Taliban

Review: The Long War

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The Long War, David Loyn. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021.

Summary: A history of the war in Afghanistan from 9/11 until nearly the end of the U.S. presence in 2021.

It was America’s longest war. Yet I suspect many of us rarely noticed except for the early fight against al-Qaeda and the failed attempt to catch Bin Ladin, the death of Bin Ladin in 2011, and the scenes of the hectic withdrawal in the summer of 2021, eerily reminiscent of the departure of the U.S. from Vietnam in 1975.

David Loyn, a BBC reporter in Afghanistan, and for a year, communications adviser to President Ashraf Ghani, traces this long history. The recurring theme seems to be the lack of a sustained investment in what was needed to decisively defeat the Taliban, protect and invest in the development of the country, and effectively hand over to the indigenous government. It felt like being prescribed an antibiotic and taking it just enough to eliminate symptoms, then backing off, allowing the resurgence and resistance of the infection, complicated by the alternatives to the Taliban–governments reliant on the support of the country’s warlords, powerful and corrupt and resented by the people.

Loyn traces the problems back to decisions made early on. The Bush administration wanted a “light footprint,” reserving forces for the Iraq invasion, which was the military’s primary focus. This led to limited U.S participation in the pursuit of Bin Ladin, allowing his escape. Efforts to eliminate al-Qaeda’s allies, the Taliban, were hampered by the character of the international force and the complicated rules of engagement under which each company operated. Nevertheless, the Taliban was pushed back from Kabul and Kandahar and into the mountainous borders with Pakistan.

This allowed the Taliban a chance to re-group and take an insurgency approach, using IED’s and other disruptive measures against occupiers, gradually regaining ground rather than engaging in open warfare, protected by supposed US allies, the Pakistanis. By 2009, at the beginning of the Obama administration, it became clear a new strategy was needed. Special ops raids to strike key Taliban targets often resulted in civilian casualties and an increased hatred of the foreign presence. And as the US fell into disfavor with the Karzai government, the Taliban succeeded in recruiting disaffected Afghanis. And so the US “surged” troops, engaging in both counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism approaches under a succession of generals (McKiernan, McChrystal, and Petraeus). McChrystal continued to press for more troops, as much to protect the population as to kill terrorists. He got part of what he wanted and timetables for withdrawal, first by 2012 and then 2014, that hamstrung these efforts.

Both the Taliban and the U.S. began to explore talks, often cutting out the Afghan government, further rankling relations. As US and UN commanders sought to train Afghanis, the number of incidents rose of Afghanis turning on and killing their supposed allies. As the pullbacks continued, sometimes temporarily interrupted during the Trump administration, the Taliban continued to regain more of the country.

Loyn’s account ends before the hurried flight of the US from Afghanistan and the victory of the Taliban over the disappearing Afghan military and government. But it is pretty clear what was coming. It was the predictable end result of efforts to fight the war “on the cheap” (even though it ended up quite costly in money and lives). He shows the folly of unclear war aims, inadequate resources to do what needs to be done, ignorance of the nature of the culture, and a labyrinthine command and operational structure.

Loyn’s perspective seems to be that a longer term investment in counter insurgency with sufficient resources to defeat the enemy while winning the people and giving the young government breathing space would have led to a different outcome. We pretended not to be nation building until we were nation building, ambivalent in our investment of resources and troops and ignorant of the warlord structures that siphoned off so much of what we spent there. It seems to me that we were never quite clear why we were there, especially after the initial offensive against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. That itself seems to be problematic.

I suspect all this will be debated for years to come. Loyn’s book is a good starting point, tracing the decisions made, the different parties to the war, and its unfolding over twenty years. Let us hope that after Vietnam and Afghanistan we will learn how to avoid embroiling ourselves in these things.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: I Am Malala

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i am mulala

I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2013.

Summary: A memoir describing a Swat Valley family committed to education, including the education of girls, Malala’s shooting by a Taliban fighter, and her recovery from near death.

Malala Yousafzai was a fifteen year-old schoolgirl who had advocated for the basic right of education for girls, along with her father, a school director. On October 9, 2012, she nearly payed with her life for that advocacy, having been targeted some months before by a Taliban cell, and nearly killed by a bullet to the head.

The larger story is one of a daughter born in a society that values sons who had an exceptional father committed to education, including the education of girls. She describes his struggle to build a school in their village in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, which she describes as a beautiful garden spot nestled in the mountains not far from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. She describes a setting where Muslim piety, education, and love of one’s place all wove together with a fair amount of harmony, given the tumultuous political history of Pakistan.

She traces the changes that came after 9/11, and when the Taliban, routed from Afghanistan, infiltrated her country, despite the official denials of government and military, who often seemed oblivious to what was right under their noses. She describes how they won the hearts of some of the native peoples through the use of radio broadcasts and then increasingly dominated the society, requiring burkas, and closing schools, especially schools for girls. Malala and her father were among those who spoke against this. Malala even kept a blog diary under the assumed name of Gul Makai.

Finally, Pakistani military routed the Taliban, though they failed to capture the leaders. The threats went underground but still existed. It was thought that Malala’s father was the endangered one until the attack on her bus when she was critically wounded and two other girls were hit.

The last part of the book chronicles the fight for her life, both in Pakistan, and eventually in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, the skilled and loving care of Dr. Fiona and Dr. Javid, and her struggle to recover from the head wound, a severed facial nerve, loss of hearing, and the swelling of her brain. As she recovers physically, she and her family discover they are exiles in England, at risk if they try to return to Pakistan. (Since this was written, she returned once, in 2018 to meet the prime minister and give a speech in her home town of Mingora.)

The value of this memoir is to listen to a devout Muslim woman who is not a terrorist and does not want to enforce sharia law, but aspires to the things women around the world do–an education, dignity, the freedom to choose one’s entertainment, to be secure in her home. She shares the rich culture of a Pashtun Pakistani, the sincere devotion of her faith, and her love of her people. In her conclusion, she writes:

“I love my God. I thank my Allah. I talk to him all day. He is the greatest. By giving me this height to reach people, he has also given me great responsibilities. Peace in every home, every street, village, every country–this is my dream. Education for every boy and every girl in the world. To sit down on a chair and read my books with all my friends at school is my right. To see each and every human being with a smile of happiness is my wish.”

Whether we share Malala’s faith, do we not share Malala’s dream? Wouldn’t it be a different world if we sought this dream for all of God’s children? Malala asks us, why not?