Warrior Diplomat
A Green Beret's Battles from Washington to Afghanistan
-
-
4.1 • 7 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Grappling with centuries-old feuds, defeating a shrewd insurgency, and navigating the sometimes paralyzing bureaucracy of the U.S. military are issues that prompt sleepless nights for both policymakers in Washington DC and soldiers at war, albeit for different reasons. Few, however, have dealt with these issues in the White House situation room and on the front line. Michael G. Waltz has done just that, working as a policy advisor to Vice President Richard B. Cheney and also serving in the mountains of Afghanistan as a Green Beret, directly implementing strategy in the field that he helped devise in Washington.
In Warrior Diplomat Waltz shares his unique firsthand experiences, revealing the sights, sounds, emotions, and complexities involved in the war in Afghanistan. Waltz also highlights the policy issues that have plagued the war effort throughout the past decade, from the drug trade, to civilian casualties, to a lack of resources in comparison to Iraq, to the overall coalition strategy. At the same time, he points out that stabilizing Afghanistan and the region remains crucial to national security and that a long-term commitment along the lines of South Korea or Germany is imperative if America is to remain secure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Waltz, a lieutenant colonel in the Army reserves, commanded a Special Forces company in Afghanistan and held high counterterrorism positions at the Pentagon and White House. Combining what he saw on the ground with what he gleaned in Washington, Waltz offers his thoughts on the U.S. military and government's management of the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Waltz worked in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, and finds fault with both presidents, and their war policy makers, in a war he believes "was, and still is, worth fighting." He blames the Bush administration for not setting "clear goals and objectives for why we were in Afghanistan" after defeating the Taliban in 2001, and points to that administration's "initial reluctance," and then half-hearted attempts, "to do nation building." Waltz then castigates the Obama administration for pulling U.S. troops out too soon and then "simply wishing the problem away." He also has few good things to say about NATO troop performance in Afghanistan. Waltz succeeds in his goal of explaining how the war in Afghanistan has been executed, making a case that the continuing chaos that nation endures is "directly connected" to the U.S. national interest.
