The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military

Walk with America's generals, grunts, and Green Berets through the maze of unconventional wars and unsettled peace.

Four-star generals who lead the military during wartime reign like proconsuls abroad in peacetime. Secretive Green Berets trained to hunt down terrorists are assigned to seduce ruthless authoritarian regimes. Pimply young soldiers taught to seize airstrips instead play mayor, detective, and social worker in a gung-ho but ill-fated attempt to rebuild a nation after the fighting stops.

The Mission is a boots-on-the-ground account of America's growing dependence on our military to manage world affairs, describing a clash of culture and purpose through the eyes of soldiers and officers themselves. With unparalleled access to all levels of the military, Dana Priest traveled to eighteen countries—including Uzbekistan, Colombia, Kosovo, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Afghanistan—talking to generals, admirals, Special Forces A-teams, and infantry troops. Blending Ernie Pyle's worm's-eye view with David Halberstam's altitude, this book documents an historic and thought-provoking trend, one even more significant in the aftermath of September 11 as the country turns to its warriors to solve the complex international challenges ahead.
1100880429
The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military

Walk with America's generals, grunts, and Green Berets through the maze of unconventional wars and unsettled peace.

Four-star generals who lead the military during wartime reign like proconsuls abroad in peacetime. Secretive Green Berets trained to hunt down terrorists are assigned to seduce ruthless authoritarian regimes. Pimply young soldiers taught to seize airstrips instead play mayor, detective, and social worker in a gung-ho but ill-fated attempt to rebuild a nation after the fighting stops.

The Mission is a boots-on-the-ground account of America's growing dependence on our military to manage world affairs, describing a clash of culture and purpose through the eyes of soldiers and officers themselves. With unparalleled access to all levels of the military, Dana Priest traveled to eighteen countries—including Uzbekistan, Colombia, Kosovo, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Afghanistan—talking to generals, admirals, Special Forces A-teams, and infantry troops. Blending Ernie Pyle's worm's-eye view with David Halberstam's altitude, this book documents an historic and thought-provoking trend, one even more significant in the aftermath of September 11 as the country turns to its warriors to solve the complex international challenges ahead.
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The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military

The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military

by Dana Priest
The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military

The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military

by Dana Priest

eBook

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Overview

Walk with America's generals, grunts, and Green Berets through the maze of unconventional wars and unsettled peace.

Four-star generals who lead the military during wartime reign like proconsuls abroad in peacetime. Secretive Green Berets trained to hunt down terrorists are assigned to seduce ruthless authoritarian regimes. Pimply young soldiers taught to seize airstrips instead play mayor, detective, and social worker in a gung-ho but ill-fated attempt to rebuild a nation after the fighting stops.

The Mission is a boots-on-the-ground account of America's growing dependence on our military to manage world affairs, describing a clash of culture and purpose through the eyes of soldiers and officers themselves. With unparalleled access to all levels of the military, Dana Priest traveled to eighteen countries—including Uzbekistan, Colombia, Kosovo, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Afghanistan—talking to generals, admirals, Special Forces A-teams, and infantry troops. Blending Ernie Pyle's worm's-eye view with David Halberstam's altitude, this book documents an historic and thought-provoking trend, one even more significant in the aftermath of September 11 as the country turns to its warriors to solve the complex international challenges ahead.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780393344592
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 04/09/2012
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 427
File size: 4 MB

About the Author

Dana Priest reports on military and intelligence issues for the Washington Post and is the recipient of the 2001 Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Defense Reporting. She lives in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Pax Americana11
1A Different Kind of World21
2The Rise of the American Military41
The Commanders
3The CinCs: Proconsuls to the Empire61
4The Royal CinCdoms of the Persian Gulf78
5The Invisible Front Line of Central Asia99
The Special Forces
6Inside the Wire with Special Forces121
7A-Teams in Afghanistan141
8Below the Radar in Nigeria175
9Gambling with Green Berets in Colombia195
10The Indonesian Handshake216
The Cinc and His Soldiers in Kosovo
11Force Trumps Diplomacy in the Balkans247
12Waging Peace in Kosovo275
13Drita's Kosovo292
14Ellerbe's 82nd Airborne Division303
15Vitina and the New Mafia320
16Dishonoring Merita343
17Vitina, One Year Later366
Afterword: The Mission385
Postscript: The New Idealism395
List of Interviews407
Acknowledgments409
Notes411
Index419

What People are Saying About This

Benjamin C. Bradlee

A book that is just in time for the great new debate between the hawks and the doves.

Richard Holbrooke

Dana Priest's revealing, close-up look at this dramatic new development is especially timely as we view the challenges of the post-9/11 world.

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