My Attempt To Understand Afghanistan

I've written a few posts in the past discussing certain books I have read, almost always after a deployment and looooong after I should have read them. I did not want to make the same mistake again and deploy to Afghanistan without at least reading a few books that would give me a general sense of the country and the current situation. I also wanted to spend my down time in Afghanistan reading some things that would broaden my knowledge.

My deployments to Iraq while in the Army had caused me to know enough about that country to get by but had led to a complete failure in my understanding of Afghanistan. Why read about Afghanistan when I was going to continuously deploy to Iraq? I was ignorant about Afghanistan, but at least I knew it.

Before I deployed I read The Looming Tower and Ghost Wars. I believe there were a couple of others, but it's been over a year and I don't remember. These books helped give me a general overview of Al Qaida, the rise of the Taliban, and the recent history of Afghanistan. They were a good start.

While deployed there were four more books that I read. The first was Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. A great overview of the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal and how the Taliban came to be.

The next two were The Bear Went Over the Mountain and The Other Side of the Mountain. Essentially a series of after action reviews, the former discussed Soviet tactics during their occupation of Afghanistan. The latter was a follow on book that discussed mujahedeen tactics against the Russians. Both were a bit dry and repetitive but I would recommend both for anyone heading to the country to occupy it. They both also show that history repeats itself and that the Taliban are fighting ISAF much the same way they fought the Soviets and that ISAF is repeating many of the Soviets' mistakes.

The last book worth mentioning was Caravans, which is a fictional story set in Afghanistan shortly after World War II. It was published in 1963 but does an excellent job of painting a picture of the country and the culture of the people. I'm also convinced the author had a crystal ball. Here's a quote:

"Do you know what I expect...seriously? When a thousand men like me have rebuilt Kabul and made it as great as The City once was, either the Russians or the Americans will come with their airplanes and bomb it to rubble."

In the near future I'll probably do a post for each of these books with quotes like the one above that I found particularly interesting or noteworthy. Stay tuned!