Afghanistan

More than a book review, this is a portrait of David Petraeus as a great but imperfect man whose service and ideas shaped modern American warfare.

For two decades, the war in Afghanistan was fought as a coalition effort. NATO allies deployed to combat zones, took casualties, and shared the risks of a war that ultimately ended in failure.

Wake up in the dark, throw on cargo pants and boots, mainline coffee and Rip Its, live in cable traffic inside the TOC, and if you are lucky you end the night at the fire pit with a stiff drink and a short laugh before you do it all again.

Medal of Honor recipients just got their pension bumped finally putting real weight behind the nation’s highest award. Meanwhile, the Gaza ceasefire is barely holding as clashes flare around the unmarked Yellow Line, and a final Afghanistan watchdog report says the U.S. left billions of arms and equipment in the hands of the Taliban.

He stepped into the open, phone in hand and grit in his teeth, trading the last of his cover for a handful of breaths for his teammates — the kind of small, brutal choice that carves a quiet legend out of an ordinary life.

Where we lived with villagers and tied bottom up security to district and provincial governance, VSO and ALP held ground the centralized model could not, and when support was cut the Taliban wasted no time reclaiming the countryside.

We won the battles in Afghanistan and still lost the war because Washington pursued an unsuitable, unfeasible, and unacceptable project to remake a tribal society while Congress abdicated and our generals saluted.

Polish GROM storms the battlefield like a crack of thunder—swift, unyielding, and impossible to ignore.

MARSOC operators once hunted Taliban on motorcycles, turning enemy tactics into a deadly advantage in Afghanistan’s remote hills.

On August 30, 2021, the US ended its longest war as troops left Kabul, the Taliban celebrated, and history came full circle.

In the hands of a well-trained crew the M252 81mm mortar is a whispering killer that can rain fire nearly six kilometers away with steady, deadly grace.

Extortion 17 wasn’t brought down by some grand conspiracy or hidden failure—it was a tragic, rare hit by enemy fighters who happened to be in the right place at the right time with a lucky shot.