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“Bing West is the grunt’s Homer.” —L.A. Times
A platoon of Marines and CIA operatives clash in a fight to the death with the drug lords and the Taliban, while in Washington, the president seeks a way out.
A small team of CIA operatives and Marines commanded by Captain Diego Cruz are protecting a tiny base in Helmand—the most violent province in Afghanistan. In a series of escalating fights, Cruz must prove he is a combat leader, despite the growing disapproval of the colonel in overall charge. At the same time, the president has ordered the CIA to capture a drug lord. But with a fortune in heroin at stake, the Taliban joins with the drug lord to wipe out the base. As the president negotiates a secret deal, Cruz must rally the Marines to make a last stand. Bringing you into America’s longest war with vivid immediacy, The Last Platoon portrays how leaders rise or wilt under intense pressure. A searing, timeless story of moral conflict, savage combat, and feckless politics.
Genre: Thriller
“Bing West is the grunt’s Homer.” —L.A. Times
A platoon of Marines and CIA operatives clash in a fight to the death with the drug lords and the Taliban, while in Washington, the president seeks a way out.
A small team of CIA operatives and Marines commanded by Captain Diego Cruz are protecting a tiny base in Helmand—the most violent province in Afghanistan. In a series of escalating fights, Cruz must prove he is a combat leader, despite the growing disapproval of the colonel in overall charge. At the same time, the president has ordered the CIA to capture a drug lord. But with a fortune in heroin at stake, the Taliban joins with the drug lord to wipe out the base. As the president negotiates a secret deal, Cruz must rally the Marines to make a last stand. Bringing you into America’s longest war with vivid immediacy, The Last Platoon portrays how leaders rise or wilt under intense pressure. A searing, timeless story of moral conflict, savage combat, and feckless politics.
Genre: Thriller
Praise for this book
"Among the many virtues Bing West brings to any military/political enterprise is that he knows his shit from the level of the grunt in the foxhole to the SecDef in the Situation Room. He has been there. He has done that. Every page of The Last Platoon radiates authenticity, whether it's the chaos and carnage of a firefight in Afghanistan or the kitchen-table back-and-forth between a Marine husband and wife on the eve of a deployment. And the man can write! If you've only read Bing West's nonfiction (which is universally five-star), you will sit back with satisfaction seeing that he doesn't drop a step shifting into the realm of the novel. The Last Platoon reads like a cinematic thriller with nonstop action and conflict, but it is also informed on every page by the maturity and depth of understanding of a Marine combat officer, a war journalist, and a former assistant Secretary of Defense, who has been in the tall grass for decades and has seen and done it all. The Last Platoon is dark because its subject matter--the folly and arrogance of those at the strategic level and the price in blood that young men and women have to pay at the tactical--is grim and permanent. I read it in one sitting, and I will read it again." - Steven Pressfield
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