Million Bullets

Product Description

In April 2006 a small British peace-keeping force was sent to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Within weeks they were cut off & besieged by some of the worlds toughest fighters: the infamous Taliban who were determined to send the foreigners home again. Defence Secretary John Reid had hoped that Operation Herrick 4 could be accomplished without a shot being fired; instead the Army was drawn into the fiercest fighting it had seen for fifty years. Millions of bullets & thousands of lives have been expended since then in an under-publicized but bitter conflict whose end is still not in sight. Some people consider it the fourth Anglo-Afghan War since Victorian times. How on earth did this happen? & what is it like for the troops on the front line of the War on Terror? James Fergusson takes us to the dark heart of the battle zone. Here in their own words & for the first time are the young veterans of Herrick 4. Here unmasked are the civilian & military officials responsible for planning & executing the operation. Here too are the Taliban themselves to whom Fergusson gained unique & extraordinary access. Controversial fascinating & occasionally downright terrifying A Million Bullets" analyses the sorry slide into war in Helmand & asks this most troubling question: could Britain perhaps have avoided the violence altogether?"