Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Politics & government

ONE MILLION STEPS

Bing West

A Marine Platoon at War

In ONE MILLION STEPS, Bing West embedded with the 50 Marines of 3rd Platoon, who were attempting to control the most violent area of Afghanistan in 2010-2011. West tells of the troops' everyday struggles and draws a scathing broader picture of the policymakers whose failed strategy cost lives. Half of the 3rd Platoon did not survive.

Aware of U.S. plans to withdraw from the country, knowing their efforts were only a footprint in the sand, the fifty Marines of 3rd Platoon fought in Sangin, the most dangerous district in all of Afghanistan. So heavy were the casualties that the secretary of defense offered to pull them out. Instead, they pushed forward. Each Marine in 3rd Platoon patrolled two and a half miles a day for six months—a total of one million steps—in search of a ghostlike enemy that struck without warning. Every day brought a new skirmish. Each footfall might trigger an IED. Half the Marines in 3rd Platoon didn’t make it intact to the end of the tour. One Million Steps is the story of the fifty brave men who faced grim odds and refused to back down. These Marines—four-year volunteers, not career soldiers—attacked and attacked. When a leader was struck down, another rose up to take his place. How does one man instill courage in another? What explains their ferocity? What welded these men together as firmly as steel plates? Based on 3rd Platoon’s handwritten log, as well as months of face-to-face interviews, this is a gripping grunt’s-eye view of life on the front lines of America’s longest war. Writing with a combat veteran’s compassion for the fallen, Bing West also offers a damning critique of the higher-ups who expected our warriors to act as nation-builders—and whose failed strategy put American lives at unnecessary risk. This remarkable book is the story of warriors caught between a maddening, unrealistic strategy and their unswerving commitment to the fight. Fearsome, inspiring, and poignant in its telling, One Million Steps is sure to become a classic, a unique and enduring testament to the American warrior spirit. Francis J. "Bing" West is a highly decorated Marine veteran and served as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. A nationally acclaimed war correspondent, he has written eight books on military history, which have become New York Times and Foreign Affairs bestsellers. Most recently, he is the co-author of Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer's memoir, Into the Fire. Please visit www.bingwest.com

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Book Published 2014-09-09 by Random House

Comments

One Million Steps should be mandatory reading for every citizen who wants to understand the reality of the war we are in with those who would destroy our civilization and kill us. It is a stunning, sobering, and brilliantly written book. Every presidential candidate should read it and then meet with Bing West. It is a first step to rethinking the thirteen years of strategic failure we have been engaged in.

One of the most intrepid military journalists of our time, Bing West, delivers a heart-wrenching account of one platoon’s fight for victory and survival on the front lines of Afghanistan. West reveals what inspired these fearless warriors, and what each of us can learn from them.

Bing West has created another masterpiece of war reporting. His first, The Village, was his personal account of leading a Marine rifle platoon in Vietnam. Now he has done it again. If you want a firsthand account of small-unit infantry combat, this book is it, and few others will ever top it.

One Million Steps transcends combat narrative: It is an epic of contemporary small-unit combat that in austere prose depicts the old fighting virtues of selflessness, skill, and perseverance. It is, at the same time, a stinging indictment of our strategy in Afghanistan that inspires reflection on wars upon which we have closed one chapter, but not, in all probability, the book.

Once again, Bing West has absolutely nailed it! This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how much we ask of the young men and women who fight on our behalf. And it’s a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the human element—and the human toll—of war in the modern era.

Bing West has spent a decade chronicling the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the Marine grunt’s viewpoint. West has seen more war than most professional soldiers or Marines and he has never flinched from going where the fighting is heaviest. One Million Steps is the latest (and he says final) product of his courageous ground-level reporting. Like his other books, it displays remarkable empathy for the warriors on the front lines. West shows the reality of modern warfare in a way that is utterly gripping—and utterly different from the sanitized picture presented in the news.

These are Marines at the Marine Corps’s best—worthy successors to all who wore the cloth before them. Bing West uses his Marine infantry experience in Vietnam to great advantage, comparing and contrasting strategy, tactics, technology, and daily life. He ends by expressing frustration because such great sacrifices are being made willingly and eagerly by admirable Marines—but to what end? This book will indeed make you think and ask why.