Military Afghanistan

Most scholars and analysts believe that the primary cause of our abysmal war record since Vietnam has been the US military’s overwhelmingly conventional approach to conflict, which favors kinetic operations, highly mobile precision firepower, and sophisticated systems of command and control. Here, James Warren argues that a much more formidable obstacle to success has been pervasive strategic ineptitude at the highest levels of decision-making, including the presidency, the national security council, and the foreign policy community in DC.

Over one million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past four years, but fewer than 500 from this group have earned a Silver Star, Navy Cross, Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Cross, or the Medal of Honor. Those who have been awarded these distinguished honors all demonstrated an extraordinary courage under fire in the worst of circumstances.

In the unforgiving landscape of Afghanistan's Tangi Valley, a military base tells its own extraordinary story. Neither human nor fully inanimate, this “square of dirt” becomes a sentient witness to the brutal rhythms of war, listening intently to the soldiers who build and inhabit it. From American soldiers wrestling with fear and purpose to Afghan troops left to defend an increasingly untenable position, from quiet moments of vulnerability to explosive confrontations, the base observes everything—collecting stories, counting losses, and understanding the futility of conflict in ways ...

Returning from the Pacific on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, a four-man SEAL Team is looking forward to a spell of R and R. The Pentagon has other ideas. An NSA agent is missing, kidnapped by terrorists, which is bad. He was carrying an unencrypted laptop loaded with details of US operations in the Gulf. Which is a catastrophe. Rod Cooper’s Team is tasked to get it back. As if the interruption to their well-deserved spell of leave couldn’t be worse, they discover the kidnappers, Shabbab, are based in Mogadishu, Somalia. Scene of previous US debacles, and infested with extreme ...

World affairs expert and intrepid travel journalist Robert D. Kaplan braved the dangers of war-ravaged Afghanistan in the 1980s, living among the mujahidin-the "soldiers of god"-whose unwavering devotion to Islam fueled their mission to oust the formidable Soviet invaders. In Soldiers of God, we follow Kaplan's extraordinary journey and learn how the thwarted Soviet invasion gave rise to the ruthless Taliban and the defining international conflagration of the twenty-first century.

In War Dogs, Rebecca Frankel offers a riveting mix of on-the-ground reporting, her own hands-on experiences in the military working dog world, and a look at the science of dogs' special abilities - from their amazing noses and powerful jaws to their enormous sensitivity to the emotions of their human companions. The history of dogs in the U.S. military is long and rich, from the spirit-lifting mascots of the Civil War to the dogs who lead patrols hunting for IEDs today.

Lance Corporal Jeff Bodell recounts his harrowing experiences as a member of a Police Mentor Team during the brutal Battle of Marjah in 2010. In the scorching Afghan heat, amidst the chaos and bloodshed, this gripping first-person narrative unveils the raw realities of war and the unbreakable camaraderie forged in the crucible of combat. Join Bodell and the resilient members of Shadow One-Four as they confront a relentless Taliban force, fighting not only for survival but for the brotherhood that binds them.

You don't have to be killed in action to be a casualty of war. Medics Paul Adams and Lizzie Jarman are one of the most welcome sights to injured soldiers in the war-torn poppy fields of Afghanistan. With red crosses on their arms and medical equipment strapped to their backs, they thunder into battle in a Chinook helicopter – straight into areas everyone else is desperate to get away from. In the middle of the fiercest fighting British troops have seen since the Falklands War, the medics are the last defence from death on the ground in some corner of a foreign field. But in Afghanistan, ...

Frank K. Sobchak explores security force assistance across five case studies, examining what factors were most critical for U.S. Special Forces units to build capable partners

From the author of The Noah Hunter series. Serve in the Shadows: Recruitment While on deployment in Afghanistan, Master Sergeant Derek Lawson of the 75th Ranger Regiment received a warning, barely in time to avoid a bullet from a hidden sniper. After a confused and thankful Derek looked for the person, there was no one to be found. Back at base camp, the master sergeant received news that his brother, Grant Lawson, was killed. Grant, a CIA officer, was murdered while he gathered pertinent information for a critically sensitive mission that involved a former Afghanistan bomb-maker coerced ...

Fresh out of high school, Kelsi Sheren, a diminutive nineteen-year-old woman, sought to join the military to help liberate those oppressed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. While she was often the smallest person in basic training, she proved she had the biggest heart and often the most energy. She made it to Afghanistan and joined a British military unit for house-to-house insurgent patrol. What she saw there was unimaginable death and destruction.

When the U.S. Air Force decided to create an elite "special tactics" team in the late 1970s to work with special-operations forces, John T. Carney was the man they turned to. Now, for the first time, Colonel Carney lifts the veil of secrecy and reveals what really goes on inside the special-operations forces that are at the forefront of contemporary warfare.

Not even old enough to drink, Corporal Savannah Cannon is a young enlisted United States Marine deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2010. As a tactical data networking specialist, she is sent away from everyone she knows and attached to a Regimental Combat Team where women are not allowed to repair communications. Her experiences over the next few months shed light on the unique and difficult positions women are placed in when supporting combat roles, while offering a raw look at the painful choices women must sometimes make.

Rafe Stoner is a gun for hire, a former Navy SEAL whose skills are in constant demand in his adopted home of Afghanistan. His legitimate business is selling surplus machinery, or so his tax return states. His real work is less prosaic, and makes him a good living from a grateful client base. The removal of inconvenient rivals is a way of life in the violent and war-torn nation.

Following September 11, the United States successfully overthrew the Taliban regime. It established security throughout the country, and Afghanistan finally began to emerge from more than two decades of conflict. But Jones argues that, as early as 2001, planning for the Iraq War siphoned off resources and talented personnel, undermining the gains that had been made. After eight years, the United States had pushed al-Qaeda’s headquarters about one hundred miles across the border into Pakistan.

Previously published as Horse Soldiers, 12 Strong is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered 40 to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn.

Afghanistan: Bei einem Hinterhalt durch Taliban-Milizen wird fast das komplette Team von Navy-SEAL-Kommandant James Reece ausgelöscht. Geplagt von Schuldgefühlen kehrt er in die Heimat zurück. Doch nun muss er erleben, wie weitere Menschen aus seinem engsten Umfeld unter mysteriösen Umständen sterben. Wie sich herausstellt, litten alle Verstorbene an Hirntumoren. Schnell wird klar, dass keine feindliche Macht hinter den Anschlägen steckt, sondern machtgierige und skrupellose Amerikaner. Die Spur der Verschwörung führt bis in die höchsten Regierungskreise.

When Lyle Jeremy Rubin first arrived at Marine Officer Candidates School, he was convinced that the “war on terror” was necessary to national security. He also subscribed to a strict code of manhood that military service conjured and perpetuated. Then he began to train and his worldview shattered. Honorably discharged five years later, Rubin returned to the United States with none of his beliefs, about himself or his country, intact.

Entre 1979 y 1989 un millón de tropas soviéticas combatieron en una guerra devastadora en Afganistán que provocó más de 50.000 bajas y acabó con la juventud y la humanidad de varias decenas de miles de soldados más. Los muertos soviéticos volvían a casa en ataúdes de zinc sellados mientras el estado no reconocía ni la mera existencia del conflicto. Svetlana Alexievich expone la verdad de la guerra afgano-soviética: la belleza del país y los abusos del ejército, las muertes y las mutilaciones, la profusión de productos occidentales, las vidas destrozadas de los veteranos.

Senior Chief Turbo, Memoir of a Navy SEAL K-9 recounts the life of a military working dog named Turbo, from his birth in Holland and participation in Dutch police dog (KNPV) trials, to training with a Navy SEAL dog handler and joining him for two combat deployments to Afghanistan. Written from a dog's unique perspective, and based on actual, first-hand accounts of a SEAL handler-dog team, Senior Chief Turbo illustrates the bonds of loyalty and friendship that drive all warriors.