Jake Tapper – The Outpost (Little Brown and Company)

Seemingly since time began, nations have tried to tame the far reaches of Afghanistan. Those attempts have seemingly been doomed to fail. Most recently Russia and currently the United States have made their attempt. The Russians, after many years, many lives and much fortune expended left with their tail between their legs. Through mission creep, far away from their original stated intent, the U.S. is taking their swing in what can best be described as community outreach soldiering.

It is that attempt to win over one such far flung corner of Afghanistan that is the story at the center of ABC News journalist Jake Tapper’s book, The Outpost. Tapper lays out the tail of 53 brave warriors who are outmanned, outgunned and stationed on the down slope of three steep mountains that it wouldn’t take a skilled military planner to determine was an ill-advised location for such an outpost.

Agree or disagree with Tapper’s perspective on the news, he does a fine job of capturing not only the locations lunar-like landscape but also detailing what can only be described as a shocking lack of common sense on the part of those that determined the ill-fated locale, but also the clarity brought by those who were tasked with the job of making it happen.

Through shear grit and determination, the soldiers put in this unimaginable situation prevailed and only an after action investigation would make it clear to the Pentagon that this outpost was not only a glaring error, but should never have been placed at that location. Tapper does well to serve the story of the brave men who fought and died and those who survived what would be one of the deadliest battles of the war in Afghanistan.