Welcome Wesley Morgan as he discusses The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley with guest, the Wall Street Journal's Nancy Youssef!
About The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley:
Of the many battlefields on which U.S. troops and intelligence operatives fought in Afghanistan, one remote corner of the country stands as a microcosm of the American campaign: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan. The area's rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made it a natural hiding spot for local insurgents and international terrorists alike, and it came to represent both the valor and futility of America's two-decade-long Afghan war.
Drawing on reporting trips, hundreds of interviews, and documentary research, Wesley Morgan reveals the history of the war in this iconic region, captures the culture and reality of the conflict through both American and Afghan eyes, and reports on the snowballing missteps--some kept secret from even the troops fighting there--that doomed the American mission. The Hardest Place is the story of one of the twenty-first century's most unforgiving battlefields and a portrait of the American military that fought there.
***
Wesley Morgan is a journalist who has covered the U.S. military and its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2007. His reporting has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and other outlets, and from 2017 to 2020 he covered the Pentagon for Politico. He is a graduate of Princeton University. You can follow him on Twitter at @wesleysmorgan.
Nancy Youssef is a national security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. She previously reported for Buzzfeed News, The Daily Beast, and McClatchy Newspapers, where she served as national security correspondent, Middle East bureau chief based in Cairo, chief Pentagon correspondent focusing on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Iraq correspondent, including a stint as Baghdad bureau chief. Her pieces focused on the everyday Iraqi experience, civilian casualties, and how the U.S.'s military strategy was reshaping Iraq's social and political dynamics. A native of the Washington, DC area whose parents are from Egypt, she is an Arabic speaker and a graduate of the University of Virginia and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
***
This event will be hosted in-person at Lost City Books! Masks and temperature checks will be required of all attendees.
Accessibility note: This event will be held up two fight of stairs. Lost City Books does not have an elevator. This event will be simultaneously live streamed on our YouTube page!
The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley will be available at Lost City Books!