In this military history, Doug Stanton recounts how, shortly after 9/11, Special Forces troops were sent into Afghanistan to do what they do best. Working side by side with the Northern Alliance, and being careful not to alienate the civilian population, the soldiers traveled and fought on horseback, winning ground in the North and eventually liberating the city of Mazar-i-Sharif from years of Taliban rule. Triumph led to crisis when a large band of Taliban prisoners turned the tables on their Northern Alliance captors while being held in the House of War, a well-fortified and well-stocked fortress built during the British occupation. This precipitated a dramatic, and prolonged, battle between outnumbered Special Forces troops and the combined Taliban, al-Qaeda and Pakistani enemy. Stanton provides a soldier's level view of the intense combat, along with portraits of leaders of the American and Northern Alliance forces and their troops. HORSE SOLDIERS conveys the author's great admiration for the bravery and sacrifices of the warriors, and provides a solid argument that the kind of battles that were and will be fought in the region require this very kind of elite, small-unit soldiering. Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 100 Best Books of 2009.

Documents the post-September 11 mission during which a small band of Special Forces soldiers captured the strategic Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif as part of an effort to defeat the Taliban, in a dramatic account that includes testimonies by Afghanistan citizens whose lives were changed by the war.

Documents the post-September 11 mission during which a small band of Special Forces soldiers captured the strategic Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif as part of an effort to defeat the Taliban, in a dramatic account that includes testimonies by Afghanistan citizens whose lives were changed by the war.