Why We Lost

A high-ranking general''s gripping insider account of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how it all went wrong.Over a 35-year career Daniel Bolger rose through the army infantry to become a three-star general commanding in both theaters of the U.S. campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. He participated in meetings with top-level military and civilian players where strategy was made and managed. At the same time he regularly carried a rifle alongside rank-and-file soldiers in combat actions - unusual for a general. Now as a witness to all levels of military command Bolger offers a unique assessment of these wars from 9/11 to the final withdrawal from the region. Writing with hard-won experience and unflinching honesty Bolger makes the firm case that in Iraq and in Afghanistan we lost - but we didn''t have to. Intelligence was garbled. Key decision makers were blinded by spreadsheets or theories. And at the root of our failure we never really understood our enemy. Why We Lost is a timely forceful and compulsively listenable account of these wars from a fresh and authoritative perspective.