The Forever War: Dispatches from the War on Terror

by Dexter Filkins (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $15.23

  There are already many books on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and about the War on Terror - but this is something very different. In The Forever War, award-winning New York Times correspondent Dexter Filkins does not analyse how these wars happened and why, or where they have succeeded or failed; instead, he captures with searing immediacy, the human experience - and tragedy - of war. We meet Iraqi insurgents and American soldiers, Afghan rebels and Taliban clerics. We travel to deserts and glaciers and mountaintops, to the scene of public amputations and executions, to suicide bombings and into the homes of the bombers themselves. The result is a visceral understanding of the War on the Terror, its victims, the people who fight it and the way these people feel.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $3.18

  Many books have already been written about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about the War on Terror - how they happened and why, how they've succeeded and failed. The Forever War is not that kind of book: rather than argument or hand-wringing, Dexter Filkins offers us a kaleidoscopic tour of the great conflicts of our time. Through his eyes as a reporter on the ground, we witness the events that began with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, led to the September 11 attacks in 2001, and culminated in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Filkins is the only American reporter to have witnessed all these events on his own and close-up - public executions and amputations; the destruction of the twin towers; the collapse of the Taliban in 2001; and, over five years of grinding struggle in Iraq.In this work: we move across a vast and various landscape of amazing characters and astonishing scenes; we meet Iraqi insurgents and American soldiers - Afghan rebels and Taliban clerics; and, we travel to deserts and glaciers and mountaintops, to the scenes of suicide bombings and into the homes of the bombers themselves. Like no other book, The Forever War will provide a visceral understanding of the War on Terror, its victims, and the people who fight it. It will show what war is, what this particular war is, and how it feels.