Fighting the Forever War : The U.S. Service Member Experience in Afghanistan, 2001-2014

"During two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, U.S. service members confronted numerous challenges in their mission to secure the country from the threat of al-Qaeda and the Taliban and assist in rebuilding efforts. Because the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan occurred simultaneously, much of the American public conflated them or failed to notice the Afghanistan War; and most of the war's archival material remains classified and closed to civilian researchers. Drawing on interviews and letters home, this book relates the Afghanistan War through the experiences of American troops, with firsthand accounts of both combat and humanitarian operations, the environment, living conditions and interactions with the locals"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Acknowledgments 7 Preface 8 Introduction 11 1. First Impressions 22 2. Living Spaces 43 3. Getting to Know the Locals 69 4. Patrols and Combat 91 5. Air War 122 6. Embedded Trainers 144 7. Working with the Afghans 162 8. Surge and ­Draw-Down 180 9. Meaning and Memory 196 Conclusion 209 Glossary 216 Chapter Notes 218 Bibliography 246 Index 256