This is a phenomenal book and should be required reading for all the knee jerk liberals like me who have had nothing but disdain for the military. What impressed Junger the most during his several months series of embedments with the US army in Afghanistan was the closeness of the men in his units. These soldiers didn't talk about bringing democracy to Afghanistan or any other political or social raison d'etre for their being in what could be described as a Hell on earth. Their only goal was to protect each other from dying even at the risk of dying themselves. This was the theme throughout the book and fortunately, Junger is better at describing what he lived through than I am at summarizing what he wrote. He recounts being with a sixteen man unit in the Taliban infested mountains of Afghanistan under unbelievable conditions. Most of the time, there was one hundred degree plus heat, travel for miles on foot with 75-100 pounds on your back, very few showers, no hot meals and little sleep. This was all in addition to Taliban fighters trying to kill you at any opportunity. There was an adrenaline high for the soldiers involved in combat and always the fear that you might let down one of your comrades and be responsible for his death.
There was a great deal of war in War, but Junger does more than bloody battles and provides an enlightening account of backgrounds and psychological make-up of the men he served with as well as history, geography, tactics, weapons resulting in a spellbinding book which, ironically, I finished on Memorial Day.