Hinterlands

The Korengal Valley of Afghanistan was one of the most dangerous places in the world during 2008. There on a daily basis, brave Americans confronted the grim realities of a determined guerilla resistance, as they opposed an all but invisible enemy exercising a ruthless determination to achieve their objectives at all costs and without heed to civilized rules of war. Using improvised explosive devices and ambush tactics, the stubborn jihadists of the region worked fanatically to sap the American will to fight by bleeding its forward forces white via use of the most brutal weapons on hand. Deployment there became a crapshoot of possibilities â€" the hapless gamblers rolling snake-eyes would die or suffer life-altering injury. Nobody served there unscathed.