Wesley Morgan ‘10/’11
Americans’ understanding of the war in Afghanistan is largely shaped by one small, remote corner of the country where American military action has been concentrated: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan provinces. The rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made the region a natural hiding spot for targets in the American war on terror, from Osama bin Laden to the Islamic State, and it has been the site of constant U.S. military activity for nearly two decades. Even as the U.S. presence in Afghanistan transitions to a drone war, the Pech has remained at the center of it, a testbed for a new method of remote warfare. In his new book The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley, Wesley Morgan ‘10/’11 unravels the history of the area and the character of the war through both American and Afghan eyes.