Download or read book From Kabul to Baghdad and Back written by John R Ballard and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2012-10-15 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Kabul to Baghdad and Back provides insight into the key strategic decisions of the Afghan and Iraq campaigns as the United States attempted to wage both simultaneously against al-Qaeda and its supporting affiliates. It also evaluates the strategic execution of those military campaigns to identify how well the two operations were conducted in light of their political objectives. The book identifies the elements that made the 2001 military operation to oust the Taliban successful, then with combat operations in Iraq as a standard of comparison, the authors analyze the remainder of the Afghan campaign and the essential problems that plagued that effort, from the decision to go to war with Iraq in 2002, through the ill-fated transition to NATO lead in Afghanistan in 2006, the dismissal of Generals McKiernan and McChrystal, the eventual decision by President Obama to make the Afghan campaign the main effort in the war on extremism, and the final development of drawdown plans following the end of the war in Iraq. No other book successfully compares and contrasts the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan from a national strategic perspective, analyzing the impact of fighting the Iraq War on the success of the United States campaign in Afghanistan. It is also the first book to specifically question several key operational decisions in Afghanistan including: the decision to give NATO the lead in Afghanistan, the decisions to fire Generals McKiernan and McChrystal and the decision to conduct an Iraq War-style surge in Afghanistan. It also compares the Afghan campaigns fought by the Soviet Union and the United States, the counterinsurgency campaigns styles in Iraq and Afghanistan and the leadership of senior American officials in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In the final chapter, the key lessons of the two campaigns are outlined, including the importance of effective strategic decision-making, the utility of population focused counterinsurgency practices, the challenges of building partner capacity during combat, and the mindset required to prosecute modern war.
Download or read book The Carpet Wars written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Babylon s Ark written by Lawrence Anthony and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-03-06 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The astonishing story of the soldiers, conservationists, and ordinary Iraqis who united to save the animals of the Baghdad Zoo When the Iraq war began, conservationist Lawrence Anthony could think of only one thing: the fate of the Baghdad Zoo, caught in the crossfire at the heart of the city. Once Anthony entered Iraq he discovered that hostilities and uncontrolled looting had devastated the zoo and its animals. Working with members of the zoo staff and a few compassionate U.S. soldiers, he defended the zoo, bartered for food on war-torn streets, and scoured bombed palaces for desperately needed supplies. Babylon's Ark chronicles Anthony's hair-raising efforts to save a pride of Saddam's lions, close a deplorable black-market zoo, run ostriches through shoot-to-kill checkpoints, and rescue the dictator's personal herd of Thoroughbred Arabian horses. A tale of the selfless courage and humanity of a few men and women living dangerously for all the right reasons, Babylon's Ark is an inspiring and uplifting true-life adventure of individuals on both sides working together for the sake of magnificent wildlife caught in a war zone.
Download or read book Embracing the Occupiers written by Jeremy S. Block and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-03-13 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to examine how Fulbright scholars-individuals almost certain to be movers and shakers in their own countries, if they weren't already before coming to America-from Iraq and Afghanistan view the U.S. interventions in their countries, the war on terror, the status of Islam, and other pressing issues of our day. As the author explains, understanding the mindset of Afghans and Iraqis willing to live and study in the occupying power is crucial to the conduct of America's war on terror and America's role in the post-President Bush world. In this work Block looks in-depth at a large representative sample of the Iraqi and Afghani Fulbright scholars in the United States, providing information about their former lives in their home countries, their opposition to dictatorial (Taliban and Saddam's) rule, their accounts of how they wound up coming to America, their opinions about America (both positive and negative), their views of jihadism and of the proper place for Islam in the political processes of their respective countries, and their expectations about what might await them when they return to their own countries. As such, it will be an invaluable resource as the United States continues to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq.
Download or read book 43 written by Michael Nelson and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2022-08-16 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The presidency of George W. Bush has been the subject of extensive commentary but limited scholarly analysis in the years since he left office. 43 draws extensively, but not solely, from the recently released interviews of the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia. This volume consists of ten chapters—written by some of today’s most eminent presidency scholars—examining key topics and themes, including 9/11, the unitary executive, Supreme Court appointments, compassionate conservatism, Cheney’s vice presidency, the Iraq War, and the financial crisis of 2008. 43 is an inside look at one of the most controversial and consequential presidencies in US history. The essays in this volume take seriously the complexities of a White House trying to respond to the most devastating attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, examining both the successes and failures of this administration in the first systemic effort to mine the confidential, candid oral history interviews recorded with senior officials from the Bush presidency. Relying heavily on insider accounts, the essays are critical, yet balanced, in providing assessments of Bush’s controversial victory in 2000; “endless wars” precipitated by the 9/11 terrorist attacks; and legislative battles over taxes, education reform, Medicare, and attempts to address the Great Recession. These landmark events are illuminated by conversations with the decision makers who made history.
Download or read book A Hundred And One Days written by Asne Seierstad and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-02-05 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating, personal and insightful account of the Iraq war from the bestselling author of THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL In January 2003 Åsne Seierstad entered Baghdad on a ten-day visa. She was to stay for over three months, reporting on the war and its aftermath. A Hundred and One Days is her compelling account of a city under siege, and a fascinating insight into the life of a foreign correspondent. An award-winning writer, Seierstad brilliantly details the frustrations and dangers journalists faced trying to uncover the truth behind the all-pervasive propaganda. She also offers a unique portrait of Baghdad and its people, trying to go about their daily business under the constant threat of attack. Seierstad's passionate and erudite book conveys both the drama and the tragedy of her one hundred and one days in a city at war. 'Åsne Seierstad is the supreme non-fiction writer of her generation' Luke Harding
Download or read book Hubris Self Interest and America s Failed War in Afghanistan written by Thomas P. Cavanna and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-07-22 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the conduct of the US-led post-9/11 war in Afghanistan. Adopting a long-term perspective, it argues that even though Washington initially had an opportunity to achieve its security goals and give Afghanistan a chance to enter a new era, it compromised any possibility of success from the very moment it let bin Laden escape to Pakistan in December 2001, and found itself locked in a strategic overreach. Given the bureaucratic and rhetorical momentum triggered by the war on terror in America, the Bush Administration was bound to deploy more resources in Afghanistan sooner or later (despite its focus on Iraq). The need to satisfy unfulfilled counter-terrorism objectives made the US dependent on Afghanistan’s warlords, which compromised the country’s stability and tarnished its new political system. The extension of the US military presence made Washington lose its leverage on the Pakistan army leaders, who, aware of America’s logistical dependency on Islamabad, supported the Afghan insurgents – their historical proxies - more and more openly. The extension of the war also contributed to radicalize segments of the Afghan and Pakistani populations, destabilizing the area further. In the meantime, the need to justify the extension of its military presence influenced the US-led coalition into proclaiming its determination to democratize and reconstruct Afghanistan. While highly opportunistic, the emergence of these policies proved both self-defeating and unsustainable due to an inescapable collision between the US-led coalition’s inherent self-interest, hubris, limited knowledge, limited attention span and limited resources, and, on the other hand, Afghanistan’s inherent complexity. As the critical contradictions at the very heart of the campaign increased with the extension of the latter’s duration, scale, and cost, America’s leaders, entrapped in path-dependence, lost their strategic flexibility. Despite debates on troops/resource allocation and more sophisticated doctrines, they repeated the same structural mistakes over and over again. The strategic overreach became self-sustaining, until its costs became intolerable, leading to a drawdown which has more to do with a pervasive sense of failure than with the accomplishment of any noble purpose or strategic breakthrough.
Download or read book The Sirens of Baghdad written by Yasmina Khadra and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2008-05-06 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third novel in Yasmina Khadra's bestselling trilogy about Islamic fundamentalism has the most compelling backdrop of any of his novels: Iraq in the wake of the American invasion. A young Iraqi student, unable to attend college because of the war, sees American soldiers leave a trail of humiliation and grief in his small village. Bent on revenge, he flees to the chaotic streets of Baghdad where insurgents soon realize they can make use of his anger. Eventually he is groomed for a secret terrorist mission meant to dwarf the attacks of September 11th, only to find himself struggling with moral qualms. The Sirens of Baghdad is a powerful look at the effects of violence on ordinary people, showing what can turn a decent human being into a weapon, and how the good in human nature can resist. “Compelling. . . . Khadra brings us deep into the hearts and minds of people living in unspeakable mental anguish.” —Los Angeles Times
Download or read book The Carpet Wars written by Christopher Kremmer and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1990, Christopher Kremmer arrived in Afghanistan to interview the doomed communist president, Dr Najibullah as rampaging factions of mujahideen massed on the outskirts of Kabul. He found himself intrigued by the politics and culture of the land, and his book provides revealing, often first-hand portraits of warlords such as Ahmad Shah Masood, the Lion of Panjsher, of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and of Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf. The real stories of the lands of the ancient silk route, however, are accessed through Kremmer's obsession with the carpets of the region.
Download or read book Why We Lost written by Daniel P. Bolger and published by HMH. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A commander’s “compelling” behind-the-scenes view of the United States at war after 9/11, from high-level strategy to combat on the ground (The Wall Street Journal). Over his thirty-five year career, Daniel P. Bolger rose through the ranks of the army infantry to become a three-star general, commanding in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps more than anyone else, he was witness to the full extent of these wars, from September 11th to withdrawal from the region. Not only did Bolger participate in top-level planning and strategy meetings, he also regularly carried a rifle alongside soldiers in combat actions. Writing with hard-won experience and unflinching honesty, Bolger argues that while we lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, we did not have to. Intelligence was garbled. Key decision makers were blinded by spreadsheets or theories. And we never really understood our enemy. Why We Lost is a timely, forceful, and compulsively readable account from a fresh and authoritative perspective, “filled with heartfelt stories of soldiers and Marines in firefights and close combat. It weighs in mightily to the ongoing debate over how the United States should wage war” (The Washington Post).
Download or read book Military Review written by and published by . This book was released on 2013-07 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Mirror Test written by J. Kael Weston and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Editors' Choice A Military Times Best Book of the Year J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the U.S. State Department. Upon returning home, traveling throughout the United States to pay his respects to the dead and wounded, he wondered what lessons, if any, could be learned from these wars. In this essential book, Weston questions, interprets, and explains our wars in the Middle East through a tapestry of voices—Iraqi, Afghan, and American—taking readers across California and Fallujah, Khost and Colorado. Along the way we meet generals, corporals, and captains, former Taliban fighters, Afghan schoolteachers, SEAL teams, imams, and many Marines. When will these wars end? How will they be remembered? Perhaps no one is better suited to tackle these important questions than Weston. The Mirror Test is an unflinching look at warfare and diplomacy, and a necessary reckoning with America’s actions abroad.
Download or read book Pathological Counterinsurgency written by Samuel R. Greene and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-06-29 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pathological Counterinsurgency critically examines the relationship between elections and counterinsurgency success in third party campaigns supported by the United States. From Vietnam to El Salvador to Iraq and Afghanistan, many policymakers and academics believed that democratization would drive increased legitimacy and improved performance in governments waging a counterinsurgency campaign. Elections were expected to help overcome existing deficiencies, thus allowing governments supported by the United States to win the “hearts and minds” of its populace, undermining the appeal of insurgency. However, in each of these cases, campaigning in and winning elections did not increase the legitimacy of the counterinsurgent government or alter conditions of entrenched rent seeking and weak institutions that made states allied to the United States vulnerable to insurgency. Ultimately, elections played a limited role in creating the conditions needed for counterinsurgency success. Instead, decisions of key actors in government and elites to prioritize either short term personal and political advantage or respect for political institutions held a central role in counterinsurgency success or failure. In each of the four cases in this study, elected governments pursued policies that benefited members of the government and elites at the expense of boarder legitimacy and improved performance. Expectations that democratization could serve as a key instrument of change led to unwarranted optimism about the likely of success and ultimately to flawed strategy. The United States continued to support regimes that continued to lack the legitimacy and government performance needed for victory in counterinsurgency.
Download or read book Forced to Flee written by Afzal Nasiri and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2022-11-14 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing from a deep well of Indian and Afghan knowledge, Nasiri has compiled a capitulating story of his father's escape from Afghanistan at age twelve in 1929 to India while Nadir Shah usurped Kabul throne from Habibullah Kalakani. Kalakani was illiterate and the only Tajik Amir in the history of Afghanistan. Nasiri's grandfather, Malik Zaman Nasiri of Farza, Kohdaman, was a supporter of Kalakani and was executed by Nadir Shah along with Kalakani after he lost the throne, following a nine-month hiatus. Nasiri writes a gripping story of his father suddenly waking up in the middle of the night, bullets and bombs flying all over. As if a stone was hurled at the sleeping birds' nest, they all had to fly in the dark night, ironically guided by the light of the cracking bullets and shattering of cannon fire. In 1980, walking in his father's footsteps after almost fifty years, Nasiri goes on to narrate the story of his retreat from Afghanistan to save his life and that of his young wife and eighteen-month-old son from the clutches of Marxist regime of Kabul, who overthrew the ruling republic of Mohammad Daoud in a bloody coupe in April 1978. It was an age of tumult, Nasiri writes. Nasiri lands in India with the desire and urgency to migrate to the safe haven of the United States, his lifelong dream and subject of his dissertation when graduating from master's at Aligarh University India Nasiri has written his story as an outsider looking in Afghanistan's social and political upheavals. He returned to his fatherland, fulfilling his dad's desire to start a new life in his land in 1971. He was back in India in 1980.
Download or read book The Envoy written by Zalmay Khalilzad and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2016-03-22 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zalmay Khalilzad grew up in a traditional family in the ancient city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. As a teenager, Khalilzad spent a year as an exchange student in California, where after some initial culture shocks he began to see the merits of America's very different way of life. He believed the ideals that make American culture work, like personal initiative, community action, and respect for women, could make a transformative difference to his home country, the Muslim world and beyond. Of course, 17-year-old Khalilzad never imagined that he would one day be in a position to advance such ideas. With 9/11, he found himself uniquely placed to try to shape mutually beneficial relationships between his two worlds. As U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, he helped craft two constitutions and forge governing coalitions. As U.S. Ambassador to the UN, he used his unique personal diplomacy to advance U.S. interests and values. In The Envoy, Khalilzad details his experiences under three presidential administrations with candid behind-the-scenes insights. He argues that America needs an intelligent, effective foreign policy informed by long-term thinking and supported by bipartisan commitment. Part memoir, part record of a political insider, and part incisive analysis of the current Middle East, The Envoy arrives in time for foreign policy discussions leading up to the 2016 election.
Download or read book Bali to Baghdad and Beyond written by Rodney Cocks and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2013-06-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bali to Baghdad and Beyond is a remarkable first-hand account of life at the UN front lines and in recent post-conflict hotspots. Rodney Cocks was a UN Military Observer in East Timor and a member of the de-mining team in Iraq following the fall of Saddam. He is currently a UN security adviser in the former Taliban and Al Qaeda stronghold of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Narrowly surviving two deadly terrorist acts - the Bali bombings and the devastating suicide attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad - he assisted the injured and dying in the horrific aftermaths. This young Australian's memoir also takes us behind the scenes to glimpse the realities of humanitarian and military service. An inspirational story of selflessness and courage, it reveals the terrible legacy of war in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Conflict in Afghanistan written by Frank A. Clements and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2003-12-02 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive A–Z study of the history of conflict in Afghanistan from 1747 to the present. This authoritative, clearly written volume covers all aspects of the conflicts that have taken place in Afghanistan from 1747 to the present. Conflict in Afghanistan provides the reader with a historical overview of hostilities in Afghanistan and discusses their causes, history, and impact on Afghan society and on regional and international relations. A single A–Z section covers the three main eras in Afghanistan's history: the period from 1747, when Afghanistan first emerged as a "unified" state; the Soviet era (1979–1989), which saw the overthrow of the monarchy, the declaration of the Republic, and the rise of the Mujahideen; and the post-Soviet period, which brought civil war, the rise of the Taliban, and finally the events of September 11 and the War on Terrorism, both of which receive special attention.
