Long story made short: After 9/11 we invaded Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden. The Taliban was in power and gave safe harbor to al-Qaeda and other terrorists. The "tip of the spear" was a small, mobile detail of Special Forces operatives working in concert with CIA paramilitary officers. This is the story of how these men joined forces with the Northern Alliance and took on and defeated the enemy...on horseback.

This riveting story was diligently researched by Doug Stanton and paints a frightening and often bloody picture for the uninitated.

Why I gave it four stars: The story tells itself, and the attention to detail is intense. A few grammatical errors and odd misspellings were a surprise, and the growing intensity of profanity may be off-putting to some.

There was also the issue of the number of characters. Since the book recounts the work of many people, it can be hard to know where the draw the to include or not. It was really hard to keep up with everyone. also one chapter went on and on and on. Break that part up a bit, add a few maps (for the imagination impaired) and it's close to perfect.

I read somewhere that Stanton took liberties at the end of the book to take the book leftward ideologically. My read was not quite so critical. Yes, things did get preachy in the end, but it didn't seem strongly so. The author came away with, and fairly conveyed, a deep admiration for the adaptive tactics for which Special Forces are known.