Marcus Luttrell / June 2007 / 389 pages / $24.99

Leading Petty Officer Luttrell takes us, blow-by-blow, through the brutal training of America's warrior elite and the relentless rites of passage required by the Navy SEALs. He transports us to a monstrous battle fought in the desolate peaks of Afghanistan.

Reading like a fast-paced thriller, this book throws you right inside the Navy SEALs training program in Coronado. You are with Marcus Luttrell throughout BUD/S and Hell Week. You fly with him and his teammates in a C-130 to the Hindu Kush, where the hunt begins for bin Laden's right-hand man. But then it all goes terribly wrong, up there in the desolate mountains of Afghanistan. The four U.S. Navy SEALs fought to the death against 150 armed Taliban in the Afghan mountains; only the author, Luttrell, managed to escape. 16 Navy Seals and Army special operations aviators were lost on a rescue mission as their Chinook helicopter crashed after being hit by enemy fire. According to the US Navy, Operation Redwing, resulted in the worst single day loss of life for Naval Special Warfare personnel since World War II. Two years later, the lone SEAL survivor pens this spellbinding, first-hand account, a heartbreaking, yet inspiring story of heroism, courage, and sacrifice of US servicemen. Luttrell's team leader Lt. Michael P. Murphy has been awarded Medal of Honor for his leadership and heroism in this battle.

This book is available in an
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The War I Always Wanted:

The Illusion of Glory and the Reality of War:
A Screaming Eagle in Afghanistan and Iraq

Brandon Friedman / 2007 / 254 pages / $24.95

This is the personal account of A "Screaming Eagle" in Afghanistan and Iraq. This a somewhat cynical, but appealing memoir by a lieutenant in the elite 101st Airborne recounts his unpleasant times fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. After a quick review of his youth (shy, smart, dreaming of glory), Friedman describes his unit's deployment to Afghanistan after 9/11 to fight the Taliban. Its mission turns out to be guarding an air base, four months of demoralizing boredom followed by urgent orders into battle. The result is an exhausting 11-hour march high into freezing mountains, where the soldiers arrive as the fighting ends. A year later, as American forces invade Iraq in March 2003, Friedman's unit advances almost to Baghdad without encountering resistance but yearning to fight. There follows three months of dull occupation duty until, to everyone's horror, a grenade kills two soldiers on patrol, and the insurgency begins. The author accepts that America needed to fight in Afghanistan, but can't fathom why we invaded Iraq. He does not re-enlist. Given the public's waning support for the war in Iraq, Friedman's voice is likely to be heard by sympathetic ears

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A General Speaks Out:

The Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong USMC (Ret.) /
3-2007 / 240 Pages / $14.95

Lt. General Mike DeLong, deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, was second only to General Tommy Franks in conducting the war on terror. From his vantage point at the center of discussions between President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Tommy Franks, General DeLong offers the frankest and most authoritative look yet inside the wars--how we prepared for battle, how we fought, how we toppled two regimes--and what's happening now on these two crucial fronts. His eye-opening account provides a much-needed insider's view of what's gone right, what's gone wrong, and what we need to do to succeed in this ever more perilous enterprise.

This book is available online at the Amazon bookstore.

Afghanistan

And the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare

Hy S. Rothstein / 2006 / 224 Pages / $26.95

Mr Rothstein, a writer with long experience in Special Forces operations, evinces exasperation with the failure of the U.S. political and military establishments to address the special demands of what he calls "unconventional warfare" and reaches critical conclusions about what might be required to do better. He analyzes Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to demonstrate the failure of the military to follow up after the defeat of Taliban and al Qaeda forces in a largely conventional encounter and its tendency to remain preoccupied with numbers of enemy captured and killed. His close attention to theories of organizational change and military culture leads him to despair of the U.S. Army's ability to adapt to new conditions -- and so he argues for a separate service for unconventional warfare.

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Canada in Afghanistan:

The War So Far

Peter Pigott / 2007 / 240 Pages / $35.00

Embedded with the Canadian Forces in Kandahar, Canadian Peter Pigott traces Afghanistan's ancient history to present-day media sound bites, meticulously incorporating Canadian involvement in the three Ds: Defense, Development, and Diplomacy. As the war escalates in Afghanistan, more Canadians are asking what we are doing there. For a country that has specialized in peacekeeping, this war is a shock - one that we have not yet comprehended. As the casualties mount, Canadians will want to know why we are there. Also included is an examination of a new strategic experiment - the Provincial Reconstruction Team and the technological advances used in this war. Cautionary predictions conclude the book. Canada in Afghanistan is an introduction to what is happening in Afghanistan and what we can expect through 2009.

This book is available online at the Amazon bookstore.