Read American Cipher Bowe Bergdahl and the US Tragedy in Afghanistan Matt Farwell Michael Ames Books

Product details Hardcover 400 pages Publisher Penguin Press (March 12, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0735221049

American Cipher Bowe Bergdahl and the US Tragedy in Afghanistan Matt Farwell Michael Ames Books Reviews

• Theis book strongly ties the story of Bowe Bergdahl to the history of America’s War in Afghanistan. Well-researched, sharply-written, and empathetic to all the actors (almost all) in this uniquely American tragedy — Farwell, et al., bring into sharp focus the ineptitude of US bureaucracy (Army, State Department, CIA), the hyper-political realities, and the limitations of modern-day newsreporting that delayed the return of Bowe Bergdahl and used his desertion and capture to serve interests of the Army, News corporations, the CIA, etc., but not the Bergdahl family, active-duty soldiers, Bowe, or the nation.
• Just got it in the mail and finished it in two sittings. Excellent journalism; a very interesting and enjoyable read about such a bizarre episode in American history. As well as it’s inportance and significance in our post 9/11 foreign policy.
• Really a good book and I recommend that you listen to it using Audiobook.
  Filled with historical information about subjects the Army for reasons of national security has to keep under public radar during the conflict however the authors exposes the facts in a manner to treat the problem and fix.
  I appreciate the courage of the authors and the General who presided over Bergdahl’s General court-martial in this very controversial affair.
  This book presents lessons to be learned not that many of them are new.
  In light of this book it is sad that Generals like Gen. Lynch and some others who I respect as good have been brought down in political spider webs.
  I started it and i felt like I was reading a recent part of history so I continued until I reached the end.
  Buy the book and I look forward to your review on same.
• Whatever you think you know about the Bergdahl story, and about Afghanistan, you'll learn what an extraordinary event his captivity was. The narrative is threaded with heroes, clowns, tragedies, and with the truth about the war.
• Five stars for this deep dive into the strange odyssey of Bowe Bergdahl, the longest-held American POW since Vietnam.
  — Annie Jacobsen
• Well researched and great writing.
• As a veteran, I read this book and was horrified by the way Bergdahl was treated by the Army. This is an incredible story of the Obama Administration and the Trump Administration and how they used Bergdahl to pursue their own agendas. Read it, you will not be disappointed.
• Bowe Bergdahl walked off a U.S. base in Afghanistan in 2009 and was immediately captured by the Taliban. He languished for five years in captivity before coming home in a prisoner swap in which the U.S. sent five senior Taliban members to Qatar. President Obama proclaimed Bergdahl's return as a great victory, but the public narrative saw it otherwise, believing that we had released five terrorists in exchange for a traitor. But the narrative was at best oversimplified and at worst wrong in many key details. Bergdahl did walk off the base voluntarily, but it was not to collaborate with the enemy, and he paid a terrible price for his foolish decision.
  
  Farwell and Ames have put together a terrific account of the saga, starting with Bergdahl's upbringing in a rigid family in a small town in Idaho, and going through an early attempt to join the Coast Guard (which ended up with his washing out). The book really takes off once Bergdahl walks off the base and gets captured. From there, the description of Berghdahl's awful conditions of captivity intercut with his parents' desperate hopes of U.S. action to rescue him with the sometimes sadly comical bureaucratic maze that U.S. officials (military and civilian) found themselves stuck in.
  
  The authors do not preach, but when all is said and one, I came away feeling that the final disposition of the case was fair and reasonable.