NEWPORT, Rhode Island - Bing West has climbed mountains in Afghanistan with American combat troops, watched rocket-propelled grenades streak over his head and come close to dying of cholera. At a lean and flinty 70, he can dodge bullets along with the 20-year-olds he accompanies on infantry foot patrols, although he admits he does it by leaving the body armor behind - an eye-popping risk - and wearing a Boston Red Sox cap instead of a helmet.

He can think of no better life. Mr. West was home on Rhode Island Sound earlier this spring , in between trips to Afghanistan, to talk about his book “The Wrong War.” It is a volume that landed at the wrong time for the White House and Pentagon, as they wrestled with the start of a pullout in July. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had been arguing against a substantial withdrawal, but on June 22, President Obama announced further troop withdrawals, beginning with 10,000 later this year.

In the book, subtitled “Grit, Strategy and the Way Out of Afghanistan,” Mr. West defends the military, but argues that the United States is burning billions of dollars trying to nation-build in Central Asia.

He flatly says that the counterinsurgency strategy behind the war - trying to win over the Afghans by protecting them from the Taliban and building roads, schools and civil institutions - is a failure.

“The question isn’t what the Marines or the Army do, the question is, why are they doing it, and what’s the end state?” Mr. West said. “My objection is, they’ve stayed to become the government.”

The White House had no comment . The Pentagon press secretary, Geoff Morrell, would say only that the book, which ends with events last fall, “does not reflect the current state of play in Afghanistan.”

Mr. West, whose book has received stellar reviews, would be easier to dismiss were it not for his pedigree: assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, Marine infantry officer in Vietnam and author of “The Village,” a war classic for 40 years on the Marine Corps’ reading list, about 15 Americans - 7 died - who trained Vietnamese farmers to defend their hamlets.

Mr. West has written three recent books on Iraq, the result of 20 months embedded with American troops. He began reporting in Afghanistan in 2008 and is now following a Marine platoon in Sangin, in Helmand Province, one of the war’s bloodiest spots.

In Mr. West’s view, counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan is a feel-good, liberal theology that is turning the United States military into the Peace Corps and undermining its “core competency” - violence. He argues that the United States should focus on obliterating the Taliban.

In the view of American commanders, however, Mr. West’s book does not take into account the combination of combat and reconstruction that has led to progress.

Major Jason C. Brezler, who as a Marine civil affairs officer took Mr. West around the town of Now Zad in Helmand last year, recalls his enthusiasm. “He seems happy just being around Marines, and particularly Marines who are actively fighting,” Major Brezler said. Also, “he has the energy of a 30-year-old.”

Mr. West said he felt at home on the battlefield and readily accepted the risks, including not wearing body armor, a habit he developed in Vietnam. “ N o one wore them because they couldn’t stop a bullet,” he said. Today’s hard plates can stop bullets, but in his view they cut down on mobility.

“I know an awful lot of old fighters from Vietnam are very jealous that I can still do this,” he said.


By ELISABETH BUMILLER