dawn on March 2, 2002, America's first major battle of the 21st century began. Over 200 soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Division flew into Afghanistan's Shah-i-Kot Valley—and into the mouth of a buzz saw. They were about to pay a bloody price for strategic, high-level miscalculations that underestimated the enemy's strength and willingness to fight. Naylor, an eyewitness to the battle, details the failures of military intelligence and planning, while vividly portraying the astonishing heroism of these young, untested US soldiers. Denied the extra support with which they trained, these troops nevertheless proved their worth in brutal combat and prevented an American military disaster.

The Chosen Few

Author : Gregg Zoroya
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 0306824841
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (68 download)

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Book Synopsis The Chosen Few by : Gregg Zoroya

Download or read book The Chosen Few written by Gregg Zoroya and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The never-before-told story of one of the most decorated units in the war in Afghanistan and its fifteen-month ordeal that culminated in the 2008 Battle of Wanat, the war's deadliest A single company of US paratroopers--calling themselves the "Chosen Few"--arrived in eastern Afghanistan in late 2007 hoping to win the hearts and minds of the remote mountain people and extend the Afghan government's reach into this wilderness. Instead, they spent the next fifteen months in a desperate struggle, living under almost continuous attack, forced into a slow and grinding withdrawal, and always outnumbered by Taliban fighters descending on them from all sides. Month after month, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, and machine-gun fire poured down on the isolated and exposed paratroopers as America's focus and military resources shifted to Iraq. Just weeks before the paratroopers were to go home, they faced their last--and toughest--fight. Near the village of Wanat in Nuristan province, an estimated three hundred enemy fighters surrounded about fifty of the Chosen Few and others defending a partially finished combat base. Nine died and more than two dozen were wounded that day in July 2008, making it arguably the bloodiest battle of the war in Afghanistan. The Chosen Few would return home tempered by war. Two among them would receive the Medal of Honor. All of them would be forever changed.

The Hardest Place

Author : Wesley Morgan
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN 13 : 0812985222
Total Pages : 697 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (129 download)

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Book Synopsis The Hardest Place by : Wesley Morgan

Download or read book The Hardest Place written by Wesley Morgan and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 697 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: COLBY AWARD WINNER • “One of the most important books to come out of the Afghanistan war.”—Foreign Policy “A saga of courage and futility, of valor and error and heartbreak.”—Rick Atkinson, author of the Liberation Trilogy and The British Are Coming Of the many battlefields on which U.S. troops and intelligence operatives fought in Afghanistan, one remote corner of the country stands as a microcosm of the American campaign: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan. The area’s rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made it a natural hiding spot for local insurgents and international terrorists alike, and it came to represent both the valor and futility of America’s two-decade-long Afghan war. Drawing on reporting trips, hundreds of interviews, and documentary research, Wesley Morgan reveals the history of the war in this iconic region, captures the culture and reality of the conflict through both American and Afghan eyes, and reports on the snowballing missteps—some kept secret from even the troops fighting there—that doomed the American mission. The Hardest Place is the story of one of the twenty-first century’s most unforgiving battlefields and a portrait of the American military that fought there.

Mission Failure

Author : Michael Mandelbaum
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190469471
Total Pages : 505 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Mission Failure by : Michael Mandelbaum

Download or read book Mission Failure written by Michael Mandelbaum and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mission Failure argues that, in the past 25 years, the U.S. military has turned to missions that are largely humanitarian and socio-political - and that this ideologically-driven foreign policy generally leads to failure.