"The one book you must read if you have any hope of understanding what
our fine American soldiers are up against in Afghanistan." --Former
Congressman Charlie Wilson
From the author of the award-winning THE LAST SEASON, the untold story
of the U.S. Army Special Forces team that conquered the Taliban against
overwhelming odds while protecting Hamid Karzai, viewed at the time as
the country's best hope for a successful, democratically-elected
leader.
On a moonless night just weeks after September 11, 2001, a U.S. Special
Forces team of Green Berets known as ODA 574 infiltrated 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 could carry on their backs, shockingly scant
intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, Captain Jason
Amerine and his ten men had no choice but to trust their only ally, a
little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai. Having returned from
exile, Karzai--on the run from the Taliban--was traveling the
countryside to raise 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.
