Horse Soldiers

The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan

By Doug Stanton

Recommended by Steve Applebaum

I finished this book Saturday night and in the Sunday New York Times in the Week in Review section was this article about Afghanistan, written by someone not mentioned in the book but apparently was in the battles described therein. Very interesting coincident. It just so happens I was reading this book almost to the day of the anniversary of their victory in Afghanistan in 2001.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/weekinreview/11baker.html

This is a fascinating story of a band of special forces soldiers sent into Afghanistan about a month after September 11, 2001. Highly skilled, highly trained, fearless men going behind enemy lines with stealth and the task of partnering with those already fighting the Taliban. This covert action was only acknowledged in the public media once the bombs started being dropped. Even then, the whole story was not released.

This is a well crafted story about an absolutely essential point in our history that we are clearly still dealing with today. The beautifully executed, targeted campaign still leaves us with many problems eight years later in Afghanistan as the Taliban has slowly returned.

The other very interesting thing to me was how much this mirrored Pressfield's book about Alexander the Great fighting against the Afghan people. There is something about the people and the terrain that just can't be beat in any traditional way we talk about winning a war. It is a very challenging idea.

A side story woven throughout is the story of John Walker Lindh, the young kid from Marin County, CA who got mixed up with the Taliban and picked up by this band of warriors.

The story is full of heroism, although none of them would like to hear me say that. It is just an amazing, well told story of a group of guys fighting for their country.

Why the horses? Most men had never been on a horse. Special forces had not trained them to be cavalry. But this handful of specialists dropped into Afghanistan and had to get from point A to point B, the only way to do so was on horseback. Awesome story!

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