Two million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan

The Fighters: Americans in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. By C.J. Chivers. Simon & Schuster; 374 pages; $28 and £20.

“WE’RE here because we’re here. We’re here because another unit came here and set up, and we replaced them, and no one knows what else to do.” Such was Specialist Robert Soto’s summation of America’s military strategy in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan—otherwise known as “The Valley of Death”.

Specialist Soto had decided to enlist as a child, when he saw the rubble at Ground Zero in New York. As an FNG (“fucking new guy”) in the Korengal Valley in 2008, life was a far cry from the rhetoric of politicians and strategies of generals. The Taliban could hardly shoot straight. Yet America was not winning.

Some 2m Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11. C.J. Chivers, a former marine and Pulitzer-winning war correspondent for the New York Times, has done as much as any...

from The Economist: Books and arts https://ift.tt/2MmxvgS