Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Book Review: The Only Thing Worth Dying For, by Eric Blehm


Book Review from Barnes and Noble:

On a moonless night just weeks after September 11, 2001, U.S. Special Forces team ODA 574 infiltrates the mountains of southern Afghanistan with a seemingly impossible mission: to foment a tribal revolt and force the Taliban to surrender. Armed solely with the equipment they can carry on their backs, shockingly scant intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, Captain Jason Amerine and his men have no choice but to trust their only ally, a little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai who has returned from exile and is being hunted by the Taliban as he travels the countryside raising a militia.

The Only Thing Worth Dying For chronicles the most important mission in the early days of the Global War on Terror, when the men on the ground knew little about the enemy—and their commanders in Washington knew even less. With unprecedented access to surviving members of ODA 574, key war planners, and Karzai himself, award-winning author Eric Blehm cuts through the noise of politicians and high-level military officials to narrate for the first time a story of uncommon bravery and terrible sacrifice, intimately exposing the realities of unconventional warfare and nation-building in Afghanistan that continue to shape the region today.

Note: Chapter IX members Dennis Holloway and Brad Guile first met Jason Amerine when he was assigned to SFOD A-512 1/5th SFG(A) for OJT between his third and fourth year at West Point. Both thought highly of him then and were glad to see him make it into SF, which was very fortunate for 5th SFG(A) and unfortunate for the Taliban.