From the Canadian in charge of the joint military command in Kandahar Province in Afghanistan, this is the real on-the-ground story of one of NATO's bloodiest, most decisive and misunderstood operations: The battle of Panjwayi, the defining moment of "Operation Medusa." In the summer of 2006, David Fraser was the Canadian general in charge of NATO's Regional Command South, a territory spanning six Afghan provinces surrounding the Arghandab Valley. Birthplace of the Taliban decades earlier, this fertile region had since become Afghanistan's most deadly turf. It would soon turn deadlier still. Advised in the night by his intelligence officers that the Taliban had secretly amassed for a full-scale military assault, Fraser knew it would fall to him, his Canadians and their allies to avoid the wholesale slaughter of NATO troops, keep the Taliban from laying siege to Kandahar and restore control of the south of the country to a newly formed, democratic Afghan government. The odds were solidy against Fraser's forces. The Taliban knew every millimetre of their own terrain. During the months of secret manoeuvres they had stocked every farmhouse, school, grape hut and tunnel with weapons and ammunition. They had drilled Soviet-era landmines into all of the marijuana and poppy fields, and dug IEDs into every roadway. Protected from detection by corrupt officials, their sophisticated warfare schools had successfully readied an army of zealous fighters to attack and fight to the death. And now their top commanders were poised to launch decisive military operations against freshly arrived troops who had never seen combat. The bloodiest battle in NATO's history was about to begin.

本作は、単なる戦記の枠を超え、極限状態における「決断」の重みを突きつける一級の人間ドラマです。著者デイヴィッド・フレーザー少将が綴るのは、緻密な戦略の裏側にある指揮官の孤独と、予測不能な戦場に翻弄される兵士たちの剥き出しの鼓動。死地に赴く者たちを率いる者の苦悩が、現場の熱量を帯びた鮮烈な文体で克明に描かれています。 文学的見どころは、アフガニスタンの乾いた大地と、張り巡らされた絶望的な罠を予感させる圧倒的なリアリズムにあります。歴史の分岐点となったメデューサ作戦を多角的に分析しつつ、民主主義の理想と過酷な現実の摩擦を描き出す構成は見事。読者は頁を捲るたび、知性と信念を武器にカンダハールの泥沼へ挑む勇気と不屈の精神に、激しく魂を揺さぶられるはずです。