From Booklist
In March 2002, U.S. forces moved into the Shahikot Mountains, hoping to trap and eliminate a substantial number of Al Qaeda fighters. They were handicapped almost fatally by their own lack of numbers, substandard logistics support, the highest altitudes at which Americans had ever fought, and the frigid weather of the mountains. Victory eluded them, although considerable damage was done to the enemy; and disaster may have been averted by the actions of special operations teams drawn from Delta Force and Seal Team 6. These operatives put on a very convincing demonstration of how much of the future of warfare may lie in the hands of small bands of experts engaging the enemy by stealth, with heavy firepower on call, firepower that wasn't always available in Operation Anaconda. Prizewinning Army Times reporter Naylor has written the best full-scale history of Operation Anaconda to date. Roland Green
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Book Description
Command refused to commit the forces required to achieve total victory in Afghanistan. Instead, they delegated responsibility for fighting the war's biggest battle-one that could have broken Al Qaeda and captured Osama bin Laden-to a hodge-podge of units thrown together at the last moment.

At dawn on March 2, 2002, America's first major battle of the 21st century began. Over 200 soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions flew into Afghanistan's Shahikot valley-and into the mouth of a buzz saw. They were about to pay a bloody price for strategic, higher-level miscalculations that underestimated the enemy's strength and willingness to fight.

Now, award-winning journalist Sean Naylor, an eyewitness to the battle, details the failures of military intelligence and planning, and vividly portrays the astonishing heroism of these young, untested U.S. soldiers. Denied the extra infantry, artillery, and attack helicopters with which they trained to go to war, these troops nevertheless proved their worth in brutal combat and-along with the exceptional daring of a small team of U.S. commandos-prevented an American military disaster.

About the Author
Sean Naylor is a senior writer for the Army Times. He has covered the Afghan mujahideen's war against the Soviets, and American military operations in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Named one of the 22 "unsung" influential print reporters in Washington by American Journalism Review in May 2002, he earned the White House Correspondents' Association's prestigious Edgar A. Poe Award for his coverage of Operation Anaconda.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"It was America's first battle of the twenty-first century. At dawn on March 2, 2002, over two hundred soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions flew into the mouth of a buzz saw in Afghanistan's Shahikot Valley. They were about to pay a price in blood for strategic miscalculations at much higher levels of command." "Believing the war in Afghanistan to be all but over, senior leaders in the Pentagon and at U.S. Central Command refused to commit the forces required to achieve total victory there. Responsibility for fighting the war's biggest battle - a battle that offered the opportunity to wipe out hundreds of Al Qaida fighters and kill or capture some of the most senior terrorist leaders - was delegated instead to a hodgepodge of units thrown together at the last moment in a process their staff officers referred to as "ad hocracy."" "The soldiers who flew into the Shahikot that frigid morning were executing a plan that was the product of negotiation and compromise, and which was based on a series of faulty assumptions that underestimated the enemy's strength and willingness to stand and fight." Naylor exposes the mistakes behind a hellish mountaintop fire-fight in which seven brave Americans gave their lives. He tells for the first time the extraordinary story of how thirteen commandos drawn from America's most secret units crept unseen over frozen ridgelines and through snow-clogged mountain passes into the midst of hundreds of hardened enemy fighters and in doing so prevented a U.S. military catastrophe.

FROM THE CRITICS

Linda Robinson - The Washington Post