The outpost

Jake Tapper, the CNN anchor and former Washington correspondent, traces how a remote American base in Nuristan, Afghanistan, came to be the site of one of the bloodiest engagements the U.S. military fought in that war. The book follows the young soldiers who held the position, many of whom were barely out of their teens, and sets their courage against a chain of decisions made by senior commanders far from the fighting. Tapper also places the battle within a larger campaign whose goals and strategy kept changing, leaving those on the ground to make do with unclear orders.