in georgia is a mystery writer who writes about history in the washington, d.c. has a new book coming out his wife told me about it because she exercises at the same i go to and so i'm looking for to that because he sets the scene on the streets i travel every day. >> phyllis what you are reading this summer. send us a tweet at book tv. >> up next on booktv majeure rusty brusquely and army special forces team leader who recently finished his fifth tour in afghanistan. he talks about his experience fighting the taliban. this is just over 20 minutes. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to barnes and noble of north carolina. i would like to introduce major

rusty bradley. thank you. >> i want to thank everybody for coming. [applause] i want to thank you all for coming kevin is not going to be able to attend tonight. he had a significant event, but the last minute, and i hate that because kevin was extremely significant and the writing in the production of the project and it really wouldn't have taken off without him. let me start by extending a very sincere thank you behalf of coming to light this project has taken four years in the making indicative of this community and with a means to the soldiers who serve your. let me start by telling any of you that are not from this area

this is fadel and fort bragg, home of the special operations and 82nd airborne division. there are probably two things you need to know about this area. number one is no place you want to end up in a bar fight. number two, this is the home he rose come from. the reason that i wrote this book is because i happened to have the privilege of knowing some of them and some of them are with us tonight because the security reasons i would point out, but those men are the reasons i wrote this book. we put all the effort we could into it, and then i would give everything i have to be able to walk that ground one more time. there are true heroes and that is the most common question that i have. there's a lot of common questions scientifically asked about the book. but what i want to do is break from the norm and give anybody who has a question the

opportunity to ask the question and to see if i can feel any answers anybody might want to have. yes, sir. cynical kind of review did you have to go through to get the book released? >> given that i was a special operations officer on the active duty to be authorized to write a book while on active duty we completely were vetted from the public affairs and the safety offices of the third special forces group u.s. army special operations command, the actual special operations command and the department of the army. so we got approval release from the unit and operational level the we ought to the top. and it's kind of neat that this was a just returned one month ago from this list deployment to afghanistan and to be able to come home and have the book coming out this time was very

special. >> the process of the book. we started writing it -- >> the review. >> of the review i believe took about a month and a half. i think they went through pretty thoroughly. but again this was one of the most important things about this book that's really starting to resonate across the entire country is the fact that the book is about victory. what these guys did we were able to do on the ground. i was just lucky enough to be a part of its. what they did was about victory. it was a small group of ordinary men who did something absolutely extraordinary. it's not about defeat or sheer escape. it's about the man who directly to themselves in front of the enemies of the country and came to the aid of the entire task force.

yes, sir? >> did you have any prep work before you went on fox? >> there was a pao from the army and we discussed some of the issues that we thought what a rise. >> thank you. i think what is important is i just want to stick to the story line and the story line is about the men and what they accomplished and how important the public outside of the military and special operations need to get some of afghanistan is especially kandahar it's the crossroads of the five major cities it's been significant in the center of gravity since alexander the great, southern afghanistan is where everything travels from what is considered old persian to asia which is

part of the reason that the british were so intent on controlling it twice. it's hugely significant about the area and that is what we want to -- that's what we want people to know and understand it is not just this one glimpse in time. it has been for centuries and remains today even during the war and exceptionally diverse and dynamic place where the soldiers are serving. >> there are a lot war books. this was one of the best i've read. this was great. it got towards the end it was intense.

>> thank you very much. it took a lot of hard work. again i think the biggest challenge for me was because of some of the security requirements, having to tone down what a lot of the men who did their actually did and what they've accomplished. it is nothing short of phenomenal, and i am hoping that people buy it because they want to know what the soldiers are doing. they wanted with the afghans are doing for themselves. that is a very consistent question that comes out is how much are the afghans actually contributing. this is important because it relates directly to the units that we saw or that you read about in the book or units that we help to build in the early years and trained with us so they considered us almost afghans and brothers and they

would operate and execute like professional soldiers and that's something that is missing and i think that the national understanding of what's going on in afghanistan. >> i think it was kind of on the same par. i hope they make a movie out of it. >> i do, too. but i think in all honesty the hard part is knowing what i saw with my own on gays and thinking somebody could never replicate it. listening to your man on the radio doing things people normally see on the movies that are so surreal and wondering if they can never really capture the true terror and the acceleration that the guys went

through. it's kind of a double-edged sword. but at the end of the day i had a good friend of mine and who gave me some really good advice, and i are originally told them i just want people to know about the story. i don't want to get wrapped up in how successful it is and he said you've got it all wrong you want it to be overwhelmingly successful because that is when you will know that people really are starting to find out about the story. >> she made a comment that i felt i could feel it from the book and maybe want to comment on it. he said literally the and use every bit of ordinance in that part of afghanistan. they had to call in planes. >> i wish dave was here tonight but there's a lot of guys i wish could have been here.

dave is one of those phenomenal heros that is just a mean old dog and he will never get on the porch. that's why she has so much respect from the soldiers that he served with. that is absolutely true on multiple occasions we ran out of nearly ran out of ammunition which is one of the chapters called black on ammo. i believe one part in the battle moly we run out of small arms ammunition but we actually had run out of aircraft. we went through i believe about 79 aircraft which is almost unthinkable unless you think about massive conflicts like vietnam or world war ii or korea we're literally there was an aircraft carrier that support had been shifted from iraq to afghanistan to respond to the amount of taliban that were being interdicted in the valley.

so to say that at some moments it was extremely dhaka year is kind of an understatement, but i think that anybody there's some men in this room who stood that brought with me and refused to give it up and once we still american blood on it they will tell you that the u.s. air force, god bless them, they came through on time and on target. yes, sir. as the mikey mengin your experience. do you foresee a time when you will write another book either in your town active duty or retired? >> yes, sir, i do. hopefully if we can make this book successfully enough there was a follow-on operation that we were expected to conduct right after the operation and was called operation eagle summit.

today we were short of security forces that we were unable to hold a lot of the ground and villages that we have cleared. so after we have cleared them and withdrawn taliban moved back in the, and again, the guys from the first battalion were called to go in and clean out those taliban coming in health they did it was completely different from what was done the first time. so i hope that opportunity does arise to be able to. i'm putting pen to paper so we will have one ready. yes, sir. >> every now and then you hear about efforts to talk to the taliban about how you feel about that. >> i'm sorry, repeat the question. >> every now and then you hear about efforts to talk to the taliban. how do you feel about that? >> a lot of people that have

thrown that question out haven't spent much time in the country were understand the ideology of the extremism of the taliban. there is no negotiating with these people. we are talking about the same people when they can't destroy the coalition or engage coalition forces they turn on their own people. the cut the noses and ears of children and disembowel women in front of their husbands. these are not people that we are going to be able to sit down and expect some level of negotiation with and that is by their admittance, nothing i have to say as a military officer. that is what the of clearly stated consistently. so i think when i hear people ask that and you have seen what they will do and the knowledge of the senior leaders who ordered it or know that it is taking place and don't do anything to prevent by their

lower level fighters it is indicative of what is organizations -- what those people would do to any number of any westerner or american if they were given the opportunity. >> estimate is well documented after the soldiers were thrown out, what they did to their own people. >> they really have no control except for fear and that is a terrorist organizations do, they feed off people's terror. you see how the insurgency continues to more and what makes what happened in 2006 just as applicable today for the land they don't control and people they don't control of course

they are going to go into kandahar city and try to overthrow the police station because the people in their own villages are telling them they don't want them there anymore and they want them to leave. that is what makes the events like this even today that much more significant and why we have placed so much effort to into taking the grassroots out from under the taliban when they have no locally popular support because is their birthplace. they have to control but they can't and they are losing their grip on it quickly which is why they become more extreme and worthless. i'm reading a book their personalities and when they try to fight together how did it come together like that? what is the battle on?

you see dave or both aves totally different and when it is time to fight the mesh so well. what do you see on that? >> the quality of the caliber of the man. for those of you that don't know much about the special forces you are recruited, selected, trained because we are fiercely independent and smart. you are productive, you are competitive, and also a team player and the brotherhood of the men who stand next to you, it's not -- i will steal a line from the colonel more it is not about apple pie is up to die fighting to your left or right and at the end of the day that is why the site so cohesively because it is all about the brotherhood. you read about guys that were wounded and treated under fire,

we treat each other under fire and then turned around and got medevac and almost got into fistfights and hospitals so they could come back to their unit. that's not -- that's not something out of a movie. that really happens and that's the call the and the caliber of the men that we are worried about in this book. >> anybody else? okay. >> just a comment. >> rusty, for all of us that know you and love you, welcome home and we are so proud of you for this book of the journey that you are about to take this phenomenal. >> thank you very much. so, that's very humbling to be part of not just the military, but the community, my church family. anybody?

any misspellings? [laughter] >> [inaudible] given what you just said about taliban you can't negotiate with them and getting to withdraw what is the long-term prospect? >> i just dodged a couple of those very sharp wits not long ago. it's a very fair question. what all i will tell you is i think having started deploying in 2002 at the very end of the very beginning of this and then coming back recently having seen the paradigm change through the continuum of the nine years of the war i will tell you number one we are making progress. it's not being told to you and that frustrates me to know and which is one of the reasons i think i hope that people like this book is so they understand that this kind of heroism goes on on their behalf every day not just by special forces but by the men and women who served all over the world not just in

afghanistan and iraq. the commander in chief says go that's where i go. we have gotten more accomplished i think in the last probably year, a year and a half since that support arrived. we've been able to gain more ground and push areas that the taliban held. we've been able to expand in areas where the taliban were desperately trying to push the afghan national security forces. i will tell you that the afghans have taken complete control over the district said the provinces in afghanistan, which i don't necessarily know that that is being portrayed to people, but what we are doing is of u.s. strategic interest because these people lonely desert our help, but they want our help.

we need strategic partners in that portion of the world if we are going to step back from this and look at it. we need strategic partners between iran and pakistan. we need strategic partners between all of the tajikistan and uzbeckistan and the border of the sea which we are western pakistan. we need partners who are going to be willing to work with us long term. one of the stories i like to tell is afghans are not a very well-educated people and when i say well-educated, most of the men can't even find their own name. they are brilliant people. they can speak five languages, four to five languages fluently. they can't read or write their own name, they don't have a third grade education, they can't do any semblance of mass other day -- other than dealing with paper money. when you teach a mujahideen commander that has been fighting

for 40 of his 50 years of life he comes to you and you teach how to write beyond nei meter in pashtu or english you give him a sense of pride that he's never know and and his generations have never known and then he will look to you and be more loyal and faithful, excuse me, just as loyal and faithful as the guy that brings his burned daughter to you screaming for somebody to help them there is no health care in afghanistan, there is no medical care and when they bring them to you you know that you are the only a semblance of health and freedom that they are ever going to see. and even if it doesn't turn out the way the storybooks want it to they know that you tried to help. but people have nothing that makes all the difference in the world. so i think it will take some time to help educate them while we are helping train them, but i think that we will have an honest and loyal partner because you have to remember we are

working with not only the grown afghans in the generations of afghans that have survived the soviets, we are also training and mentoring a lot of the children where i mean, one of the things i don't think many people know is that there is a lot of the u.s. units good orphanages and spent time with children and pass out humanitarian aid and supplies. it's not all about fighting. there's a well rounded concept that goes into what we do, and there is a lot more to it and i kind of wish that message was getting out. that is a long drawn-out question and i know some of the guys that are on my team are in the room and they are like to ask him he's going to tell you. [laughter] i hope that answers your question.

>> the drawdown? >> i have seen what these guys can do. this 30 forces against the taliban line not worried. i worry about the trips when i got started on my shoulders. [applause] >> anybody? thank you free much for coming. [applause] >> you are watching book tv on c-span2. 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend. >> i am a very hopeful person, an unrepentant idealists and i have come to understand hopefulness and idealism as strength, as blessings and this

book as much as anything as a gesture of gratitude to some of the people who have given me those gifts of hopefulness and idealism, the teachers to give me the reason to believe in a brighter future, the family and strangers too who gave me the reason to believe in the power of kindness, the church ladies on the south side of chicago who gave me the reason to believe in the essence of faith and the voters for that matter of given me the reason to believe in the politics of conviction and many others. a friend of mine described the book recently as a love story which for me was the most powerful complement i could be given. i wanted to write about these people and the lessons they taught me for two reasons. first, because they have done more than help me succeed. they taught me want to be better, to be a better leader, a better husband and parent, a better citizen. and second, because it is within each of us to pass these kind of lessons on to others in fact i think we have a generational

responsibility to do just that. as some of you know and as was alluded to in the introduction i grew up on the south side chicago in the 50's and 60's most of that time on welfare. my mother and sister and i shared a two-bedroom tenement with their grandparents and various cousins. my mother and sister and i actually lived in one of those bedrooms and shared a set of but beds so you go from the top bunk to the bottom bunk to the floor every third light on the floor. i went to big broken sometimes violent public schools, but we had a community because those were the days every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block. remember that? u.s. that in front of miss jones and should straighten you out as if he were hers and then call home say you got it two times and i think what they were trying to get across to us is they have a stake in us and the membership in the community was understanding the stick that each of us has, not just in our

own dreams and struggles, but in our neighbors as well. given the expectations that much of society has for poor black people and the circumstances like mine, i am not supposed to be where i am today. my story isn't probable but it's at the same time a distinctly american story. and it may not get told as often as we would like in this country, kaput it gets cold more in this country than any other place on earth. it is a defining story. in 1970i got a break for a program called a better chance to go to the milton academy. and for me, that was like landing on a different planet. i saw it for the first time the night before classes began in 1970. all by myself. my family didn't see it until graduation day. i remember they had a dress code in those days the boys wore jackets and ties to class is so that when the closing arrived my

grandparents splurged on a brand new jacket for me to wear to class. but a jacket on the south side chicago was a windbreaker. the first day's class all the other boys were putting on their blazers and there could tweed coats and there was i in my windbreaker and i want to point out that i had figured out. [laughter] i struggled to find my footing but again there were teachers and other adults that reached out and who helped. i went on to harvard college the first and my family to go to college to harvard law school. i've lived in chicago and boston and los angeles and new york come here in d.c. and land and in sudan to revive the business all over the world. i have had some remarkable experiences, and probable ones in the eyes of many. i argued in the supreme court and i have hitchhiked from cairo to khartoum and i counseled the president and served as the first black governor of massachusetts. i first time running for office. but as i reflect on each of these experiences, each has its roots in the lessons i try to

write about in this book. these lessons have given me a sense of the possible and that has made all the difference. i write in the book about the transition from the south side chicago to the milton academy about the experience of trying to bridge these different worlds where each one seems to demand that he reject the other as the price of acceptance in the one and held important it was for me to understand ultimately that there was a false choice. i write about the ways the old ladies in the big hats and church back home taught me to see that faith is not so much what you say you believe, but how you live. i write about the extraordinary courage and strength of my wife, diane, through her first marriage to an abusive husband and the toll might early days in public office to call her and her triumph strength and not just me but thousands of others. time and time again experience

is of great trial and even turmoil have produced transcendent positives and they have contributed to my idealism. i want to defend and encourage that kind of idealism because i think it is what motivates people to make what seems improbable possible. that may sound corny to some of you especially in hard but in washington, d.c.. but in fact, there is nothing at all corny about hope and there is nothing in powering or ennobling about the alternative, about pessimism. in fact, as the governor it has been a sense of the possible that has helped us achieve many remarkable things against of the war and customary odds. in these exceptionally cynical times i think people are humble for something more positive and affirmative and a steady diet of