Gentlemen Bastards: On the Ground in Afghanistan with America's Elite Special Forces - Kevin Maurer

Gentlemen Bastards: On the Ground in Afghanistan with America's Elite Special Forces - Kevin Maurer, 256 pages

The Green Berets have long been one of America's premiere fighting forces focusing on counter insurgency techniques as their primary fighting tool.  In the early stages of the war in Afghanistan the Green Berets helped put the Taliban on the run by unifying Northern Alliance fighters.

Now nine years later, the author Maurer sets out to write the update to the classic books on the exploits of the Green Berets in previous wars.  But he finds out that the mission of the Special Forces has changed primarily to raids instead of building relationships to strengthen the indigenous forces ability to fight for the themselves.  This book celebrates the fighting men of the Special Forces and their dedication to the mission even when bureaucracy gets in the way of success.  Maurer brings the reader to the battlefield with vivid and honest descriptions of the people he encounters and relationships formed while embedded with the Green Berets.