Giving a speech, April 16, 2010, to the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale in Paris. As commander of ISAF, I was not only the top American officer but also the commander of all NATO nations’ forces. This and other such speeches, primarily in Europe, were part of my responsibility to build a team out of a diverse coalition of allies and respond to their concerns over the war and its prosecution.
With General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of Pakistan’s army, visiting ISAF headquarters in Kabul, December 2009. Our relationship with Pakistan was crucial to the overall strategic situation in Afghanistan but was complicated by decades of mistrust.
Meeting with a local on the street in Maimanah, Afghanistan, March 15, 2010. My tours around the country were as much about connecting with troops and allies dispersed to combat outposts as listening to and trying to understand men like the one I am greeting in this photo.
Then–Lieutenant General Dave Rodriguez—better known as General Rod—meeting with Afghan National Army officers. With more experience in and knowledge of Afghanistan than any other senior military leader, Rod commanded the daily battle during my tenure as commander of ISAF forces. He was, throughout, my best friend and a close partner with a difficult task.
Two of the finest special operators I’ve known. Then–Brigadier General Scott Miller (left) led Task Force 16 in Iraq and was the architect of many of our successes there. Here in Afghanistan, while leading the ISAF coalition’s special operations, Miller is with then–Major Khoshal “Kosh” Sadat, an exemplary officer and my trusted aide-de-camp.
On the receiving end of a bear hug from my classmate, comrade, and friend General Ray Odierno at my retirement ceremony, held at Fort McNair on July 23, 2010. At the time, Ray was commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq. He has gone on to become chief of staff of the army.
We met these two young boys during a visit to Jalez, Afghanistan, a hotly contested area not far from Kabul. I thought their faces captured what was ultimately at stake in the war. I had this picture hung in the small room at our Kabul headquarters where we ate meals.
Acknowledgments
The people who made this book possible fall into two groups. The first are those who made the life I’ve enjoyed all that it has been. Beginning with my parents, that group includes a cast of family, friends, teachers, coaches, comrades, and countless figures who shaped me and the age I experienced. To them, I hope the life I led, imperfect as it has been, reflected my admiration and gratitude.
To the officers, commissioned and noncommissioned, who taught me the profession of arms I owe more than I can adequately describe. Possibly more important than the commanders were the experienced noncommissioned officers, who epitomized the professionalism the U.S. military regained in the decades following Vietnam.
As an American, I owe special thanks to a collection of people, military and civilian, who answered the call time and again. The decade following September 11, 2001, confronted a small military with years of relentless combat, often waged by the same selfless professionals. Alongside our civilian and allied partners, this generation served, often at great cost.
Much of the first group is also part of the second: those who directly contributed to the creation of this book. The common denominator has been selfless and generous donations of time and wisdom to a novice author. Where the book soars toward real literature, you have been the reason. Where the wings fall off and Icarus plummets, I am to blame. In every case I am in your debt. A number of the soldiers, civilians, and diplomats who shared their insights and recollections are still out there—keeping the bridge. Their continued service, and in some cases their safety, requires that they go unnamed here. I have thus chosen not to list anyone by name, though I hope all who participated see how their generosity of time and energy has left a positive mark on the book—and know, thus, how indebted I am.