WAR As Soldiers Really Live It is the result of five trips to the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan taken by embedded reporter Simon Junger and photojournalist Tim Hetherington. The longest trips lasted a month during which time they were entirely dependent on the US military for security, shelter, food and transportation. The young men fighting our war represent less than one percent of our country in America’s unsupported war in Afganistan. They join up for a variety of reasons, but in the end they fight and die for brotherhood. They may hate each other, but they would die for each other. The welfare of the group comes before the welfare of the individual. They don’t ask the question what are we doing in Afganistan, it’s not their job to ask. Their job is to fight and survive. Some of these young men have done three and four tours on the front lines. This is the real story of the physical exhaustion, the suffocating heat, the gunfire and the agony of seeing your brothers die while knowing that you may be next. This exceptional book should be read and thought about, absorbed and felt, cried over and celebrated. Whether you agree with the Afghanistan war or not, you cannot help but admire, trust and love the men fighting on the front lines. They are our brothers, our children, our fathers — our heros.
This book has been made into a documentary called Restrepo, named after the outpost where much respected medic Juan Restrepo was killed in the Korengal Valley. Restrepo won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the SUNDANCE Film Festival for 2010.
“An extraordinary, shattering depiction of war.”
— Jada Yuan, New York Magazine
Sebastian Junger is the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Storm and A Death in Belmont. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and has been awarded a National Magazine Award and an SAIS Novartis Prize for journalism.