The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan

(Random House) A former Marine combat veteran and assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, West “boldly assesses the prospects for U.S. success in Afghanistan in this provocative analysis,” wrote Publishers Weekly. Embedded with frontline units over the past two years, he takes the reader on a battlefield journey from the mountains in the north to the opium fields in the south and builds a case for changing course. He proposes removing most of the troops from Afghanistan and transitioning to a tough adviser corps that would train Afghans to fight the Taliban. West is a war correspondent and author.