On NewsTalk 1370 WCOA, I interview former Army Ranger Dr. Tony Brooks about his bestseller book, Afghanistan and the Taliban.
“Leave No Man Behind is a story of a rescue operation that occurred in 2005,” said Brooks. “Most people are more familiar with this mission because it led to the movie The Lone Survivor, about the recovery of Marcus Luttrell, the Navy SEAL. And this book is really the other side of the story of what it took to bring him home.”
The recovery of the Luttrell was the largest rescue operation since the Vietnam War. Brooks said, “There were hundreds of people involved in the actual rescue. As far as the primary rescue element, there were about 40 Army Rangers on the ground, the first guys on the ground, to try and bring Marcus home.”
On the Taliban, he said, “We’ve been fighting a war for the past 20 years with the main purpose of bringing our men home and making our country a safer place. On the other side of the token is the Taliban. And for them, the most honorable thing they can do in all of this is to die for their cause. So we have an enemy who is trying to die for their cause while we are trying to live for ours. It’s something that I think every American needs to sit down and think about that because it’s not an easy fight to win.”
