The Only Thing Worth Dying For

Description

On a moonless night just weeks after September 11, 2001, U.S. Special Forces team ODA 574 infiltrates the mountains of southern Afghanistan with a seemingly impossible mission: to foment a tribal revolt and force the Taliban to surrender. Armed solely with the equipment they can carry on their backs, shockingly scant intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, Captain Jason Amerine and his men have no choice but to trust their only ally, a little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai who has returned from exile and is being hunted by the Taliban as he travels the countryside raising a militia.The Only Thing Worth Dying For chronicles the most important mission in the early days of the Global War on Terror, when the men on the ground knew little about the enemy—and their commanders in Washington knew even less. With unprecedented access to surviving members of ODA 574, key war planners, and Karzai himself, award-winning author Eric Blehm cuts through the noise of politicians and high-level military officials to narrate for the first time a story of uncommon bravery and terrible sacrifice, intimately exposing the realities of unconventional warfare and nation-building in Afghanistan that continue to shape the region today.

Description

The author exposes the realities of unconventional warfare and nation-building in Afghanistan in this chronicle of one of the most important military mission in the early days of the Global War on Terror--ODA 574--wherein a Special Forces team infiltrated the mountains of southern Afghanistan, fomented a tribal revolt, and forced the Taliban to surrender.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Only Thing Worth Dying ForElectronic resourceHarperCollins2010-01-01
• The Only Thing Worth Dying ForHardcoverHarper2010-01-19