Warrior Diplomat: A Green Beret’s Battles from Washington to Afghanistan

Waltz, a lieutenant colonel in the Army reserves, commanded a Special Forces company in Afghanistan and held high counterterrorism positions at the Pentagon and White House. Combining what he saw on the ground with what he gleaned in Washington, Waltz offers his thoughts on the U.S. military and government’s management of the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Waltz worked in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, and finds fault with both presidents, and their war policy makers, in a war he believes “was, and still is, worth fighting.” He blames the Bush administration for not setting “clear goals and objectives for why we were in Afghanistan” after defeating the Taliban in 2001, and points to that administration’s “initial reluctance,” and then half-hearted attempts, “to do nation building.” Waltz then castigates the Obama administration for pulling U.S. troops out too soon and then “simply wishing the problem away.” He also has few good things to say about NATO troop performance in Afghanistan. Waltz succeeds in his goal of explaining how the war in Afghanistan has been executed, making a case that the continuing chaos that nation endures is “directly connected” to the U.S. national interest. [em](Nov.) [/em]