Some call it the Valley of Death.

Otherwise known as the Korengal Valley, it's an isolated area in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province.

High up and in the mountains, it's tough terrain that is hard to defend and is prone to daily violence when foreign soldiers are nearby.

Veteran journalist Sebastian Junger travelled there five times while following the exploits of a U.S. platoon that was stationed at the Korengal Outpost for 15 months.

He wrote a book and co-directed a movie about the men who sweated out the deployment he was witness to.

"The Korengal Valley is sort of the Afghanistan of Afghanistan: too remote to conquer, too poor to intimidate, too autonomous to buy off," Junger writes in the newly-released War, describing the deadly nature of the valley.

"The Soviets never made it past the mouth of the valley and the Taliban didn't dare go in there at all."

More than 40 U.S. soldiers have died in this 10-kilometre-by-10-kilometre space in the past five years.

That's about 4 per cent of all the American soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since the start of the current war.

The men who fight

When spending time in the Korengal Valley between June 2007 and June 2008, Junger got to know the motley crew of personalities in Battle Company well.

There was the son of two peace activists who never wanted their son to play with toy guns. Another guy was shot by his father in high school. A divorcee who plays flamenco guitar and a former drug dealer were also part of the same platoon.

As diverse as the men themselves are their reasons for signing up for a very dangerous line of work.

In a recent interview with CTV's Canada AM, Junger said the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan can cite many reasons for joining up for war: 9/11, a patriotic streak, a family military tradition.

But just as often, a desire for combat experience can fuel a desire to enlist.

"They see it as a rite of passage. They're young men, they want to prove themselves. It's not really a political thing," he said.

"Once they are over there, all that stuff drops away, they are fighting for each other. And I think that's been going on since the siege of Troy and that I think is what combat is about."

Life at the KOP

Reading through War, Junger paints a picture of life at the Korengal Outpost -- known informally as the KOP -- that most civilians would never want to experience.

It's built on a former lumber yard where the soldiers live in plywood quarters.

The soldiers relieve themselves in PVC "piss tubes" and light their waste on fire at the end of each day to dispose of it. Each of the men can shower only once a week.

Because of the brutal heat, soldiers lose most of the fat from their bodies during their deployment. After a while, you can smell ammonia in their sweat -- a sign that their bodies are breaking down muscle as well.

Junger describes a place where tarantulas often make their way into living quarters and local birds have wails that sound like incoming RPG rounds.

At all times, the soldiers have to watch out for incoming fire from teenage snipers who get paid $5 a day by the Taliban to shoot at the base.

But that stuff is all cosmetic compared to the deadly violence and heavy losses the platoon suffered from the moment they first arrived in the valley.

Violence and loss in the Korengal

The first day they raised their official flag at the KOP, a soldier was killed in battle after being shot in the face. He was only 19 years old.

A month later, an RPG took the arm off of a sergeant who was cooking for his fellow troops.

A few days later came the death of a popular medic, who was fatally wounded inside a graveyard. They later build a small secondary base that they named after him -- called Restrepo -- which they eventually abandoned.

On another occasion, a well-liked sergeant was shot several times in the face. Somebody put a tarp over his body, but everybody recognized the combat boots sticking out underneath.

As Junger travelled back and forth between his home in New York and the Korengal Valley, the constant losses became a sad reality that was repeated again and again.

"One day you hear about some guy getting killed…and the next day you're that same guy for someone else," Junger writes in his book.

But through it all, the men of Battle Company stick together. Basically they have to, if they want to stay alive.

"The ethos was that you were more concerned about everyone else than about yourself," Junger told Canada AM.

"And as long as everyone felt that way -- and they did -- everyone was better off."

Korengal Valley and the future of Afghanistan

In the long run, the secondary base Battle Company built in the Korengal Valley was abandoned.

And two months ago, the International Security Assistance Force pulled out of the entire valley after deciding it was too isolated to be of strategic value.

Five days after NATO left the Korengal Valley, a group of Taliban fighters ran through the abandoned base and took video that was later broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.

A Taliban commander said the group planned to use it as a staging ground to launch attacks against U.S. soldiers. They claimed to have found ammunition and fuel at the former ISAF base.

American military brass say that's Taliban bravado talking and there wasn't anything left behind that would be useful for enemy fighters.

Besides that, military spokesperson Maj. T.G. Taylor said the U.S. forces "can do an air assault there anytime we want."

But who really knows.

In a brief interview with CTV.ca, Junger says the U.S. forces will suffer tactical defeats as part of combat and "they don't have to conquer every valley to stabilize the country."

Just like in any major city, he said, "police don't have to crush crime on every street corner" to make it safe.

With 14 years of experience in Afghanistan under his belt, Junger may be right.

But for more casual followers of the Afghan conflict, the story presented in War paints a picture of soldiers who seem expendable in a long and complicated conflict that continues to rage on.

With files from The Associated Press