Author Events Meet the Author: Bing West on The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan


BING WEST HAS spoken four times at the Marines’ Memo- rial since 9/11. Bing served as a Marine infantry officer in Viet- nam in the late 1960s. Later, as an analyst at the RAND Corpo- ration, he wrote the Vietnam classic The Vil- lage, about his


counterinsurgency experiences; it has been required reading for all Marines for years. Subsequently, Bing was a professor at the Naval War College before being asked to serve as the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs under President Ronald Reagan. His books on the Iraq War — The March Up, No True Glory, and The Strongest Tribe — have won multiple awards for military non-fiction. His articles appear in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall St. Journal, and other major newspapers.


Bing came to the Marines’ Memorial on 28 February to talk about his most recent book. In his research for the book, West made eight extended trips to Afghanistan. He was embedded with Army and Marine units as they engaged Taliban in fierce fighting. He witnessed the impacts of the emphasis on popula- tion protection over killing the enemy, where commanders now avoid risk. The culture has led to commanders overly supervis- ing subordinates. He gives failing grades to the “winning the hearts and minds” campaign. The flush of money available for commanders at the battalion level has created a culture of enti- tlement among the Afghanis who willingly accept the millions of dollars doled out by the commanders while remaining neutral as they wait to see if the Taliban or the Americans will prevail. In his remarks, he described how the US is paying all the bills in Afghanistan, taking casualties and doing the fight- ing, while leaving the strategic decisions to an untrustworthy Karzai. West challenges the whole concept of nation-building


20 Crossroads Spring 2011


in Afghanistan because it will take ten years and a trillion dol- lars. He acknowledges that a withdrawal would be disastrous. He proposes reducing our troop levels and placing the Afghan soldiers in the lead with American advisors, whose primary task would be to continue training Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban and “win their own war.”


The book has some hair-raising accounts of the kind of fight- ing our Marines and soldiers are engaged in with the Taliban. His account of the heroism of a Corporal Dakota Meyers is spell-binding. Corporal Meyers demonstrated physical courage beyond imagination. Bing West is convinced that Corporal Meyers should receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in rescuing other Americans.


“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” —Mark Twain


MMA READER’S


CORNER Books we recommend…


The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the way out of Afghanistan by Bing West


The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership by Steven B. Sample


Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes War: As Soldiers Really Live It by Sebastian Junger


Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior by General Hugh Shelton USA (Ret.)


Neptune’s Inferno: The US Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer


Defiant Failed State: The North Korean Threat to International Security by Bruce E. Bechtol, Jr.


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