THE book presents an understanding of the Afghan conflict but from a pair of Western eyes. However, it is a beautifully produced book with very touching photographs showing the soldiers attending to sick Afghan children or the latter talking to soldiers as if talking to a friend.
Between 2006 and 2009, journalist Allen travelled to Afghanistan to ‘embed’ himself with soldiers on the frontline in the war against the Taliban. He is posted with military units from many countries including Britain, America, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark and Estonia and spends time with Royal Gurkha Rifles, the US Marine Corps, the 30th Combat Engineer Regiment and the 506th Airborne of Band of Brothers fame.
This first-hand account of military operations from the battlefields of Helmand and Kandhar “to the so-called ‘backwaters’ of the Afghan conflict, explores the daily existence of ordinary soldiers from all over the world as they face a cunning and fanatical enemy and their endurance of the drama, tragedy, boredom and farce that challenge them.”
This eyewitness portrayal of combat operations, reconstruction and daily soldiering life faithfully reproduces the life on the frontline. The author lands in December 2007, at Bagram PAX Terminal, amidst bad weather. A British Captain tells him, “War is extremely long periods of boredom interspersed by short periods of extreme violence,” as if to deter the author. “So the foreign soldiers wait, nodding to iPods, grappling with Sudoku puzzles, reading paperbacks, dozing or staring at chat shows and football on Armed Forces Network television.”
The author also quotes individual soldiers, like Captain Alexander Bourne of 1st Battalion Welsh guards who initially was very excited about going to Afghanistan with a band of foreign soldiers and after serving his term, offers his reflections on the aftermath by saying that people are prepared to forsake their lives to give someone the chance to continue his. “They didn’t know him: the warrior from Herat, the signaller from Bridgend, the pilot from Kentucky or the doctor from Copenhagen. However, they were brought together in adversity by something that international boundaries and treaties can’t describe: the duty and horror that leads a man to help his comrade in battle. I think it is something our enemies understand as well as we do.” When the chips are down, the differences are forgotten and everyone helps each other – “that is why I can’t understand why they are there in the first place.”
At a meeting of six Pashtun tribes and 24 sub tribes in Jaji district, the author admits that something has to change fast to avoid losing the people’s trust entirely. One after another, a dozen Pashtun speakers condemn the failure of the occupiers to look after the locals and provide the essentials. One elder complains to the US soldiers, egged on by the villagers, “Your computers were so busy they ran out of ink, while you wrote down all our problems and yet nothing was done about them,” while several cite their fears of impending tragedy in the summer fighting. One old man of 84 says that time is running out for the Americans.
Who will judge who is right and who is wrong? Only time will tell.
-MG
(Spellmount, an Imprint of The History Press, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Strand, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG; www.thehistorypress.co.uk)
