Center for a New American Security

I have to quibble with Lilla

I have to quibble with Lilla on many points - he misses the entire history of Puritanism after the Reformation and does not stop to think about the ways in which Protestantization (yes, it's a word in jargon) can make religion more easily mobilized for illiberal ends. He assumes that religiosity somehow lots its political relevance in the West after a nice neat process of secularization (which the facts tell us did not really trickle down socially - cf Rodney Stark) and finesses the question by arguing that religious zealotry was simple transferred to "totalitarian" ideologies. Bunk. Have you read Michael Walzer's Revolution of the Saints on the Puritans and Cromwell?

Andrew: Fine to read Galula,

Andrew:

Fine to read Galula, sure, I got it.

But it is still beyond me why the love-affair with the Marine Small Wars Manual. Not to put you on the spot, but have you ever read it from cover to cover? While interesting as a historical primary text ,for a deploying LT to Astan with not much time, reading the Marine SWM is a waste of time, unless he/she wants to learn how to prepare pack mules for transportation over mountainous terrain.

gian

Andrew, Books on Training &

Andrew,

Books on Training & Advising are notably absent from your list; my sole reason for noting this is the main military strategy of 'Responsible Transition'. As you and GEN Barno advocate, if GPF deployed to AFG are to move towards predominantly training and advising roles (with the ANSF increasing their share of COIN), then surely texts on the challenges of such tasks would be instructive and hence be an important addition to your list.

There are, no doubt, a number of books on this, especially from Vietnam, however off the top of my head, SAS: Operation Oman (also entitled SAS Secret War: Operation Storm in the Middle East) by MAJGEN Tony Jeapes contains anecdotes of relationship building and cultural challenges between trainer and troops.

Natalie

Uh. I guess I skipped a

Uh. I guess I skipped a paragraph.

The key to relationship

The key to relationship building is mutual respect and that means communication so if you're not studying the language and Islam you're wasting your time. A cultural guide to avoiding problems is about a page of 81/2 x 11.

Apart from convincing the company commander he's very clever what exactly is the purpose of studying how the Taliban started to a platoon adviser? The Afghans are individuals and the tendency to see them as tribes or as some sort of anthropology experiment has tarnished the mission from day one.

Learn the language as much as you can and spend a lot of time when you get there talking with (not to) your Afghan colleagues to find out what's what in your AOR. If you must make a big show for promotion prospects of learning the time line of the Soviet War etc. go ahead but realize that what you're doing is just for show.

Gian Gentile: "reading the

Gian Gentile:
"reading the Marine SWM is a waste of time, unless he/she wants to learn how to prepare pack mules for transportation over mountainous terrain"

Clearly someone's never been to RC East. Also of value to an LT deploying to Afghanistan would be the chapter on Infantry Patrols which explains why it's necessary to use smaller units dispersed over a much larger area in order to "afford the maximum protection to the peaceful inhabitants of the country and seek out the hostile groups," in its discussion of the initial phases (what we term Clear) and the later phases (what we term Hold). I could understand how someone who thinks Counterinsurgency is balogna would think the Small Wars Manual would be too, but surely you can understand why someone who sees the value in Counterinsurgency would see the value in the SWM, right?

Thank you for recommending

Thank you for recommending Barfield's Afghanistan! Unlike so many books by academics, this does not bury the reader under piles of details, but instead provides clear facts related to the points the author wishes to make. His comments about the forces that have changed and will continue to change the social and political landscape are particularly helpful. It is a helpful reminder that Afghanistan is not and never has been a "timeless" primordial space but one that responds to internal and external forces like any other society. Looking exotic in the eyes of foreigners does not make people exotic.

The book is also a cautionary tale about what "Islam" means in the context of different populations that is only very vaguely connected to what one reads about "Islam", its traditional notions of the beliefs, law, and even rituals of the religion separate from a specific time and place. As an anthropologist, the author is also very senstive to the notion of "invented tradition" giving the example of how the meaning and use of the institution of "loya jirga" has changed over time.

Finally, and here I am clearly dating myself, I remember how, in the 60s and 70s, Afghanistan was on the hippy and adventurer routes to nirvana in India, traversed with little money, safe, and secure in the traditional hospitality of peoples met along the way. The really serious threats were dying of dysentary or hepititis along the way. In those days, mostly European travelers moved about in Yemen with the same sense of security...but this was long before the "polite" hostage for money rituals that set in later. It is helpful to read an author who also has this longer personal perspective.