From GPO Bookstore: Contains an anthology of sixteen oral histories that chronicle the establishment of Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan. Includes a lengthy interview with Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, the first commander of the new headquarters, in which he discusses the strategic challenges of Afghanistan, the coordination of political and military efforts by his command, and the development and implementation of a counterinsurgency strategy that considered the complexity of the Afghan insurgency.
“Michael Walling has honored the American men and women who served in Operation Enduring Freedom by helping them tell their own stories. This is the war in Afghanistan as experienced by the people who fought it.” - General Tommy R. Franks, Ret. The war in Afghanistan has seen men and women thrown into America's longest sustained combat operation. For over 13 years, US military personnel have been embroiled in a conflict unlike any other, in a hostile country where danger and death lurk at every turn. The nature of the fighting has transformed not only the entire structure of the US military, but the lives of every soldier, sailor, marine, coast guardsman, and airman who served there. There have been many tales told of this most recent Afghan war, but until now no single work has combined the strategic view of high-level commanders with the perspective of soldiers on the ground. This book places the first-hand accounts of serving men and women into the context of the military operations. Drawing on gripping oral histories from theater commanders, Special Forces troops, reconstruction teams, and everyday soldiers, Michael G. Walling analyzes operations as they were experienced by individuals, from those immediately following 9/11 through to those in 2014 as US troops prepared to withdraw. He also charts the evolution of US military structure as it was forced to adapt to cope with the non-conventional, but nonetheless deadly threats of asymmetric warfare, as well as detailing covert ops, infrastructure rebuilding, and the training of Afghan forces. Resonating across gender, age, nationality, and ethnicity, this book is not just a document of US fortunes in a far-flung conflict. It is a tribute to the determination, heroism, sacrifice, and the strength of the human spirit.
This supplement offers a wide range of primary-source documents in sets built around a historical "problem." Each set comprises several documents, including excerpts from letters, diaries, speeches, and petitions, as well as song lyrics, political cartoons, and advertisements. Introductions and questions guide readers in understanding and interpreting the documents.
The 7th edition of ENDURING QUESTIONS continues to explore and examine virtually all of the classical and contemporary questions posed by the major philosophers of western civilization. From the philosophical traditions of ancient Greece to the present day, the ways of understanding our own knowledge, the nature of reality, the basis of morality, and social ideals are presented in the philosophers "own writings", a panoramic collection for introductory students. This text has endured since Melvin Rader originated it in 1956, and it continues to stand the test of time as a valuable core book of readings for introductory courses in philosophy.
This supplement offers a wide range of primary-source documents in sets built around a historical "problem." Each set comprises several documents, including excerpts from letters, diaries, speeches, and petitions, as well as song lyrics, political cartoons, and advertisements. Introductions and questions guide readers in understanding and interpreting the documents.
Part travelogue and part scientist's notebook, The Last Speakers is the poignant chronicle of author K. David Harrison's expeditions around the world to meet with last speakers of vanishing languages. The speakers' eloquent reflections and candid photographs reveal little-known lifeways as well as revitalization efforts to teach disappearing languages to younger generations. Thought-provoking and engaging, this unique book illuminates the global language-extinction crisis through photos, graphics, interviews, traditional wisdom never before translated into English, and first-person essays that thrillingly convey the adventure of science and exploration.
