This Week in "The Hardest Place"
On Thurday, a book talk via CIVIC with Missy Ryan of the Washington Post
It’s been two months since The Hardest Place came out, and with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan underway now, I’m holding my breath along with everyone else who cares about the country to see what unfolds next. Below is a video a friend took in the Pech the other day.
I’ve got two book talks coming up over the next couple weeks that I’m especially excited about. At 10 a.m. this Thursday, May 13, the Center for Protection of Civilians in Conflict—CIVIC, a great organization—is hosting me and Washington Post Pentagon reporter Missy Ryan for a discussion focusing on the accumulating effect of civilian deaths in the Pech over the years, a subject that runs through every chapter of The Hardest Place (you can sign up here). The following Thursday, May 20, ABC’s Martha Raddatz will joing me for an event hosted by the DC bookstore Politics and Prose (sign up here).
These are still Zoom events, but since P&P is in my neighborhood, I’m going to post up afterward at Comet Ping Pong down the block on May 20; the bookstore will have signed copies for sale, and I’m happy to sign anyone’s who stops by to join me for a beer.
It remains gratifying to see the stream of feedback coming in as people with an interest in Afghanistan finish reading the book. I’ve been very pleased to see that some copies have found their way to Kabul, and I enjoyed the commentary after Army magazine described The Hardest Place as “an adequate placeholder for the yet-to-be written official accounting of events in the Pech.”
I’m still updating my daily Twitter thread with photos from the Pech that interview subjects were kind enough to share with me; it’s up into late 2006 now, with 1-32 Infantry settling into the footprint of far-flung outposts that subsequent units would spend years paring down. Keep checking back on it; I’ll keep adding to it.
Also, keep an eye on former deputy CIA director Michael Morell’s “Intelligence Matters” podcast via ABC, the “Angry Planet” podcast, and “Defense One Radio” for appearances later this month.