Eagle Down: American Special Forces at the End of Afghanistan's War

by Jessica Donati

Overview

A Wall Street Journal national security reporter takes readers into the lives of frontline U.S. special operations troops fighting to keep the Taliban and Islamic State from overthrowing the U.S.-backed government in the final years of the war in Afghanistan.  

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 

“Powerful, important, and searing." —General David Petraeus, U.S. Army (ret.), former commander, U.S. Central Command, former CIA director

In 2015, the White House claimed triumphantly "the longest war in American history is over." But for some, it was just the beginning of a new and covert war, fought far from public view, with limited resources, little governmental oversight, and contradictory orders.
 
Take Hutch, a battle-worn Green Beret on his fifth combat tour in 2015, tasked with a high-stakes mission: lead a small band of men into Kunduz, recapture the city from the Taliban, and turn it over to the Afghan government. The U.S. role was meant to be a secret-after all, the war was over. Then, disaster struck. He called in an airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital, killing dozens of doctors and patients.
 
Or Caleb, who stepped on a bomb during a raid on a Taliban hideout in notorious Sangin. Or Andy, trapped in Marjah with a crashed Black Hawk and no air support. From Hutch to Caleb to Andy, Eagle Down is a dramatic and intimate portrayal of this ongoing forgotten war that moves from the desperate battlegrounds in muddy Afghan villages all the way to the White House.
 
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Jessica Donati, with big picture insight and on-the-ground grit, reveals how America came to rely on U.S. Special Forces, through successive policy directives that ramped up the war under the Obama and Trump administrations. Donati shows how the covert war failed to stabilize Afghanistan, and undermined U.S. interests both at home and abroad.
 
Relying on Donati's daring on-the-ground reporting, first-hand accounts from Special Forces, military documents, and declassified reports, Eagle Down is an account of the heroism, sacrifice, and tragedy experienced by those that fought America's longest war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541762565
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,022,820
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jessica Donati covers foreign affairs for the Wall Street Journal in Washington DC, and has reported from more than a dozen countries in the role. She joined the paper as the bureau chief in Kabul in 2015, and lived in Afghanistan for more than four years. Previously, she worked for Reuters in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, covering both the conflicts in Libya and Afghanistan. She co-authored a series on the war in Libya that was chosen as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2012. She is also the recipient of a New York Press Club award for her reporting in Libya . She is British-Italian, and grew up in Italy. She lives with her husband and son in Washington DC.

Table of Contents

The Special Forces (Green Berets) v

Military Acronyms vii

Characters and Places ix

Maps xii

Preface to the Paperback Edition 1

Part 1 Withdrawal

Chapter 1 Back to War-Hutch 13

Chapter 2 The Helmand Job-Caleb 20

Chapter 3 Gridlock in Washington 25

Chapter 4 "Insider Attack! Insider Attack!" 34

Chapter 5 We'll Play It Safe-Hutch 47

Chapter 6 The Fall of Kunduz 54

Chapter 7 Kunduz Clearing Patrol-CONOP 64

Chapter 8 Battle for Kunduz-Hutch 78

Chapter 9 "I'm Sorry, Mom"-Dr. Cua 86

Chapter 10 They're Calling It a War Crime-Hutch 100

Part 2 Reversal

Chapter 11 Damage Control in Washington 109

Chapter 12 Obama Changes the Plan 114

Chapter 13 The Taliban Must Shoot First-Helmand 118

Chapter 14 Mission to Save Marjah-Caleb 125

Chapter 15 Internally Inconsistent, Implausible-Hutch 133

Chapter 16 Sangingrad-Caleb 144

Chapter 17 Eagle Down-Andy 156

Chapter 18 Get Back Out There-Andy 171

Chapter 19 This Isn't Afghanistan Anymore-Caleb 181

Part 3 Ramp-Up

Chapter 20 President Obama Ramps Up the War 191

Chapter 21 No Good or Bad Men in War-Hutch 197

Chapter 22 Lobster and Canapés with the Taliban-Doha 202

Chapter 23 Thank You for Your Service-Caleb 210

Chapter 24 Trump Inherits the Afghan War 217

Chapter 25 You Don't Believe in Winning?-General McMaster 229

Chapter 26 Green Berets Unleashed-Josh 238

Chapter 27 Special Forces to the Rescue-Josh 244

Part 4 Endings

Chapter 28 Back to War, Again-Hutch 253

Chapter 29 Recovery-Caleb 262

Chapter 30 Ending (and Trump Gets the Deal) 266

Acknowledgments 275

Author's Note 279

Bibliography 281

Index 291

Editorial Reviews

11/02/2020

Wall Street Journal reporter Donati debuts with a gritty and well-informed look at the current state of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. After abandoning a plan to withdraw American troops by 2017, President Obama “turned the war over to secretive U.S. Special Operations Forces,” Donati writes. She follows several Green Berets units from 2015 to 2020, and reveals how miscommunication and technology issues led one of her profile subjects to authorize the bombing of a hospital, killing dozens of patients and staff members. Throughout, Donati documents Afghan government corruption and the mismanagement of local security forces, and details the high costs borne by U.S. military families. In 2017 and 2018, the Taliban attempted to seize a series of provincial capitals, provoking Afghan and American troop surges. President Trump, like Obama, sought to deliver on his campaign promise to end the war, and, in 2020, reached a deal with the Taliban “to withdraw all U.S. troops and map out a path to reconciliation,” though Donati notes that many impediments still stand in the way. Skillfully interweaving big-picture policy analysis with frontline reporting, Donati shines a stark light on this shadowy conflict. The result is a distressing yet vital update on America’s longest war. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and U.S. Special Forces are one of the most secretive groups in America's military. That Jessica Donati managed to crack both and write a book that is both brutally honest and deeply compassionate about this elite group is a journalistic triumph. It is beautifully written, impossible to put down and deeply terrifying for anyone who has worked in that country. She's one of those writers who makes me deeply proud of my profession.”—Sebastian Junger, New York Times best-selling author

"Donati's on-the-ground account-and it's clear that she put herself in constant danger to tell the soldiers' stories even as American officials dithered about how to deploy those troops-is sometimes as hallucinatory as Dispatches and as taut and well written as Mark Bowden's now-classic book...Exemplary journalism and a powerful argument for not putting soldiers in harm's way unless we're sure we know why."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Skillfully interweaving big-picture policy analysis with frontline reporting, Donati shines a stark light on this shadowy conflict. The result is a distressing yet vital update on America’s longest war.”—Publishers Weekly

“The book hits its mark in its sympathetic portrayal of the boots on the ground, in particular the Special Forces and Green Berets of Operational Detachment Alpha. Their frustrations at the human costs, from deaths to homesickness to mission futility, will resonate with readers.”—Booklist

“Eagle Down is a gripping story of a war most Americans had thought was over or had wrongly forgotten about entirely.”—The Diplomatic Courier

"The book’s interweaving narrative style paired with Donati’s meticulous reporting makes Eagle Down as engaging and touching as it is insightful."—Stars and Stripes

“Highly enlightening.. [an] incisive and brutally frank account.”—The New York Journal of Books

“[Donati’s] vivid, uncompromising reporting presents U.S. politicians and senior military commanders as disconnected from the reality of the war as they flounder in search of a satisfactory way out of it.”—Foreign Affairs

“Ultimately this book is about tragedy, the tragedy of loss, the tragedy of bad decisions, and the tragedy of futility.  But it is also a book of survival, perseverance and personal strength.  More importantly it’s a book that doesn’t pull any punches. If you are looking for a story that depicts Green Berets as comic book super heroes then you came to the wrong place.  If, however, you are looking for an unvarnished depiction of the successes, failures, and losses of men who have put everything on the line for the things they believe in then Eagle Down is for you.”—Small Wars Journal

“A memorable portrait of Americans fighting in Afghanistan over the last six years. Donati does an especially good job at portraying the combat in Kunduz in October 2015…an important story about limited warfare.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Jessica Donati deserves a Pulitzer Prize for this extraordinary book about America’s continued behind the scenes fighting in Afghanistan’s “Forever War.”—The San Francisco Book Review

“Jessica Donati’s excellent but tragic book… Eagle Down will rank among the most impactful books I have read about military affairs. A terrific book, written by an engaging author.”—BookMarc

From the Publisher

12/01/2020

The American military effort in Afghanistan, which began in October 2001, has become the longest war in U.S. history. Donati, who served as national security reporter for the Wall Street Journal in Kabul from 2014 to 2017, has crafted an inside look at the military tactics of units with the Army's Special Forces (often referred to as Green Berets) that faced the Taliban in the Helmand area of southern Afghanistan. Similar to the observations in Wesley Morgan's The Hardest Place (2021), which recounted American efforts in the Pech Valley, Donati provides clear-eyed insights into the frustrations and challenges that confront American soldiers in a war that many Americans have either forgotten about—or would just as soon keep out of sight and out of mind. But American servicemen continue to die and experience illness and disability as a result of this war, and Donati's book is unflinching in the stories it tells about servicemen participating in an unforgiving war. The author also details the gridlock in Washington during George W. Bush's and Barack Obama's two terms in office as they sought to manage the war. VERDICT Featuring often-overlooked perspectives, this is an important read on America's military involvement in Afghanistan.—Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

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