The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education by Craig M. Mullaney. Penguin Press, 2009.

I just finished this outstanding book and can’t recommend it highly enough. It is a very moving story of a soldier who completes West Point, goes to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and then to Afghanistan as a platoon leader. He explores challenges in his professional and personal life and reminds us all that the two are connected.

This book also gives insight into the war in Afghanistan, a place that has, until recently, been ignored by the news reporters. Some of my favorite lines from the book:

• “Afghans say Americans have all the watches but they have all the time.”
• “At West Point we’d learned that responsibility preceded privilege. I had forgotten how odd that sentiment appeared outside the military.”
• “Every time units played musical chairs in Afghanistan, we became vulnerable again. Every time the music stopped, another unit would start over learning the physical and cultural terrain. The lack of continuity certainly frustrated relationships with local khans. Trust was hard-won in this part of the world, and we were treating Afghan leaders like contestants in a round of speed dating.”
• “The challenge of education is not to prepare a person for success, but to prepare him for failure. ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE”

I encourage anyone interested in learning more about leadership, the military, or Afghanistan to read this book.