Stripped to its essence, combat is a series of quick decisions and rather precise actions carried out in concert with ten or twelve other men. In that sense it’s much more like football than, say, like a gang fight. The unit that choreographs their actions best usually wins. They might take casualties, but they win.The choreography—you lay down fire while I run forward, then I cover you while you move your team up—is so powerful that it can overcome enormous tactical deficits. There is a cho

One word - WAR and that doleful eye glaring out at you. Powerful cover, so’s the book. Picked it because it promised to get me inside the head of a soldier. An honest, no holds barred account of the day-to-day lives of soldiers serving in the intensely hot military zone of Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. Riveted from page one my mouth was actually hanging open reading this - seriously. It’s gritty and raw; it’s also pretty funny at times; these guys have a truly twisted appreciation of the abs...

This book was a gripping and moving read for me. Junger renders an account of the experience a platoon stationed at a remote outpost in northern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. He calls it “the tip of the spear” in the war effort because the units stationed in this mountain valley, the Korengal, saw more continuous fighting than elsewhere in the war. Junger was physically embedded with these men for five one-month periods between 2007 and 2008, and he was clearly emotionally embedded too.

I tend to avoid non-fiction books about war but I'm so glad I read this one. Junger's account of a platoon in Afghanistan is educational and scary. The question that resonated the most with me is - what place do these soldiers have in our society when coming home? The strengths they exhibit in combat mostly translate to weaknesses in everyday life. There is no happy ending in War.

I am constantly asking myself why I am so fascinated with the detailed accounts of combat. I don't have an answer. Since I was a boy I devoured memoirs of the Vietnam experience and todays accounts of Iraq and Afghanistan draw my interest in the same manner. Having never experienced combat I still wonder how it looks, smells, sounds.... books can communicate all that, but not how it really feels. Some come close, and Jungers book comes as close as I think is possible. So close that I didn't come...

Junger was partnered with photo journalist Tim Hetherington in the Korengal valley a little over 10 years ago now. Time flies, even if you're not having fun. Both men were embedded with US troops; not continuously, but for enough time on frequent stays to have been exposed to many of the same dangers. They were dependent on the Army for rations and accommodation, and both shared the soldiers' lot on patrol and in camp.Junger has a true interest in the lives of the soldiers and their reactions to...

This book blew me away and probably one of the best war books that I've read. This is not so much a biography on Afghanistan that focuses on a single soldier like Blehm or Krakauer's excellent books. It is to a large degree the war seen through Junger's lens. He does not go for the cheap dramatic scenes. Junger is a journalist and visited and was embedded with an infantry platoon at Restrepo. Restrepo was a remote outpost in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan and the valley was so dangerous that...

Stupendously brilliant and enlightening book. I understand the appeal of war much more now. It's nothing to do with altruism and everything to do with an uber-boy's club, guns and adrenaline. I understand men a lot more now too. This book should be required reading for the parents and girlfriends of the young men who have enlisted in the military. It isn't what anyone would actually want to hear - no one much cares about the political reasons for prosecuting the war, everyone likes firing guns a...

Just Say NoYoung men have fantasies about being soldiers. But whatever it is they imagine combat to be, it isn’t this - the unremitting discomfort of heat, fleas, and filth; the obvious futility of all their efforts to do a job which is impossible; the unrecognized stress of being a continual target of bullets from the enemy, hate and suspicion from the local populace, and disdain by their superiors; the inevitable incompetence of those in command of a situation which they never comprehend; and

Another reviewer on here said wryly that this book taught her a lot about men. A valid reaction, but it still made me wince. It’s as if I were to say I’d learned a lot about women from, like, The Devil Wears Prada or something. You want to jump up and shout, “But we’re not all like that. Or if we are, we’re not like that all the time.”In a way, though, War isn’t a bad advertisement for what used to be called the masculine virtues. The men profiled here are incredibly brave, thrillingly competent...

War is my second book by Junger, and I found it to be even better than Tribe. He has a thoughtful, though also analytical approach to this subject and his style of writing is engaging, reading almost like fiction. If only it were fiction. War is an unflinching portrait of a reality human's have contended with and participated in almost since the dawn of civilization. He details his own experiences as a reporter, his relationship with the soldiers, their attitudes, fears, the trust and brotherhoo...

This incredible piece of journalism, written by Sebastian Junger, should be read by each and every citizen. Mr. Junger spent 15 months with a platoon whose base was in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan, known as the Korengal Valley. The base was known as the Korengal Outpost (KOP). Mr. Junger's investigative piece was written for Vanity Fair magazine. I did not want to inject my personal or political opinions into this review; however, I've come to the conclusion that my personal and politica...

This is a phenomenal book and should be required reading for all the knee jerk liberals like me who have had nothing but disdain for the military. What impressed Junger the most during his several months series of embedments with the US army in Afghanistan was the closeness of the men in his units. These soldiers didn't talk about bringing democracy to Afghanistan or any other political or social raison d'etre for their being in what could be described as a Hell on earth. Their only goal was to

Opening Line: “O’Byrne and the men of Battle Company arrived in the last week of May when the rivers were running full and the upper peaks still held snow.”Great cover on this, a haunting image and an equally powerful read. Written by Sabastian Junger (of The Perfect Storm fame) In WAR he spends 15 months following a single platoon based at a remote outpost in Eastern Afghanistan. His objective is simple, to convey what soldiers experience, what war actually feels like. Divided into 3 “books”: F...

Sebastian Junger is the author of,"The Perfect Storm" and this book "War". His Oscar-nominated documentary "Restrepo," won the 2010 grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Sebastian Junger spent 5 months in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan, 25 miles from Pakistan border. The area is extremely isolated, rugged and mountainous terrain. The summers are blistering hot, the winters are ice cold. The valley is only 6 miles long but 70% of the bombs dropped in Afghanistan are dropped here and...

"The Outpost: the Book" ?"Thank You For Your Service: the Prequel ?"What's it like to serve at a small US mountain base in Afghanistan, on the very edge of the 'War on Terrorism' ? 18 months of live-in journalism paint a frank picture. Nothing compares to the intensity of combat. Nothing is more important than to not let the team down. Those mantras sum up the mentality of Battle Brigade. These truths are the greatest barrier to re-entering civilian life or even a highly regimented garrison envi...

'War' by Sebastian Junger is an outstanding journalist's memoir. I bought the video-enriched Kindle version, which is also outstanding. Besides a map of the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, included were clips from the documentary, 'Restrepo'. In the back of the book is a list of selected sources and references.The book chronicles a series of five visits by the author and Tim Hetherington, journalist-photographer, from 2007 to 2008, and subsequent events, to an Afghanistan outpost of infantry sol...

The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire, and the experience of it changes a person profoundly.In 2007 and 2008, as the war in Afghanistan lingered on, author Junger visited the Korengal Valley to witness the front line in the battles against extremist Muslim resistance forces. From those experiences emerged this book, at once a portrait of modern soldiers and ground warfare as well as a rumination on the universal brotherhood of soldiers. J...

A raw and honest account of the psychological and phyiscal dangers a soldier in Afghanistan faces. Specifically for anyone who is interested in the psychology of combat and how a soldier's life beacons at the point of a firefight, only to dwindle after, this is a very good read. It's mostly impressive because Junger was there with the soldiers, experiencing the same thing, except without the ability to pick up a gun and fight alongside them, because of his position as a journalist. I would've so...

Junger's book needs some photos and maps and a glossary, especially the photos...these are real people and we need real faces to go along with our reading. So I'd recommend watching Junger and Hetherington's film Restrepo about halfway through WAR or even before starting it.As a film, Restrepo explores much of the same ground and time frame as War; it may be more limited than the book in some aspects, but it serves to bring to life the events of Junger's book and adds more of a human dimension t...