000			03250dam a2200301 i 4500
001			0000370469
003			0001
008			221116s2021 nyuab b 001 0 eng
010			_a 2020011937
020			_a9780812995060 (hardback) _q(hardcover ; _qalk. paper)
020			_q(paperback ; _qalk. paper)
020			_z9780812995077 _q(ebook)
040			_aDLC _beng _erda _cDLC _dDLC
042			_apcc
082	0	0	_a958.104742 _223
084			_a958.104742 _bMOR-H _223
100	1		_aMorgan, Wesley, _eauthor.
245	1	4	_aThe hardest place _hBook : _bthe American military adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley / _cWesley Morgan.
250			_aFirst edition.
300			_axxvi, 644 pages, [8] unnumbered pages of plates : _billustrations, maps ; _c25 cm.
365			_a01 _b6,791.00
520			_a"When we think of the war in Afghanistan, chances are we're thinking of a small, remote corner of the country where American military action has been concentrated: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan provinces. The rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made the region a natural hiding spot for targets in the American war on terror, from Osama bin Laden to the Islamic State, and it has been the site of constant U.S. military activity for nearly two decades. Even as the U.S. presence in Afghanistan transitions to a drone war, the Pech has remained at the center of it, a testbed for a new method of remote warfare. Wesley Morgan, who grew up with the war, observing it closely, first visited the Pech in 2010, while he was still a college student embedding with military units as a freelancer. By then, the Pech and its infamous tributary the Korengal had become emblematic of the war, but Morgan found that few of the troops fighting there could explain how or when their remote outposts had been built. In The Hardest Place, he unravels the history those troops didn't know, captures the culture and reality of the war through both American and Afghan eyes, and reports on the snowballing American missteps that made each unit's job harder than the last as storied outfits like Marines, paratroopers, Rangers, Green Berets, and SEALs all took their turn. Through reporting trips, hundreds of interviews with Americans and Afghans, and documentary research, Morgan writes vividly of large-scale missions gone awry, years-long hunts for single individuals, and the soldiers, Marines, commandos, and intelligence operatives who cycle through, along with several who return again and again to the same slowly evolving fight. With these stories, he shows how the Pech Valley has long been a microcosm of the entire war. As the war drags on through its third presidential administration, Morgan concludes that we've created a status quo that could last forever in the Pech, always in search of the next target"-- _cProvided by publisher.
521			_aAll.
650		0	_aAfghan War, 2001-2021 _zAfghanistan _zPech Valley. _xCampaigns
650		0	_aAfghan War, 2001-2021 _zAfghanistan _zKorangal Valley. _xCampaigns
650		0	_aAfghan War, 2001-2021 _zAfghanistan _zKunar (Province) _xCampaigns
852			_p10001000062468 _96791.00 _vWorld Book Co. _dBooks
999			_c64361 _d64361