| Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan |  | Author: Doug Stanton
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
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Seller: digitaldogpound-media
Rating:  96 reviews
Sales Rank: 3,272
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416580514
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.1047
EAN: 9781416580515
ASIN: 1416580514
Publication Date: May 5, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| | ISBN13: 9781416580515 | | | Condition: NEW | | | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
From the New York Times-bestselling author of In Harm's Way comes a true-life story of American soldiers overcoming great odds to achieve a stunning military victory.Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy across mountainous terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential if they were to defeat the Taliban. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators, and overjoyed Afghans thronged the streets. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed. Dangerously outnumbered, they fought for their lives in the city's immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the effort to defeat the Taliban might be doomed. As the Americans struggled to hold the fortress, they faced some of the most intense urban warfare of our time. But until now the full story of the Horse Soldiers has never been told. Doug Stanton received unprecedented cooperation from the U.S. Army's Special Forces soldiers and Special Operations helicopter pilots, as well as access to voluminous after-battle reports. In addition, he interviewed more than one hundred participants and walked every inch of the climactic battleground. This exciting story is filled with unforgettable characters: brave Special Forces soldiers, tough CIA operatives, cunning Afghan warlords, anxious stateside soldiers' wives who do not know where their husbands have gone, and humble Afghan boys spying on the Taliban. Deeply researched and beautifully written, Stanton's account of America's quest to liberate an oppressed people touches the mythic. The Horse Soldiers combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople and avoid civilian casualties proved a valuable lesson for America's ongoing efforts in Afghanistan. Horse Soldiers is a big-hearted and thrilling read, with an epic story that reaches not just across the cold mountains of Afghanistan but into the homes of small-town America, and confirms Doug Stanton as one of our country's preeminent storytellers.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 96
 Excitement personified June 21, 2009
Charles G. Irvine (Des Moines, IA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Mr Stanton has created a fascinating narrative of the exploits of the US Special Forces in what was prewar Afghanistan.
The book title refers to the fact that our US SF needed to mount horses in order to stay with the Northern Alliance tribesmen they were helping to drive out the Taliban. Many of them had never before been on a horse. Really tough duty, especially on makeshift wooden saddles. The SF people are introduced by name, and you are given their bios, leading to the reader becoming intimate with all of them. A most interesting approach to telling the story.
I highly recommend this book.
a stunning account - The Charge of the 9/11 Brigade May 6, 2009
wogan (Indiana&Maryland- U.S.A.)
52 out of 66 found this review helpful
I was given this book by a friend, so I looked at it and immediately - sat down, started reading and finished it almost one sitting. Horse Soldiers is the impressive story of the US Special Forces team sent into Afghanistan after 9/11 to capture Mazar-I-Sharif. So the first action against terrorists of the 21st century winds up conducted on horse back, more accurately a cavalry charge much like Mosby's raiders during the Civil War. There is action, pathos and even a bit of humor as a group of Special Forces men who had only, for the most part ridden horses in summer camp ride into battle. There was so much that was captivating, I found myself stopping to read passages out loud to my husband.
If I was still teaching current history this would be on the reading list, and I know it would be well received. I will be surprised to not see this book become a movie, its tale is gripping and fascinating. The men in this story will make you proud of our service men, their bravery, courage and at the same time you will be intrigued and awed by the skill and methods of our modern military.
As one who grew up in the army and have always been near those whose hearts and souls are given to protect us - this is a stunning account that reaches the best of a story teller's writing, except this is true and will make those who read it, aware of, and thankful for the skill and bravery that is written of in this book .
 Poor research July 2, 2009
Robert C. Kolpien (Chesapeake, VA)
52 out of 68 found this review helpful
The story of 5th Group and the Northern Alliance is outstanding, but being a 20+ year veteran of Special Forces I was greatly disappointed in the research. After reading that Roger's Rangers fought against the British in the Revolutionary War as opposed to fighting with the British against the French in the French and Indian War I was amazed at such a historical error. Claiming Special Forces committed the majority of attrocities in Vietnam is just false. The story is good, the writing mediocre, and the research horrible.
This is an important book about Afghanistan October 5, 2009
Israel Drazin (Boca Raton, Florida)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Doug Stanton, New York Times bestselling author of In Harm's Way wrote this spellbinding history of the early American war efforts in Afghanistan. The book reads like a well-written novel.
When the terrorists struck New York and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States was not prepared for a retaliatory war or even adequate preventive measures to protect US citizens. President Bush declared war on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan the next day, on September 12. But the military had no contingency plan for war in Afghanistan, and certainly did not have soldiers who knew how to fight a war riding on horses, the way the Afghans fought, or even men or women that spoke the Afghan language.
One would think that the US could draw a strategy from the Russian experience, but this was not possible because the Russians failed. The Russians had fought in Afghanistan for ten years, from 1979. They introduced a fighting force of a half million men into the country, and lost fifty thousand of them. In fact, historians write that their defeat was one of the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The US was involved in the Russian war. The Americans backed the anti-Soviet forces called the mujahideen. The US turned a blind eye to their extremist religious views and supplied them with sophisticated weapons.
But then the Taliban rose from the ranks of the mujahideen, well armed and well trained, as an enemy of the US and of civilization.
The Taliban, who followed an extreme version of the Sunni religion, were religious zealots determined to turn back civilization to the fourteenth century, to an ancient generally imagined time that they considered the golden age, when people were ruled by the stringent dictates of Islamic law.
The name Taliban is ironically built on the Arabic talib, meaning "student" or "seeker of knowledge." These seekers of knowledge felt a religious obligation to slit the throats of non-believers, castrate them and leave their bodies to rot in the road.
They insisted that husbands paint their windows black so that no one could see the women within. They forbid women from leaving their homes without a male family escort. These seekers of knowledge forbid over 100,000 girls to attend school and the literacy rate in the country slipped precipitously to only five percent. Women, in short, were to be as pliant as cattle and as silent as stone, a thing, barely human.
The initial US reaction was to bomb the Taliban enclaves, but the bombs generally hit nothing, and the Taliban laughed at America. The US only began to have an effect upon the Taliban when they sent a unit of twelve Special Forces soldiers to fight against them in Afghanistan itself. The Taliban's enemy was a group of Afghans called the Northern Alliance. The mission of the twelve was to join with and fight with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban.
The Special Forces was founded in 1952. Its soldiers were trained in guerrilla warfare. They wore a cap with an insignia of a red arrowhead with an arrow drawn down the middle, the sign of American Apache Indian scouts.
The regular Army generals were opposed to using Special Forces troops aided by some CIA officers as America's lead element in the war. They had never used Special Forces in this way before. However, President Bush approved the plan to use them.
Their mission was to drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan and to find Osama bin Laden and his senior lieutenants and kill them; specifically, to bring back bin Laden's head to Washington, shipped in a box of dry ice.
People who want to read what happened when the US first came to Afghanistan, the many problems they faced and what occurred to the dozen Special Forces soldiers, that is told as well and as interesting as a very good novel, will want to read this book.
Thoughtful with insight to where we are now in the South Asia theater of conflict. July 12, 2009
Jerry Cochran (Midland. TX)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I thought "Horse Soldiers" was well done in terms of historical content. The author also was able to use what he learned to give readers a solid place to stand in viewing future events in the South Asian conflict. This guy can write. Reads like an adventure novel. I would recommend without reservation.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 96
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