This was my first Kindle "Single" download, I guess I should have expected it to be article length, not a short book. But it's worth $1.99 to get an up close look at the hard work our soldiers are doing.
Cut to the chase: I'm a conservative, the author is a liberal. That being said, I found this short book to be very descriptive and informative. The author is a talented writer and paints vivid pictures with lasting imagery. The more I read about our deployments, the more I support our troops and question our government.
Part of this book describes an aid station. This station that Berenson visited has dealt with over 100 trauma cases (military and civilians), and they have had to put lots of our solders (or parts of our soldiers) into body bags. I know this because I am good friends with the Captain interviewed in Chapter IV. I would like to note that the author failed to include any of the positive things we have done to help the locals, my guess is that this is due to his personal bias. But he does not claim this book to be a documentary, it is an opinion piece, and it is a well-written one at that.
Yes, Afghanistan is a mess, and it happens to be the one war that President Obama supported, but our troops are doing the best they can given the rules of engagement they are forced to live by, and given the lack of will of the people they are trying to help. Afghanistan is a horribly corrupt and backwards society (in my opinion), at some point we have to ask ourselves, "why are we there?"
