Combat infantry in Afghanistan, according to Sebastian Junger, “eat the worst, die the fastest, sleep the least, and have the most to fear”. They are also the ones who are the “real” soldiers, the ones “conducting what can be considered ‘war’ in the most classic sense”. By spending time as a journalist with a platoon of American foot soldiers based in one of the most dangerous valleys in Afghanistan, Junger, the author of The Perfect Storm, aimed to report on those in the vanguard of the fight against the Taliban. His depictions of combat itself and the unforgiving terrain in which it takes place have the energy and the eloquence to evoke something of their experiences. What is curiously lacking in War, though, is much sense of the soldiers as individuals. The men that Junger met may well be the “real”
soldiers of the conflict, but his book conveys too little
of their reality.
War by Sebastian Junger
The author of The Perfect Storm follows American soldiers in one of the most dangerous valleys in Afghanistan