The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Fought for a New Afghanistan
By Eric Blehm
4/5
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About this ebook
"The one book you must read if you have any hope of understanding what our fine American soldiers are up against in Afghanistan.” —Former Congressman Charlie Wilson
From the author of the award-winning THE LAST SEASON, the untold story of the U.S. Army Special Forces team that conquered the Taliban against overwhelming odds while protecting Hamid Karzai, viewed at the time as the country’s best hope for a successful, democratically-elected leader.
On a moonless night just weeks after September 11, 2001, a U.S. Special Forces team of Green Berets known as ODA 574 infiltrated 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 could carry on their backs, shockingly scant intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, Captain Jason Amerine and his ten men had no choice but to trust their only ally, a little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai. Having returned from exile, Karzai—on the run from the Taliban—was traveling the countryside to raise 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.
Eric Blehm
Eric Blehm is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestsellers Fearless (soon to be a major motion picture) and The Only Thing Worth Dying For. His book The Last Season won the 2007 National Outdoor Book Award and was named by Outside magazine as one of the "greatest adventure biographies ever written."
Read more from Eric Blehm
The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Fought for a New Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Season Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for The Only Thing Worth Dying For
35 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic book that gives wonderful insight into what our military troops go through while trying to fight a war. Should be required reading.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5As per the author standards, or so is my impression having read Fearless, this one is right there on the verge of reading like a hagiography of 9/11 American heroes. Not as bad as a Fox News broadcast but deeply suspect of concealing the more obscure parts of the story ... almost everything is way too perfect, with just a couple of characters carrying all the blame when things go wrong. Who knows how things really happened on the ground.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A trilling story about war and the good fight but also a touching story about brotherhood, loss and grief.Elaborates on both the exciting part of war but also about the very, very awful parts of it.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Karzai was brought to power by a little-known group of 12 men. This is their story. These are the guys you want around when things go bad, the kind of men that nations are built upon. It is also a story of ham-handed bureaucratic mistakes (CIA and Air Force) and a terrible event that killed or maimed many of the men in the picture.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5awesome read.
I would recommend this to all Academy and Operators.