Chivers gives us direct personal accounts of the men and women who fight our wars. The stories are riveting first-hand accounts of battle and the horrors that follow and the aftermath of what happens to the fighters afterward. Chivers raises the bigger question that is surprisingly absent from public debate--why are we still in Afghanistan and Iraq after nearly 20 years? Definitely, recommend this book. ( )

I have read numerous books detailing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that were informative and well done. This book is unique in that it follows these wars through the eyes of six combatants. Each story is unique and like the wars themselves, do not always have a happy ending. After reading their stories, one can really get a feel for the true price we have paid in these efforts. This was an amazing look at war, why people fight, what they and those who love them have endured and why we owe them so much more than we are doing for them. ( )

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The Fighters by C.J. Chivers is a non-fiction book offering unnerving accounts of soldiers on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Chivers is a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist and former Marine Corps infantry officer.

This book is a riveting read which tells of the harsh truths, challenges and pains of fighting two wars in distant countries, away from home. If you like your “alternate facts”, or happy stories this book is not for you. But if you’d like to read what US soldiers are going through, face some ugly truths and difficult facts this is it.

The author tells real stories of real soldiers that have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, some are new to the military and others are veterans of other conflicts. Their stories are told from a humane point of view and takes into account the human factor and the toll fighting takes on one’s self and one’s family.

The book is told from a third person perspective, but we read the background on each of them and see them as individuals, not just soldiers who are small cogs in a big machine who have opinions on what they do, why they do it, and suffer the consequences along with hundreds of thousands of others.

Mr. Chivers’ does some analysis, not much but some, in the course of the book. His analysis is reasonable and based on facts, you or I might agree or disagree with some of them, but that is what reasonable people do. The author does not make up facts, but makes reasonable assumptions and tries to stay as objective as possible.

The book is very real and raw, it makes several points – some on geopolitical matters which I do not know enough to comment on, but others on local level. One of the main points is how the US, as a whole, needs to treat our veterans better, especially those that are suffering from physical and/or mental wounds. Coming home broken is not a weakness, but one does need strength and support, as well as no social stigma, to ask for help when needed.

If you feel inclined, please support the Wounded Warrior Project, or any other of the fantastic organizations that were set up to help these veterans. ( )

Afghanistan,Iraq, war-is-hell, war-experiences, nonfiction -----

This is one tough read. This journalist shows the waste, poor planning, and ineptitude of self aggrandizement by the Congress and the armed forces brass in this seemingly endless war to save the lives of people who no longer believe us by verbally delving into the lives of a number of combatants in all branches of the US armed forces. If the reader is in a paramedical field or law enforcement, there will be triggers in the graphic descriptions of incidents and results. He covers the time from early days after the attacks in the US to present days, and the reader can see for self that only those who had or have boots on the ground are the ones who really care, and the families suffer right along with them for as long as they can.
I requested and received a free review copy from Simon and Schuster Publishers via NetGalley. ( )