Synopses & Reviews
A former captain in the Marinesand#8217; First Recon Battalion, who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, reveals how the Corps trains its elite and offers a point-blank account of twenty-first-century battle.
If the Marines are and#147;the few, the proud,and#8221; Recon Marines are the fewest and the proudest. Only one Marine in a hundred qualifies for Recon, charged with working clandestinely, often behind enemy lines. Fickand#8217;s training begins with a hellish summer at Quantico, after his junior year at Dartmouth, and advances to the pinnacleand#151;Reconand#151;four years later, on the eve of war with Iraq. Along the way, he learns to shoot a man a mile away, stays awake for seventy-two hours straight, endures interrogation and torture at the secretive SERE course, learns to swim with Navy SEALs, masters the Eleven Principles of Leadership, and much more.
His vast skill set puts him in front of the front lines, leading twenty-two Marines into the deadliest conflict since Vietnam. He vows he will bring all his men home safely, and to do so heand#8217;ll need more than his top-flight education. Heand#8217;ll need luck and an increasingly clear vision of the limitations of his superiors and the missions they assign him. Fick unveils the process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won insights into the differences between the military ideals he learned and military practice, which can mock those ideals. One Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but it is an ultimately inspiring account of mastering the art of war.
Review
andquot;I am glad to see someone of [Bolgerand#39;s] caliber tackling this subject.andquot;--Tom Ricks, ForeignPolicy.com
Review
andldquo;Bolgerandrsquo;s honesty is refreshingandhellip;Recounting combat actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, those stories testify to the bravery, resourcefulness and resolve of the American soldiers.andrdquo;
andmdash;Andrew J. Bacevich, New York Times Book Review and#160;and#160;
andquot;Compelling.andquot;
andmdash;Wall Street Journal
andquot;Hard-hitting.andquot;andmdash;Time
andquot;I am glad to see someone of [Bolgerand#39;s] caliber tackling this subject.andquot;and#160;andmdash;Tom Ricks, ForeignPolicy.com, author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq
andldquo;With vigorous, no-nonsense prose and an impressive clarity of vision, this general does not mince blame in this chronicle of failure.andrdquo;andmdash;Kirkus, starred reviewand#160;
Review
"This is a remarkable book that will give today's readers a much fuller picture of the realities of their military." --James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly
Fick's book makes [war] become real, with all the heroism and the mistakes that still come with ground combat." -- Richard A. Clarke, author of AGAINST ALL ENEMIES: Inside America's War on Terror
"One Bullet Away is brilliant, a must read for anyone who wants to truly understand what our troops face.' --General Anthony C. Zinni USMC (Retired), former Commander-in-Chief US Central Command, co-author of BATTLE READY
"One can hardly imagine a finer boots-on-the-ground chronicle." Kirkus Reviews, Starred
and#147;One Bullet Away is a singular literary achievement, a gripping account of 21st century war by a 21st century warrior." --Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill
and#147;A brilliant, no-bullshit piece of under-the-helmet reporting." --Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire and The Virtues of War
and#147;This is one of the best books on the Marine Corps in a long time....Terrific." --Tom Ricks, author of Making the Corps and A Soldierand#8217;s Duty, military correspondent, Washington Post
"One Bullet Away is a riveting and highly charged account of modern war." --Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor, USMC (Ret.), author of The Generalsand#8217; War, former military correspondent, New York Times
"Fick's descriptive and exacting writing...guarantees ONE BULLET AWAY a place in the war memoir hall of fame." --Carol Memmott USA Today
"The best sign of military intelligence." Gentleman's Quarterly
"Everyone who cynically dismisses 'the rules of war,' saying, 'there are no rules,' should read this book."
--Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D., senior advisor for ethics and leadership, U.S. Army, and author of Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character and Odysseus in America
"Essential...candid and fast-paced...Like the best combat memoirs, Fick's focuses on the men doing the fighting and avoids...sensationalism." Publishers Weekly
and#147;The psychological distance between those who serve and fight, and those who publish and pontificate, is vast. Nathaniel Fick has closed the gap considerably with this fine book.and#8221; --Robert D. Kaplan, author of Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground
"[Fick] is a keen observer whose fine writing is distinguished by its intelligence and candor...Compelling...A riveting read." --Michelle Green People Magazine
"Tough-minded, beautifully written." Men's Journal
"Embrace the wisdom of this generation's military spokesman. Read One Bullet Away." --military.com
Synopsis
A high-ranking generalandrsquo;s gripping insider account of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how it all went wrong
Synopsis
andldquo;Hard-hitting.andrdquo; andmdash; Time
and#160;
andldquo;With vigorous, no-nonsense prose and an impressive clarity of vision, this general does not mince blame in this chronicle of failure.andrdquo; andmdash; Kirkus Reviews, starred review
A high-ranking generalandrsquo;s gripping insider account of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how it all went wrong
Over a thirty-five-year career, Daniel Bolger rose through the army infantry to become a three-star general, commanding in both theaters of the U.S. campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. He participated in meetings with top-level military and civilian players, where strategy was made and managed. At the same time, he regularly carried a rifle alongside rank-and-file soldiers in combat actions, unusual for a general. Now, as a witness to all levels of military command, Bolger offers a unique assessment of these wars, from 9/11 to the final withdrawal from the region. Writing with hard-won experience and unflinching honesty, Bolger makes the firm case that in Iraq andand#160;in Afghanistan, we lost andmdash; but we didnandrsquo;t have to. Intelligence was garbled. Key decision makers were blinded by spreadsheets or theories. And, at the root of our failure, we never really understood our enemy. Why We Lost is a timely, forceful, and compulsively readable account of these wars from a fresh and authoritative perspective.
Synopsis
andldquo;Why We Lost is neither a memoir nor a window into private meetings and secret discussions. It is a 500-page history . . . filled with heartfelt stories of soldiers and Marines in firefights and close combat. It weighs in mightily to the ongoing debate over how the United States should wage war.andrdquo; andmdash; Washington Post
and#160;
Over his thirty-five year career, Daniel Bolger rose through the ranks of the army infantry to become a three-star general, commanding in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps more than anyone else, he was witness to the full extent of the wars, from 9/11 to withdrawal from the region. Not only did Bolger participate in top-level planning and strategy meetings, but he also regularly carried a rifle alongside soldiers in combat actions. Writing with hard-won experience and unflinching honesty, he argues that while we lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, we did not have to. Intelligence was garbled. Key decision makers were blinded by spreadsheets or theories. And we never really understood our enemy. Why We Lost is a timely, forceful, and compulsively readable account of these wars from a fresh and authoritative perspective.
and#160;
andldquo;Compelling.andrdquo; andmdash; Wall Street Journal
andldquo;Bolger is a superb writer, and the bookandrsquo;s most riveting passages are those describing what itandrsquo;s like to be an infantryman at the sharp end of battle.andrdquo; andmdash; Cleveland Plain Dealer
and#160;
About the Author
After receiving a BA in classics from Dartmouth, Nathaniel Fick served as an infantry oficer and then as an elite Recon Marine. He saw action in Afghanistan and Iraq before leaving the Corps as a captain. He is now a Fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller ONE BULLET AWAY. Fick is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and serves as a Director of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation and the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and an MPA in international security policy from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Table of Contents
Contents
I. P E A C E 1
II. WA R 75
III. A F T E R M AT H 359
Authorand#8217;s Note and Acknowledgments 371