The Other War

HEADNOTE

A new book sheds critical light on military operations in Afghanistan.

Three years ago this month, U.S. troops in Afghanistan waged a key battle against al Qaeda terrorists in southeastern Afghanistan. To

the extent Operation Anaconda is known outside military circles, it is generally viewed the way senior military commanders have portrayed it-as a heroically fought, successful operation, albeit with some friction between the Army and the Air Force over the role of air power. A new book, published this month, promises to dispel that view.

In Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda (The Berkley Publishing Group, 2005), author Sean Naylor paints a riveting and disturbing picture of an operation hampered by turf wars between Army and Navy special forces, abysmal intelligence, reliance on an ad hoc task force of troops who had never trained together, and planners more focused on the coming war in Iraq than on operations in Afghanistan. As in an earlier battle fought at Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan, hundreds of al Qaeda fighters escaped.