Losing Afghanistan: An Obituary for the Intervention [B0538]

2016 PB in excellent condition, published by Stanford University Press. The U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan mobilized troops, funds, and people on an international level not seen since World War II. Hundreds of thousands of individuals and tens of billions of dollars flowed into the country. But what was gained for Afghanistan-or for the international community that footed the bill? Why did development money not lead to more development? Why did a military presence make things more dangerous? Through the stories of four individuals-an ambassador, a Navy SEAL, a young Afghan businessman, and a wind energy engineer-Noah Coburn weaves a vivid account of the challenges and contradictions of life during the intervention. Looking particularly at the communities around Bagram Airbase, this ethnography considers how Afghans viewed and attempted to use the intervention and how those at the base tried to understand the communities around them. These compelling stories step outside the tired paradigms of 'unruly' Afghan tribes, an effective Taliban resistance, and a corrupt Karzai government to show how the intervention became an entity unto itself, one doomed to collapse under the weight of its own bureaucracy and contradictory intentions.

From the back of the book: "Rich in description and thick with ironies, Losing Afghanistan reveals the insanities of a war run by and for contractors, and by soldiers posing as development agents. In this first-hand account of wartime Afghanistan, Coburn navigates the various and sometimes shared assumptions of walled-off foreigners and the world they created in which Afghans play but minor parts. A quiet indictment."-Catherine Lutz, Brown University

"Coburn's experienced eye demonstrates that understanding local culture is a two-way street. Highly recommended for Afghans, or anyone puzzled by the policies of international military and civilian institutions and in need of practical advice on how to cope with their strange ways of thinking."-Thomas Barfield, Boston University

From the one and only GoodReads/Amazon review (dated 2016): "This was a very interesting and insightful narrative of how the general culture of the intervention affected Afghanistan. The analysis focuses on the area around the Bagram military base, and looks at the effects of the intervention through the eyes of several individuals in the area. The analysis functions as a sort of ethnography, mapping out how the different cultures of different organizations and communities (both in Afghanistan and in the international system) clashed. The book has many engaging stories, that are simultaneously depressing and amusing in terms of the staggering amounts of incompetence, waste, corruption, and opportunism that emerged. It would have been nice to have more empirical data and statistics, but the book does a good job of accomplishing what it says it will, and looking at the Afghan war through the lens of one particular area and a few key individuals."