"When Billy Summers was twelve years old, He shot and killed his mother's boyfriend after he kicked Billy's sister to death. At 17, he enlisted in the army. At 18, he was a sniper in Iraq and involved in the deadly battle to recapture Fallujah. For nearly twenty years, he's worked as a paid assassin. He's a good guy in a bad job, and he wants out. He takes on a very complicated, very lucrative job that he hopes will be his last. He's got a perfect...

"Four weeks after Navy SEALs had killed Osama bin Laden, President Obama stood in Arlington National Cemetery to deliver his Memorial Day address. He extolled the heroism and sacrifice of the two men buried side by side in the graves before him: Travis Manion, a fallen US Marine, and Brendan Looney, a fallen US Navy SEAL. Although they were killed three years apart, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, these two former roommates and best friends were...

This is the story of how an ordinary Iraqi became a hero to America's elite warriors. Night after night, while his homeland was being destroyed around him, he guided the U.S. Navy SEALs through Iraq's most dangerous regions. Operating under the code name "Johnny Walker," he risked his life on more than a thousand missions and became a legend in the U.S. special-ops community. But in the eyes of Iraq's terrorists and insurgents, he and his family were...

In a collection of compelling, original portraits, the authors celebrate the extraordinary heroism on the battlefield and the equally valuable contributions on the home front of this generation's American veterans.

"When Emma Sky volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, she had little idea what she was getting in to. Her assignment was only supposed to last three months. She went on to serve there longer than any other senior military or diplomatic figure, giving her an unrivaled perspective of the entire conflict. As the representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk in 2003 and then the political advisor...

SSgt. Kyle Vogel leaves a handwritten letter on the seat of his car, grabs a pistol, and steps into a Minnesota forest. Flash back a few months as Vogel lies wounded in a hospital near Anbar Province, Iraq. The night before he's due to return to combat, his doctor, Lt. Kelly Tripp, presses him on why he's so obsessed with collecting battle souvenirs. Kyle proceeds to tell her what happened on Memorial Day, 1993, when, as a 13-year old boy, he discovered...

"Based on a unique set of interviews and British and American documents, this book examines the motives for the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, examines the decision-making inside the Bush administration, and assesses the reasons for the chaotic, bloody, and costly occupation. The attack on America on 9/11 by al Qaeda terrorists transformed the thinking and actions of Bush and his top advisers. Bush conceived the administration's response. Fear,...

The story of K-9 Marine hero Lucca, a decorated and highly skilled military working dog, and the handlers who fought alongside her through two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Specialized Search Dog, Lucca belonged to an elite group trained to work off-leash at long distances from their handlers. She served alongside both Special Forces and regular infantry, and became so sought-after that platoons frequently requested her by name.

Fifteen original essays from American veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan offer first-hand perspectives on what made America's post-9/11 wars such costly and misguided exercises in futility, documenting how the world's self-proclaimed greatest military power went so badly astray.