Military Afghanistan

In 1958, Richard Nixon described Afghanistan as "unconquerable." On August 15, 2021, he was proven right. After twenty years of intervention, US and NATO forces retreated, enabling the Taliban to return to power. Tens of thousands were killed in the long, unwinnable war, and millions more were displaced—leaving the future of Afghanistan hanging in the balance. Leading expert Amin Saikal traces the full story of America's intervention, from 9/11 to the present crisis.

After being commissioned into the US Air Force, MJ Hegar was selected for pilot training by the Air National Guard, finished at the top of her class, then served three tours in Afghanistan flying combat search and rescue missions, culminating in a harrowing rescue attempt that would earn MJ the Purple Heart as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor Device. But it was on American soil that Hegar would embark on her greatest challenge - to eliminate the military's Ground Combat Exclusion Policy.

Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families.

The US military began its 20-year incursion in Afghanistan, quite simply, because of the jihadist attacks on September 11, 2001, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed. There was never any doubt in official Washington about who was responsible. On the same day the attacks took place, President George W. Bush ordered his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, to draw up plans to attack the jihad terror group al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, where the 9/11 hijackers had trained for their mission.

As part of an elite special operations unit at the fighting edge of the Global War on Terrorism, Nicholas Moore spent over a decade with the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. In this compelling biography, a detailed narrative of grueling life on the ground combines with accounts of some of the most dramatic search and rescue operations of the period to tell the true story of life on the line in the War on Terror.

"You will be a son, my daughter." With these stunning words Ukmina learned that she was to spend her childhood as a boy. In Afghanistan there is a widespread practice of girls dressing as boys to play the role of a son. These children are called bacha posh: literally "girls dressed as boys." This practice offers families the freedom to allow their child to shop and work - and in some cases, it saves them from the disgrace of not having a male heir. But in adolescence, religion restores the natural law.

Colonel Pat Proctor’s long overdue critique of the army’s preparation and outlook in the all-volunteer era focuses on a national security issue that continues to vex in the 21st century: Has the army lost its ability to win strategically by focusing on fighting conventional battles against peer enemies? Or can it adapt to deal with the greater complexity of counterinsurgent and information-age warfare?

This audiobook challenges several longstanding notions about the American way of war. It examines US military practice (strategic and operational) from the War of Independence to the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan to determine what patterns, if any, existed in the way Americans have used military force. Echevarria surveys all major US wars and most every small conflict in the country's military history.

War-organized violence against an enemy of the state-seems part and parcel of the American journey. Indeed, the United States was established by means of violence as ordinary citizens from New Hampshire to Georgia answered George Washington's call to arms. Since then, war has become a staple of American history. Counting the War for Independence, the United States has fought the armed forces of other nations at least twelve times, averaging a major conflict every twenty years.

Captain Benjamin Tupper spent a year in Afghanistan in an Embedded Training Team, tasked with training, leading in combat, and mentoring the Afghan Army to victory against the brutal Taliban. Writing and recording from a remote outpost, Tupper's dispatches were posted on the blog The Sandbox and broadcast on NPR, bringing vivid snapshots of America's longest ongoing war to a wide audience back home.

Eine wahre Geschichte über Mut und Kameradschaft, Versagen und Verzweiflung, Triumph und Trauer. Das bekannteste und folgenreichste Gefecht in der Geschichte der Bundeswehr fand am Karfreitag, dem 2. April 2010 bei Kunduz statt. Deutsche Soldaten gerieten in einen Hinterhalt und kämpften mehr als acht Stunden gegen eine Überzahl von Taliban. Drei Soldaten fielen, fünf wurden verwundet, sechs afghanische Soldaten kamen durch »friendly fire« der Deutschen ums Leben. Zwei Tage später benutzte Verteidigungsminister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg zum ersten Mal die Worte "Krieg in Afghanistan".

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.

On September 11, 2001, the United States faced the most devastating terrorist attack in world history when members of al-Qaeda, an Islamist fundamentalist movement, hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed them into buildings in New York and Washington, DC. Nearly 3,000 people died in these attacks, and one month later, US President George W. Bush announced the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, a military operation intended to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan and ensure that terrorists from al-Qaeda had no safe haven in that country.

When America retreated from Kabul amid chaos in 2021, Lieutenant General Sami Sadat, the last commander of the army of the Afghan republic, was still fighting to the end. In this firsthand account, he reveals how his troops were starved of ammunition for two years before the final pullout, while America was glad-handing the Taliban.

In early 2022, veteran journalist Andrew North was kidnapped by the Taliban. By the time he found himself imprisoned in a jail cell, he had been reporting from Afghanistan for two decades, coming to know hundreds of Afghans along the way. This book brings together both his and their stories.

During his first deployment to Afghanistan, Joseph Perez saw two angels above a friend who was about to go on a combat patrol. Moments later, his friend was struck by an improvised explosive device. This was the first of several times Perez would see angels in the spiritual realm. This book is not about him; rather, it is a message of hope and faith. Perez’s story shows that it’s okay to be a Christian no matter the circumstances. He always said if he got kicked out of the military for being open about his faith, then at least he would leave for the right reasons.

J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the US State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return home, while traveling the country to pay respect to the dead and wounded, he asked himself: When will these wars end? How will they be remembered and memorialized? What lessons can we learn from them?

Based on previously unavailable documents and interviews with more than 100 key players, including General David Petraeus, The Insurgents unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the main insurgency is the one led at home by a new generation of officers - including Petraeus, John Nagl, David Kilcullen, and H. R. McMaster - who were seized with an idea on how to fight these kinds of "small wars" and who adapted their enemies' techniques to overhaul their own army.

In Twilight Warriors, award-winning foreign correspondent James Kitfield introduces us to the tight-knit brotherhood that strives to keep the United States safe from the dimly understood threats it now faces. Together these men have broken down the boundaries between their respective agencies to engineer a network-centric way of fighting using a seamless web of intelligence analysts, information networks, FBI forensics experts, and Special Forces units to take the fight to America's enemies as never before.

Enno Lenze war auf dem Weg nach Butscha, als dieser Ort noch nicht als Synonym für russische Kriegsverbrechen galt. Er berichtet von der Front aus der Ukraine, vom Kampf gegen den IS in der Autonomen Region Kurdistan, von der Herrschaft der Taliban in Afghanistan, von Tränengasangriffen auf Studenten in Hongkong. Waffenmessen in Paris und Dubai sind ebenso sein Thema wie der versuchte Sturm des Bundestags durch Reichsbürger.