<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/768971192/in/photostream/">The U.S. Army</a>/Flickr
Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
ALFRED A. KNOPF
Before turning his attention to our other military misadventure, Washington Post associate editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran wrote Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a damning Iraq War exposé that became the basis for Green Zone, that Matt Damon flick you probably missed. Here he returns with a highly readable chronicle of Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan. Little America offers a window into the thinking of our key decision makers, along with the requisite political and cultural context; his apt portrayal of the Afghan perspective and on-the-ground tensions—as when Richard Holbrooke, the late US envoy, backed a Karzai rival for president—makes the book a must for policy shapers and voters alike.
