title: The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014
author:  Carlotta Gall 
description: "A valuable contribution to a hefty body of work on the American war in Afghanistan that has become stale and somewhat hackneyed. It provides a raw, unvarnished and important look at one of the darkest and least understood parts of the Afghan war.Ms. Gall, a reporter for The New York Times in Afghanistan and Pakistan for more than a decade, beginning shortly after Sept. 11, is in an extraordinary position to write this important and long overdue book." --<b><i>The New York Times</i></b>
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  ![](images/West_9781588369321_epub_tp_r1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2011, 2012 by Francis J. West, Jr.
  
  
  Maps copyright © 2011 by David Lindroth, Inc.
  
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  
  Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House
  Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
  
  
  RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
  
  
  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA  
  West, Francis J.  
  The wrong war : grit, strategy, and the way out of Afghanistan / Bing West.  
  p. cm.  
  Includes index.  
  eISBN: 978-1-58836-932-1  
  1\. Afghan War, 2001– 2. United States—Armed Forces—Afghanistan. I. Title.  
  DS371.412.W47 2011  
  958.104’7—dc22 2010043107
  
  
  [www.atrandom.com](http://www.atrandom.com)
  
  
  Cover photograph: Yoray Liberman/Getty Images
  
  
  v3.1
  
  
  
  
  
  # NOTE TO THE READER
  
  
  I recorded on video many of the firefights described in the book. The videos
  are posted on YouTube under the user name [BingWest.