CNN Anchor/Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper.  Photo courtesy Little, Brown and Company.

In October of 2009, a remote U.S. combat outpost on the Afghan/Pakistan border was nearly overrun by Taliban fighters.  U.S. soldiers were outnumbered by the attackers nearly six to one.  The outpost was defended but at the cost of a number of American lives.  It turned out to be one of the bloodier days in the now over ten years of the Afghan war.

Washington correspondent Jake Tapper saw reports of the incident and began wondering about how American soldiers came to be stationed at this remote, hard to defend location.

Tapper tells Steve Fast that in over two years of reporting on Combat Outpost Keating, he came to understand that the attempt to transform Afghanistan may be one of the most complicated endeavors in U.S. military history.

Tapper has written the book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor.

Listen to the interview: Jake Tapper on The Steve Fast Show.

Steve Fast can be reached at steve.fast@cumulus.com

Follow Steve Fast on Twitter @SteveFastShow