Military Afghanistan

The first rule of warfare is to know one's enemy. The second is to know thyself. More than 15 years and three quarters of a trillion dollars after the US invasion of Afghanistan, it's clear that the United States followed neither rule well. America's goals in Afghanistan were lofty to begin with: dismantle al Qaeda, remove the Taliban from power, and remake the country into a democracy.

On 11 September 2001 19 al-Qaeda-inspired jihadists hijacked four aircraft and mounted the deadliest terrorist attack in history. The outrage triggered a chain of events that saw British forces drawn into a lengthy military campaign against a fierce insurgency in Afghanistan. Sergio Miller served in Defence Intelligence in Whitehall throughout the campaign, and Pride and Fall answers the many questions surrounding the conflict. Based on abundant open-source material generated by the war and first-hand testimonies, this is the story of the men and women who served.

The war in Vietnam is over. Yet the descendants of those who fought there are pulled into a new war - a war in a country whose name has come to mean unending conflict, unending brutality, and unending killing: Afghanistan. Into this tortured land flies the civilian pilot Max Hoffman. Out of luck and out of money, he is easy prey to the CIA, who recruits him to join its hidden war. Hoffman soon discovers the American intelligence officers have a hidden agenda - personal gain and profit at any cost.

In the dead of night, on the morning of March 21, 2003 a team of 12 highly-trained U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers aboard three Special Operations Chinook helicopters, flying at low-altitude, watched in awe as a barrage of Tomahawk missiles, launched from ships in the Red Sea, flew less than 300 feet over their aircraft on the way toward Baghdad, Iraq. It was the opening “Shock and Awe” salvo of the Invasion of Iraq and the soldiers of 5th Special Forces Group’s Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 551 were about to be dropped off for one of the most critical missions of the war.

The Westland Apache AH Mk 1 is the deadliest, most technically advanced helicopter in the world - and only the top two per cent of pilots even make it through the training. In 2007, Ed's Apache squadron was dispatched to Helmand, Afghanistan. Their mission: to protect the men on the ground. So when a marine goes missing in action during an attack on a Taliban stronghold, Ed and his team know they are the Army's only hope of getting him out.

Rafe Stoner, a former Navy SEAL, leads a cruel existence as a gun for hire in Afghanistan. After the brutal killing of his fiancée, he vowed a brutal revenge. A revenge that littered the landscape with the bodies of those responsible. Now he learns his work is not over. A wealthy, young Afghan woman holds the key to the identity of the Taliban commander who ordered the murder. Stoner sets out with his ally, Greg Blum, to hunt down the last of the guilty men.

In July 2009 Geraint (Gez) Jones was sitting in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, with the rest of The Firm - Danny, Jay, Toby and Jake, his four closest friends, all junior NCOs and combat-hardened infantrymen. Thanks to the mangled remains of a Jackal vehicle left tactlessly outside their tent, IEDs were never far from their mind. Within days they’d be on the ground in Musa Qala with the rest of 3 Platoon - a mixed bunch of men Gez would die for.

In the summer of 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts organized a series of writing workshops, led by prominent authors, to encourage U.S. troops and their families to record their experiences and reflections on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The result is this extraordinary volume of first-hand letters, poems, journals, memoirs, and e-mails from the men and women directly involved in battle and their families back home.

By placing the reader at the heart of the American counterinsurgency effort, Grindle reveals little-known incidents, including the failure of expensive aid programs to target local needs, the slow throttling of local government as official funds failed to reach the districts, and the United States’ inexplicable failure to empower the Afghan local officials even after they succeeded in bringing the people onto their side. Grindle presents the side of the hard-working Afghans who won the war and expresses what they really thought of the U.S. military and its decisions. Written by a former field officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, this story of dashed hopes and missed opportunities details how America’s desire to leave the war behind ultimately overshadowed its desire to sustain victory.

The rugged routes to Kabul teemed with worldwide youth in search of cheap drugs and enlightenment. With the idyllic dreamers came hard core criminals. Sent to Kabul to take on the criminals was Federal Narcotics Agent, Terrence Burke. Working undercover, often without backup, Burke dismantled smuggling operations in Afghanistan and India. The issues he portrays in Afghanistan are still confronting us today.

Farzana had been banned from attending school as a child, but education would take her further than she could have imagined. Bilal's dream of becoming a journalist was about to come true, but it would also expose him to untold danger. Abdul was on the cusp of finally becoming a doctor after his studies were delayed by years of war. Jahan's shoe-shine business was beginning to take a completely unexpected turn. And Naqibullah's life in a quiet province was soon to be shattered by the arrival of Western forces.

From Afghanistan's Hindu Kush peaks and sunbaked Helmand Valley to Baghdad, Mosul and Ramadi in Iraq, American snipers have braved heart-pounding situations to hit their human targets dead-on. Few military feats stir the imagination like the image of a pair of riflemen waiting quietly in a building, a bomb crater, or a mountain pass for a Taliban or Al Qaeda fighter to walk into their crosshairs. Sniper presents real-life tales from the military's frontline snipers---their hits and their misses, the anguish of loss, and the anxiety of the first kill.

In July 2009 Geraint (Gez) Jones was sitting in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, with the rest of The Firm - Danny, Jay, Toby and Jake, his four closest friends, all junior NCOs and combat-hardened infantrymen. Thanks to the mangled remains of a Jackal vehicle left tactlessly outside their tent, IEDs were never far from their mind. Within days they’d be on the ground in Musa Qala with the rest of 3 Platoon - a mixed bunch of men Gez would die for.

Plunging deep into midst of some of the hottest conflicts on the globe, Robert D. Kaplan takes us through mud and jungle, desert and dirt to the men and women on the ground who are leading the charge against threats to American security. These soldiers, fighting in thick Colombian jungles or on dusty Afghani plains, are the forefront of the new American foreign policy, a policy being implemented one soldier at a time.

Snipers work in pairs so relationship and trust are all important. Snipers are elite soldiers and clearly the author is among the best of the best. A Sniper's Conflict is a superb account of professional soldiering at the sharp end....

Convinced in 1838 that Britain's invaluable empire in India was threatened by Russia, Persia, and Afghan tribes, the British government ordered its Army of the Indus into Afghanistan to oust from power the independent-minded king, Dost Mohammed, and install in Kabul the unpopular puppet ruler Shah Shuja. Expecting a quick campaign, the British found themselves trapped by unforeseen circumstances; eventually the tribes united and the seemingly omnipotent army was slaughtered in 1842 as it desperately retreated through the mountain passes from Kabul to Jalalabad.

The Navy SEALs are the world's most elite warriors, trained to face the impossible. When Bravo Platoon, SEAL Team 7, is sent deep into the heart of Afghanistan, their mission is clear: eliminate a high-value target. But what they uncover changes everything—a terrifying plot to unleash a nuclear weapon that could devastate thousands of lives on American soil. Leading the charge is Chief Petty Officer Kyle Nolan, a battle-hardened leader haunted by personal tragedy. Still reeling from his wife's murder, Nolan’s resilience is tested as doubts about his readiness simmer beneath the surface....

On June 30, 2009, Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl left his post in eastern Afghanistan, about 25 miles from the Pakistani border. He was quickly captured by local tribesmen, who sold him up the Taliban's chain of command. In May 2014, after almost five years in captivity - the longest held and most brutalised prisoner of war since Vietnam - he was released. Within hours, however, some of Bergdahl's former platoon mates were denouncing him as a deserter. Bergdahl admits walking away from his guard post of his own volition. But what is the truth: is Bowe Bergdahl a traitor or a hero?

Lieutenant Kyle Nolan leads an elite unit of US Navy SEALs. Until he and Petty Officer John-Wesley Ryder are benched, accused of a two murders. Crimes they didn’t commit. Their boss, Admiral Jacks, wants them out of the country while he looks for answers to prove their innocence. The only mission available means escorting a State Department courier to Syria. He will be carrying a case filled with cash to prop up the PKK, the Kurdish resistance army. Syria, a Middle Eastern nightmare. A nation at war with more conflicting armies than any sane man can count. From the moment they land, they ...

In July 2009, Geraint (Gez) Jones was sitting in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan with the rest of The Firm – Danny, Jay, Toby and Jake, his four closest friends, all junior NCOs and combat-hardened infantrymen. Thanks to the mangled remains of a Jackal vehicle left tactlessly outside their tent, IEDs were never far from their mind. Within days they’d be on the ground in Musa Qala with the rest of 3 Platoon – a mixed bunch of men Gez would die for.