- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Press (2 Jun 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0593059026
- ISBN-13: 978-0593059029
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.4 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 324,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Douglas Hurd
His account cannot be ignored by anyone seriously interested in the future of the British armed forces.
Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know
A riveting, blistering, deeply reported narrative of the recent British military interventions in Afghanistan.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
James Fergusson has set out to cover a number of tangential matters than combine to point out the lack of a coherence and reality to NATO policy in Afghanistan, especially as this is applied by the British Army.
He tends to travel in the backwaters. Instead of the much rated 3 Para he visits the Gurkhas and Royal Fusiliers from the 3 Para Battlegroup shut away in some unsupported location getting shot at by the Taleban and unable to perform their mission of reconstruction.
He examines the practical difficulties of a small force of military professionals trying to bring peace to an area by bringing war. The difficulties of persuading the locals that the corrupt and brutal police and Afghan Army are to be supported are laid out; as is the difficulty of making the police and army anything but corrupt when they are underpaid and undertrained. It's a real muddle.
By comparing the units supporting two helicopter types (Chinooks and Apaches) Fergusson can make valuable points about the under-funding of the effort and (perhaps more important) the underinvestment in keeping skilled personnel. Just having the best kit is no answer when service
personnel are condemned to long tours and divorces. But looking at the armour kit used by the cavalry one can see that in some cases it is not only old but designed for different operational conditions (mostly the North German Plain).
Fergusson travels to meet and talk to the Taliban, he clearly respects them and feels they need to be part of the solution. This has been the view of a number of British officials but is apparently not acceptable in the eyes of the more manichean Americans.
Although at times Fergusson seems rather innocent it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he is on to something. There is only one thing worse than fighting a war with allies; and that is fighting one without any.
He tends to travel in the backwaters. Instead of the much rated 3 Para he visits the Gurkhas and Royal Fusiliers from the 3 Para Battlegroup shut away in some unsupported location getting shot at by the Taleban and unable to perform their mission of reconstruction.
He examines the practical difficulties of a small force of military professionals trying to bring peace to an area by bringing war. The difficulties of persuading the locals that the corrupt and brutal police and Afghan Army are to be supported are laid out; as is the difficulty of making the police and army anything but corrupt when they are underpaid and undertrained. It's a real muddle.
By comparing the units supporting two helicopter types (Chinooks and Apaches) Fergusson can make valuable points about the under-funding of the effort and (perhaps more important) the underinvestment in keeping skilled personnel. Just having the best kit is no answer when service
personnel are condemned to long tours and divorces. But looking at the armour kit used by the cavalry one can see that in some cases it is not only old but designed for different operational conditions (mostly the North German Plain).
Fergusson travels to meet and talk to the Taliban, he clearly respects them and feels they need to be part of the solution. This has been the view of a number of British officials but is apparently not acceptable in the eyes of the more manichean Americans.
Although at times Fergusson seems rather innocent it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he is on to something. There is only one thing worse than fighting a war with allies; and that is fighting one without any.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is courageous in more ways than one. First and foremost, the author has exposed himself to danger in researching his story, which is something that deserves the reader's respect. Second, he hasn't made black and white judgements on either side of the conflict. This might upset the Daily Mail (especially JF's effort to understand the motives of the Taliban), but at heart it is an intelligent approach that assumes the reader can make his/her own mind up (or try to). It is a rare example of honest and old-fashioned rapportage that does not offer prescriptions but informs the prescriptive process. Like many of us, JF has huge sympathy for the professional soldier and somewhat less for the motives and actions of the politicians who deploy him (and, increasingly, her). The accounts of military action and technology in difficult terrain are as gripping as any adventure story, although like the war itself there is no satisfying conclusion, only a disturbing sense that mistakes have been made in the name of western nations. I am no military historian, but I find nothing especially surprising in the notion of soldiers doing their best but repeatedly tripping over the bootlaces of organisational challenges, inadequate supplies and other shortcomings. These and other themes were covered brilliantly in Dixon's "Psycholoigy of Military Incompetence". However Fergusson updates them in a contemporaneous context, which soldiers and politicians alike should find an instructive addition to Dixon's work.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I don't know much about the politics of war but having read this book I feel that I now have a pretty good inkling of what goes on - and it's not comforting. Perhaps most military adventures have always been conducted on a wing and a prayer but it's hard not to feel dismayed by the chances for real change and engagement that seem to have been thrown away, especially when the Taliban mention the fact that if somebody had tried diplomacy rather than dynamite, perhaps some kind of deal could have been struck - with better consequences for everybody. After all, it's hard to imagine worse consequences than those yielded by the gung-ho method so far. Brilliantly written, constantly engaging, this book also proves that the writer is not just a man of letters but also of considerable bravery. Would YOU go and meet the Taliban deep in their heartland for a chat, so that you could hear their point of view? Not me - so thank you, James Fergusson.
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