Staff Pick: Horse soldiers : The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan

An action-packed, breathless account of American special-forces heroics that helped defeat the Taliban in the months after 9/11. Enraged at the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden after 9/11, the United States resolved to invade Afghanistan. When military leaders realized it would take months to move soldiers to the distant, landlocked nation, they sent small numbers of elite Special Forces to support opposition fighters, guide precision air attacks and bribe local warlords to join. It worked brilliantly. Stanton recounts the lives of a dozen such soldiers and undercover CIA operatives, revealing their emotions and thoughts, quoting inner monologues and inventing dialogue to dramatize events. Using diplomatic skills, money, airdropped supplies and high-tech communications equipment, the soldiers inspired Afghan forces, who did almost all the fighting, to unite and defeat the Taliban. In the final pages Stanton admits that America squandered this dazzling triumph. Proclaiming victory, the administration turned its attention elsewhere as Afghanistan descended into chaos from which the Taliban emerged again to control most of the country.
Copyright Kirkus 2009