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Book Reviewed by:While the economy and a new President have recently and powerfully captured the
attention of America and much of the world, the United States-led war on terror, as the
military actions following the September 11th attacks are often
called, seems to have fallen from the front of our collective consciousness.
Even without intervening worries like natural disasters and dwindling
investments, attention in our culture is hard to keep. There are many reasons –
some valid, some embarrassing – why we may have lost interest in these wars, but
where our distraction is caused by the disconnection of receiving information in
media snippets, The Forever War is the cure.
Think about it: can your family's struggles, your customs or your faith be
explained in a one minute sound bite? Can a nation's? Is there any organized
group you are acquainted with that is composed of entirely homogeneous people? So
it is with the U.S. military, where thousands of individual lives are
represented by one country, one official account of events. And so it is with
the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq, countries with myriad people groups and
intricate, often violent, histories. Stories of individual participants, brought
to us in captivating detail by journalist Dexter Filkins, are the real story.
If there is any writer who can bring this convolution of conflicts, both in
Afghanistan and Iraq, back to our attention, it is Dexter Filkins. Filkins is an
award-winning reporter, a veteran foreign correspondent who is nearly fearless
in his pursuit of human stories. He was one of a small group of journalists and
aid workers who were in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. He returned to
Afghanistan after the 2001 attacks, staying through much of 2002 and then moved
to Iraq as the American invasion began in 2003. He stayed in Iraq for over
three years, recording (in 561 notebooks), writing – and surviving. The
Forever War gives us the opportunity to look over the shoulder of someone
who has been there, who has spoken to nearly every segment of Afghani and Iraqi
society and has witnessed the death, destruction, hope and absurdity of war.
The greatest strength of Filkins' book is that he shuns passing judgment. He is
a journalist above all, avoiding revealing nearly any personal opinion and
eschewing discussions of morality. His interviews, whether with warlords,
diplomats or military officers, are presented without political sway, freeing us
to join him in the role of careful observer. Filkins' apolitical account is not
without feeling, however. It quietly reveals wide ranges of emotion – rage,
apathy, boredom, panic – both in the author and in so many others caught in the
turmoil of a long war.
The book's dispassionate recounting of conversations and battles across
Afghanistan and Iraq also succeeds in illuminating the tangled cause and effect
of war. Filkins exposes, frankly and repeatedly, the confusion and chaos
experienced by both temporary and permanent residents of these countries.
Progress is slow and sometimes nearly futile. Rapidly changing alliances and
disrupted daily life turn survival into an intricate puzzle to be solved.
For anyone who despairs, as I have, of ever understanding the nations and events
which orbit around the date September 11, 2001, The Forever War is part
antidote, part exacerbation. As in the rest of life, the more we learn, the less
we really know. Yet, this is the great value of the book. Filkins shows us that
black and white ideologies – political, moral or otherwise – may be easy to
stand by in our comfortable, peaceful world, but they become much harder to
proclaim from the other side of the world, in the grey heart of war.
This review was originally published in October 2008, and has been updated for the
June 2009 paperback release.
Click here to go to this issue.
Iraq and Afghanistan are countries with deep histories and multiple ethnic
and religious citizen groups.
The geographical area that today is
Iraq is regarded by historians as the site of some of the earliest human
civilizations, including the Sumerians (who lived between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers in
Mesopotamia,
a Greek word meaning land between the two rivers).
The division between the Shia and Sunni elements of Islam began sometime in the
late 600s after Arab tribes had taken control of the area from Iranian rulers.
After an approximately 500 year Arab dynasty and intervening conflicts with
Turkish warriors, the land that is now Iraq became part of the Ottoman Empire
in the 1600s and remained so until after World War I. The struggle
between Sunni and Shia factions continued during this period.
At the end of World War I, the country of Iraq was carved out of the Ottoman
Empire and became a British protectorate (up until 1920, the area had been three
distinct ethnic regions). Shias and Sunnis united in revolution against British
rule in 1920, producing a provisional Arab government led by a Saudi royal, King
Faisal, and independence was achieved in 1932.
Iraq experienced many political changes between World War II and the
Arab-Israeli War of 1967. Saddam Hussein, a member of the secular Baath party,
rose to power in the 1970s and became president of Iraq in 1979. In 1980, Iraq
attacked Iran, beginning a war that lasted through 1988. The First Gulf War, led
by the United States, occurred in 1991 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. International
sanctions on Iraq were imposed following the first Gulf War. The United States
invaded Iraq in March of 2003.
For more about the history of Iraq - see the sidebar to
The End of Iraq.
Afghanistan's first known history is as part of an Iranian dynasty which
was later conquered by Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great and his
successors brought Greek influence to the region, while a portion of southern
Afghanistan was also introduced to Buddhism through Indian influence.
Between the 200s and 600s AD, an Iranian dynasty again controlled the country.
Arab Muslims began to take over the local tribes in 637 and Islamic rule
continued until the conquest by Genghis Khan in the early 13th century. Mongolian power lasted until the 1500s when a northern Indian dynasty and an Iranian dynasty began to fight for
control of the area. The Pashtuns, who are indigenous to Afghanistan, gained a
moderate level of control in 1747 which continued until 1978.
During the 19th century, Afghanistan fought three Anglo-Afghan wars
which were partly caused by Britain's desire to protect India from Russia.
Afghanistan was a neutral country in World War II, but because of tension with
newly-formed neighbor Pakistan, it strengthened ties with Russia in the decades
after.
Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979, following a communist overthrow of
the Afghan government in 1978. Guerrilla war against the communist government and
Russian forces lasted for ten years. Following Russian withdrawal, Afghanistan
endured further civil war which ultimately ended with the strict Taliban sect
gaining control of the country in 1996. The United States attacked Afghanistan
in late 2001.
For more about Afghanistan - see the sidebar to
A Thousand Splendid Suns.
This review was originally published in October 2008, and has been updated for the
June 2009 paperback release.
Click here to go to this issue.
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