(Part 3) Best afghan war biographies according to redditors
We found 265 Reddit comments discussing the best afghan war biographies. We ranked the 95 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
If you really want sad https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CBJY0AE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Taking turns on and off the glass and having a spotter to see different things and range the target or help make wind call adjustments. Being on the glass causes fatigue. You'd have thought they'd have brought a ground pad for comfort.
Source - read the book written by Brandon Webb called Red Circle, the development of the SEALs independent sniper program adapted from their Marine Corps training.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Red-Circle-Americas-Deadliest/dp/B00AZ8AAC0
https://www.amazon.com/Thank-You-Service-Mat-Best-ebook/dp/B07Q3NMVHY
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And this is where Mat Best jumped the shark from being a slightly goofy youtuber hawking cringey t-shirts into the patron saint of bro vet douchebaggery.
This guy did it, then led an Infantry platoon in Afghanistan, and wrote a pretty solid book.
Yeah, I read the entire article and seen that interview, along with multiple books on the topic, which go into far more depth than a couple of agenda driven articles/reporters.
And yes, I've read Scahill's Blackwater and Dirty Wars.
http://www.amazon.com/Blackwater-Rise-Worlds-Powerful-Mercenary-ebook/dp/B0097CYTYA
http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Wars-The-World-Battlefield-ebook/dp/B00B3M3TS4/ref=pd_sim_351_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51dkyNcRAWL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_OU01_AC_UL160_SR105%2C160_&refRID=1H586DVK9BET6N9HYRN7
Seen the documentary too, it doesn't cover everything...
I've also read Prince's book Civilian Warriors.
http://www.amazon.com/Civilian-Warriors-Inside-Blackwater-Unsung-ebook/dp/B00E5UJAG6/ref=pd_sim_351_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=517qP%2BPVBeL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_OU01_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=1H586DVK9BET6N9HYRN7
He's surprisingly open about the companies short comings.
I've also read the The Bremer Detail: Protecting the Most Threatened Man in the World
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bremer-Detail-Protecting-Threatened-ebook/dp/B00LUA02OI/ref=pd_sim_351_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51xoGU9WypL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_OU01_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=05HMC7F4FAZ3NG51NHDJ
I've also read what the military community says, those who actually served alongside Blackwater in the field, including articles and dialogue with the authors at SOFREP, and an interview with Eric Prince himself with the guys at SOFREP on their podcast, which is worth a listen.
https://sofrep.com/31444/founder-of-blackwater-erik-prince-civilian-warriors/
https://sofrep.com/sofrep-radio/episode-80-exclusive-erik-prince-former-seal-founder-blackwater/
https://sofrep.com/14189/the-next-mercenary-gold-rush-sub-saharan-africa-erik-prince/
You can read the 3 part series on the Rise of Private Military Security Companies here:
https://sofrep.com/44960/the-rise-of-private-military-security-companies/
https://sofrep.com/44961/rise-private-military-security-companies-pt-2/
https://sofrep.com/44963/rise-private-military-security-companies-pt-3/
I've also read Big Boy Rules by Steve Fainaru which is good starter book if are looking for more information. It's pretty even handed about the good and the bad regarding PMC's in Iraq.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Boy-Rules-Americas-Mercenaries-ebook/dp/B001M5JV98/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1458860678&sr=1-1&keywords=big+boy+rules
Like everything, the truth is somewhere in the middle. I'm not defending everything the BW has done, and there are more reputable companies like Triple Canopy, but this idea that ALL Blackwater employees are blood thirsty lions devouring sheep everywhere they go is just laughable.
Unbelievably, Nicholas Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder, implying that the killing was both willful and premeditated. In order to believe this, one must believe that this was somehow all planned by Slatten, which is ridiculous.
Look, I’m not going to pretend that I know all of the details about this case, because I wasn’t there. But to throw these guys in the middle of a combat zone, and then expect perfection, is absurd. Because that’s what this is: Our government is asking them to be perfect, which is impossible in war.
So the U.S. State Department abandoned their contractors to be prosecuted. What about their supervisors at the state department? What about the Regional Security Officers? What about the people responsible for putting them in that situation to begin with? Where are the consequences for them? As usual, the shit sandwich rolls downhill and the guys at the bottom are the only ones who get to take a big bite.
Ironically, the same people, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton included, who were so critical of Blackwater, continued to push contracts to the company under a different name. This proves how much we’ve come to rely on the private and flexible services offered by modern-day PMCs and how effective they were at keeping US HVT's safe (including ambassadors, CIA agents, heads of state, etc).
One mistake in Baghdad in 2007 meant that you, your client, and everyone else in the car was dead. Say what you will about Blackwater: Under their watch, they never lost an American diplomat, which is more than we can say for the rest of the State Department.
Edit: You'll notice nothing ever came from this 2009 report by Scahill, or the Times or the Post. 7 years later and nothing. All were grasping at some very thin straws. Furthermore, the CIA has designated authorized teams that do this type of work, that receive complete top cover, including the Ground Branch teams in the Special Activities Division and the guys at JSOC. They have no need for Blackwater to do this kind of work. Or they can "rent" Delta or ST6, so the entire idea that they needed Blackwater to run kill missions is kind of ridiculous.
>if i call the police i want two muscled rugged men to answer my door
That's not exactly an accurate description of a lot of the men, for what it's worth.
>i just dont think women belong in the military
There's a few parts to this.
A.) Something like 90% of the military is office/non-combat work. Nothing particularly required to be Thor to play with Excel spreadsheets or radios all day.
B.) The Army's finally getting on the right track with this with the ostensible introduction of the ACFT, but I think sex-segregated PT standards need to go, in favor of a by-job mark. The ACFT is designed to accomplish this.
C.) Assuming they can meet the same physical requirements, I don't see why arbitrarily restricting women from combat arms roles amounts to much. Combat arms jobs were first opened up in 2015 officially, but via Cultural Support/Female Engagement Teams there's been female presence in some way in combat arms operations since way earlier
in GWOT.
(Ashley's War is a fantastic read on what a lot of people don't actually realize.)
tl;dr
I don't think eliminating women from the military is at all a good idea, and definitely not one with merit.
Dude you're miles ahead of me and I still have the 40lbs of fat to lose. You've got what it takes just focus on your swimming. When I first started swimming freestyle I couldn't make it past a lap without getting extremely tired, and it turned out that I just needed to exhale slowly underwater till i turned for a breath. I went from that to doing 500m in about a week. I would recommened reading Never Quit ,None Braver, Black Hawk Down I would recommend watching inside combat rescue, and then Rescue Warriors which actually follows a class through indoc and some of the follow on training. Get your EMT-B for a test of the medicine while you're working on your swim. I'm taking the time to get my EMT-P (paramedic) while I work on my run/swim times and remaining fat. Learn what you can where you can and put in that work. I'm sure after looking into it you'll find the answer of whether you have it in you to do it all. I know I sent you a lot but let me tell you when it's your passion, no amount of information seems like enough.
I read a lot of war history. This month I knocked out 3 solid books.
Band of Brothers I really enjoyed this book even though the war is a bit romanticized.
With The Old Breed a very in-depth document of the war in the Pacific from E.B. Sledge, a Marine mortarman.
Dagger 22 this one accounts the second half of a MARSOC deployment to Bala Murghab, Afghanistan. It is the sequel to Level Zero Heroes.
THIS IS A CONTINUATION OF MY ORIGINAL COMMENT.
WAS UNABLE TO FIT ALL OF MY RESOURCES IN THE FIRST TWO COMMENTS.
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INFORMATIVE MEDIA
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The 10 Part Pulitzer Prize winnng series Beyond the Battlefield:
[No Easy Day] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008MG1E4A/ref=aw_ls_2_3?colid=Q1SMEPUA12S4&coliid=I2TUB0QUP95YDT)
Thanks for the contest!
The 10th Mountain Division has seen a lot of service in Afghanistan. This book is the author's account of his 16 months in Afghanistan with the 10th:
https://smile.amazon.com/Outlaw-Platoon-Renegades-Brotherhood-Afghanistan/dp/B007EJSJX0/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=outlaw+platoon&qid=1571801609&sr=8-1
You should also check out The Things They Cannot Say
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002XW28EO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
"Global War on Terror (GWOT) was known by those who fought it for long periods of boredom, punctuated by masturbation and enemy fire."
Seriously, there are so many viewpoints and critiques of the GWOT and implications of such an effort and progressing, globalizing world that Google really is your friend.
To give you only bullet points would be unfair. But I will toss a few good book links below.
http://www.amazon.com/Taliban-Militant-Fundamentalism-Central-Edition/dp/0300163681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405913163&sr=8-1&keywords=taliban
http://www.amazon.com/American-Spartan-Promise-Mission-Betrayal/dp/0062114980/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405913151&sr=8-1&keywords=american+spartan
http://www.amazon.com/Horse-Soldiers-Extraordinary-Victory-Afghanistan/dp/1416580522/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405913294&sr=8-2&keywords=horse+soldiers
http://www.amazon.com/In-Graveyard-Empires-Americas-Afghanistan/dp/0393338517/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405913285&sr=8-1&keywords=graveyard+of+empires
I just read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Spartan-Promise-Mission-Betrayal/dp/0062114980
I highly recommend it, it provides a lot of insights on the Pashtun people, how the Taliban gained power with them, and why the U.S. military (or any other faction in history) has been unable to successfully integrate the Pashtun people.
Basically they have a very strict (and ancient) moral code not easily understood by outsiders. They are also very, very poor, even by Afghanistan/Pakistan standards. Their land doesn't support much agriculture. They are also very prideful of their weapons and basically believe you aren't a man without your gun. Whoever gives them weapons gains their favor (Taliban), whoever takes their weapons away (U.S. Military) dishonors them incredibly.
The book details the real life efforts of a U.S. Army Special Forces (aka Green Beret) Major to integrate with the Pashtuns, learn their culture, and get them to work with the US to force the Taliban out. He was very successful, but unfortunately he turned out to be a bit crazy and had problems with alcohol and drugs. The U.S. Army was more concerned with saving face and following strict military doctrine than following the tactics of a crazy lone-wolf soldier, even if they were successful. So they booted him out eventually.
Edit: Forgot to add, this book makes it very clear that Pashtun = Talbian is not the rule. It sounds like this point is being lost in this discussion a little bit.
Looks like we all read the same books. I know Donovan Campbell's Joker One has already been mentioned, but if you enjoyed Fick's writing you might like The Unforgiving Minute by Craig Mullaney and The Heart and the Fist by Eric Greitens. Also, an honorable mention for Paul Rieckhoff's Chasing Ghosts.
Another really good book by a Medal of Honor recipient is Red Platoon by Clinton Romesha. Romesha was the leader of one of the infantry platoons at COP Keating when it was overrun in October of 2009. It is frightening how set up for failure that COP was.
I tried and I tried to force my way through Pagans by James M. O'Donnell; I don't know if it was the way it was originally written or the narrator, but I realized about 30% of the way through it that I found myself listening to anything else. I hate to give up on a book, but the idea of listening any more was torture, so I threw that book onto the "Not Completed" list.
https://smile.amazon.com/Pagans-Traditional-Religion-Rise-Christianity/dp/B074KMMV6G
I replaced it with Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer, and I have been flying through that. Krakauer nicely juxtaposes Pat's life and the Afghan community near his birthplace and the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan throughout Pat's formative years, coming to a head in 2001.
I find it thoroughly engrossing.
https://smile.amazon.com/Where-Men-Win-Glory-Odyssey/dp/B002P9T8CA
Yeah, it is a particularly interesting statistic, but all MoHs are given for sacrificing oneself to save others. If you'd like to read more amazing stories about amazing people, this is a great book about recent MoH winners from Afghanistan and Iraq that I think everybody should read.
I really liked Captive.
It's surprising to me that some reviewers are giving it negative reviews. I felt it was short and kept me engaged through the entire book. It's one of the easiest non-fiction reads I've ever had.
http://www.robertjoneill.com
https://www.amazon.com/Operator-Firing-Shots-Killed-Warrior/dp/B01N7YU0QW/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1M7K7ZRKEV5QE&keywords=the+operator+robert+o%27neill&qid=1567396250&s=books&sprefix=The+Operator%2Caps%2C136&sr=1-2