Forgotten War by Don Bentley is Book 4 in A Matt Drake Novel Series.
True patriots remember the shock and unjustifiable horror of Benghazi. Those same patriots remember the more recent unforgivable betrayal and horror of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. By Don's own admission in the Author Notes, he used his "poetic license" to rearrange the timelines of historical occurrences following his previous novel Hostile Intent.
When the cruelties of war stick with soldiers of all ages and across all services, most, when given a chance, want to rectify those events and bring some form of justice, equivalence, or resolution to them. Forgotten War is a story of all kinds of betrayals with every effort to rectify what went wrong. Matt's best friend (Frodo) has suddenly seemed to accept his fate during a shocking incident at a favorite bar with Frodo's fiancée Katherine, Matt, and Matt's wife Laila who has yet to arrive.
What Matt learns afterward, he refuses to believe and immediately sets out to set things straight even when it seems to be impossible because it all goes back to Afghanistan. The unusual kicker involves a wayward green-card carrying 19 yr. old girl who somehow decided she was capable of returning to Afghanistan to attend a friend's wedding and is now missing. This is the odd reason Laila was late to the gathering with Frodo and Katherine.
When mysterious "coincidences" related to members of a particular mission involving the Unit from 2011 in Afghanistan surface, Matt rushes to the isolated home of one of those members (Jason) which turns out to be a goat ranch. Requiring a clandestine approach because of suspicious activity, Matt is considerably outnumbered until Jason appears from his house to join the battle. After the two of them neutralize the conflict, those "coincidences" are examined and determined to be anything but "accidents."
Trying to make the connections to all parties involved in order to free up the truth and Frodo, Matt is given the shut down from his DIA boss James Glass because of the ongoing dangerous chaos in Afghanistan. Declaring himself on vacation, Matt does what he does best: he finds a camouflaged way to leave the country for Afghanistan with Jason, a former military female Apache helicopter pilot Dee, and a former SEAL Garrett who has as much distaste for Matt as Matt does for him.
Reading a Don Bentley thriller is exhausting. I can understand a reader taking the necessary time to read it cover to cover in one sitting, but the adrenaline pumping stories render me in desperate need of a break after a few chapters. The proverbial "Murphy's Law" is always in action during Matt's best efforts and the crew he takes on this adventure are gut-punched all along the way. It's exciting, disturbing, revealing, and a thrill-ride from the moment they finally set down their private plane in Afghanistan. One thing you can count on from Don is realistic battle scenes, the necessary contingencies, the personal panics which can't be expressed or demonstrated when the odds have suddenly turned against the plan.
Kudos to Don for telling the ugly, inexcusable tale of the Afghanistan debacle, the choices and terrible betrayals that left American soldiers dead and Afghani aids and other Americans without protection from the ruthless Taliban. It should never be a forgotten war with the years and years of sacrifices to try to bring some order to a country who fought it all along the way. Maybe within the pages of Forgotten War, people can have a clearer realization of the sorrow that took place there and that still threatens the lives of decent people.
(Some profanity.)
Father, you know all of our hearts. We can't fool you. Please continue to shine your face upon Don, meet his needs, bless him and his family, and inspire those stories you have just for him to tell. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.