The New York Times Magazine: The failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Hostages in Iran, Michael Avenatti, Daveed Diggs, soccer injuries and more. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, August 10, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( [From the Magazine: A War Without End]( By C.J. CHIVERS [Pfc. Paul Landenberger, a soldier in Viper Company, on patrol in the Korengal Valley in April 2009]( Pfc. Paul Landenberger, a soldier in Viper Company, on patrol in the Korengal Valley in April 2009 Tyler Hicks for The New York Times Dear Reader, I hope you’ve had a good week. This week’s cover story is an adapted excerpt from “The Fighters,” a new book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer, C.J. Chivers. In early October, the Afghan war will be 17 years old, a milestone that has loomed with grim inevitability as the fighting has continued without a clear exit strategy across three presidential administrations. With this anniversary, prospective recruits born after the terrorist attacks of 2001 will be old enough to enlist. And Afghanistan is not the sole enduring American campaign. The war in Iraq, which started in 2003, has resumed and continues in a different form over the border in Syria, where the American military also has settled into a string of ground outposts without articulating a plan or schedule for a way out. On one matter there can be no argument: The policies that sent these men and women abroad, with their emphasis on military action and their visions of reordering nations and cultures, have not succeeded. And across these years, hundreds of thousands of young men and women signed on in good faith and served in the lower and middle ranks. They did not make policy. They lived within it. Chivers recounts the deployment of Viper Company, an Army unit deployed to one of the most violent places in Afghanistan in 2009. By the end of their tour, the members of the unit were left with little to fight for but one another. In doing so, Chivers presents an extraordinary account about the military experience and, more broadly, about the failures of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s lots more to read from this week’s issue. I’ve noted some highlights below. [Paul Ryan Is Walking Away]( If there’s one thing the self-declared “policy guy” Paul Ryan has seemed to truly relish during his time as speaker of the house, it would be answering for President Trump’s actions. So as the Republican leader faces retirement, we had Mark Leibovich ask him about just that. Ryan offers up a number of reasons for why he has hesitated to publicly criticize the president, including “he’s just trolling you guys.” [Searching for a Lost Odessa]( The writer Ilya Kaminsky reminisces about his life and childhood in the city of Odessa, Ukraine, where he lived as a young deaf boy, long before he came to America and had access to hearing aids. The Odessa he knows is a silent city, where the language is invisibly linked to his father’s lips moving. Decades later, when he goes back, he doesn’t feel quite as if he has returned until his hearing aids are turned off. He does not hear the footsteps of grandmothers running after their grandchildren or the announcements by tram-conductors or the screech of a cab’s brakes as it whooshes by him. This is the Odessa of Kaminsky’s childhood. [The Sandwich You’ll Want to Eat All the Time]( The Rhode Island chorizo sandwich, with kale and provolone, is an extraordinary number: “sweet and salty with a little bit of fire and a lash of acidity.” Inspired by a Portuguese chouriço sausage, which was served in a Portsmouth deli back in his college days, the chef Matthew Hyland now serves it occasionally at the Emily and Emmy Squared restaurants, which he owns and runs with his wife Emily Hyland. This week, he shares the recipe with Sam Sifton. [From the Archives: Read Chivers’ Prize-Winning Story for the Magazine in 2016]( In “The Fighter,” Chivers depicts the heartbreaking story of Sam Siatta, a former U.S. Marine who struggled with adjusting to life after the war in Afghanistan. Diagnosed with combat-based post-traumatic stress disorder, Siatta was serving a six-year sentence in an Illinois prison for home invasion. Chivers dove into the unshakable aftermath of combat on veterans, weaving Siatta’s own words from his journals with an artful accumulation of fact and detail. The article won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Reporting and eventually led to Siatta’s release from prison. Onward, Jake Silverstein Editor in Chief [How South Koreans Are Reckoning With a Changing American Military Presence]( By E. TAMMY KIM After a major expansion, Camp Humphreys is now the largest American base overseas — but what will that mean at a time of transition on the Korean Peninsula? [Kevin McAleenan Says the Border Patrol Doesn’t Make the Laws]( Interview by AUDIE CORNISH The commissioner of Customs and Border Protection on enforcing the Trump administration’s orders, child separation and the Abolish ICE movement. ADVERTISEMENT [Letter of Recommendation: Urban Fly-Fishing]( By JAMES POGUE You don’t have to escape to Montana to take part in the sport. You can do it right in Central Park. [France Meets China in a Luxurious Custard]( By DORIE GREENSPAN A delicious innovation using techniques common to both dessert cultures. If you enjoy our newsletter forward this email to a friend and help the magazine grow. Getting this from a friend? [Sign up to get the magazine newsletter](. Let us know how we can improve at: [newsletters@nytimes.com](mailto:newsletters@nytimes.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback%20NYT%20Magazine) Check out our [full list of free newsletters]( including [Summer in the City]( The best of what to see and do and eat and drink each week. And don’t worry about a commitment — like summer, this newsletter will be fleeting, running only through Labor Day. ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTimes [Twitter] [@nytmag]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's The New York Times Magazine newsletter. 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