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After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests: Unembedded in Afghanistan
An unflinching account―in words and pictures―of America's longest war by our most outspoken graphic journalist
Ted Rall traveled deep into Afghanistan―without embedding himself with U.S. soldiers, without insulating himself with flak jackets and armored SUVs―where no one else would go (except, of course, Afghans).
He made two long the first in the wake of 9/11, and the next ten years later to see what a decade of U.S. occupation had wrought. On the first trip, he shouted his dispatches into a satellite phone provided by a Los Angeles radio station, attempting to explain that the booming in the background―and sometimes the foreground―were the sounds of an all-out war that no one at home would entirely own up to. Ten years later, the alternative newspapers and radio station that had financed his first trip could no longer afford to send him into harm's way, so he turned to Kickstarter to fund a groundbreaking effort to publish online a real-time blog of graphic journalism (essentially, a nonfiction comic) documenting what was really happening on the ground, filed daily by satellite.
The result of this intrepid reporting is After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests ―a singular account of one determined journalist's effort to bring the realities of life in twenty-first-century Afghanistan to the world in the best way he knows a mix of travelogue, photography, and award-winning comics.
Ted Rall traveled deep into Afghanistan―without embedding himself with U.S. soldiers, without insulating himself with flak jackets and armored SUVs―where no one else would go (except, of course, Afghans).
He made two long the first in the wake of 9/11, and the next ten years later to see what a decade of U.S. occupation had wrought. On the first trip, he shouted his dispatches into a satellite phone provided by a Los Angeles radio station, attempting to explain that the booming in the background―and sometimes the foreground―were the sounds of an all-out war that no one at home would entirely own up to. Ten years later, the alternative newspapers and radio station that had financed his first trip could no longer afford to send him into harm's way, so he turned to Kickstarter to fund a groundbreaking effort to publish online a real-time blog of graphic journalism (essentially, a nonfiction comic) documenting what was really happening on the ground, filed daily by satellite.
The result of this intrepid reporting is After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests ―a singular account of one determined journalist's effort to bring the realities of life in twenty-first-century Afghanistan to the world in the best way he knows a mix of travelogue, photography, and award-winning comics.
226 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 2014
4 people are currently reading
234 people want to read
About the author
Ted Rall
50 books98 followersTed Rall is a prominent left-leaning American political columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. He draws cartoons for the news site WhoWhatWhy.org and the email newsletter Counterpoint, and writes for The Wall Street Journal opinion pages.
His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions.
The cartoons appear in approximately 100 newspapers around the United States. He is a former President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and twice the winner of the RFK Journalism Award.
He is the author of 20 books.
His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions.
The cartoons appear in approximately 100 newspapers around the United States. He is a former President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and twice the winner of the RFK Journalism Award.
He is the author of 20 books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 10, 2017
This book was a bit problematic. Ted Rall makes a convincing case that reporters who "embed" with military units in wartime can't be trusted to provide the whole story, because the military's willingness to allow embedded reporters is contingent upon the unspoken stipulation that such reporters will report only what the military wants them to report. As a result, even though we U.S. citizens pay for these wars with both human lives and massive amounts of tax dollars, it's next to impossible for us to know what's truly going on. The skepticism Rall encourages is a good thing, and naturally I applied the same lens to Rall himself. After all, if you tell me not to trust anyone, the first person I'm not gonna trust is you.
Still, some of the points Rall makes are extremely convincing, the first being that the U.S. can't win a war by occupying a small country and trying to convince them, by whatever means necessary, to see things our way. The so-called insurgents, be they the Viet Cong or the Taliban, know their country much better than we do, and they can simply go into hiding and come back when the coast is clear—something that certainly seemed to be happening in Afghanistan at the time this book was written. Relatedly, this book makes clear how important it is not to invade countries without a plan. This seems obvious, but by "plan" I don't just mean a particular path to "victory" but a strategy that takes into account the place and the people and what the actual consequences of certain actions might be, and what the response will be to those consequences and what that response might aim to achieve. What does "winning" look like in this particular scenario, and if we "win" what will we do after that? Based on what I see in this book, there wasn’t as much of this sort of planning as we might have hoped for.
Again, though, I do have to take Ted Rall's word for it, and by his own admission he didn't get to see nearly as much of the country as he wanted to see, and he ended up relying on secondhand information a lot of the time. I do think this is an important book to read, but it’s mainly made me realize I’ve got a lot more reading to do.
Still, some of the points Rall makes are extremely convincing, the first being that the U.S. can't win a war by occupying a small country and trying to convince them, by whatever means necessary, to see things our way. The so-called insurgents, be they the Viet Cong or the Taliban, know their country much better than we do, and they can simply go into hiding and come back when the coast is clear—something that certainly seemed to be happening in Afghanistan at the time this book was written. Relatedly, this book makes clear how important it is not to invade countries without a plan. This seems obvious, but by "plan" I don't just mean a particular path to "victory" but a strategy that takes into account the place and the people and what the actual consequences of certain actions might be, and what the response will be to those consequences and what that response might aim to achieve. What does "winning" look like in this particular scenario, and if we "win" what will we do after that? Based on what I see in this book, there wasn’t as much of this sort of planning as we might have hoped for.
Again, though, I do have to take Ted Rall's word for it, and by his own admission he didn't get to see nearly as much of the country as he wanted to see, and he ended up relying on secondhand information a lot of the time. I do think this is an important book to read, but it’s mainly made me realize I’ve got a lot more reading to do.
January 10, 2021
My bad, probably. Thought the whole book would be a graphic story, but only about (I'm guessing) 30 pages are his drawings, while the rest is narrative - and for that, I've got other books higher up on my list.
Also...while I am a dedicated Democrat, I found his introductory "background on the War Against Afghanistan" I little too one-sidedly leftist - just my own reading; I'm certainly no expert. But perhaps more importantly, the story is now dated - he first reported from Afghanistan in 2001, then went back in 2011 to follow-up...which means we're actually due for another ten-year update now, rather than reading "plans and intentions" for Afghan policy (both internal and U.S.) that are now a decade old, (see below final illustration, which ends the story in 2010):
In looking at Rall's other books, it looks like the only things he's written since this are graphic bios of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Edward Snowden. And here again - despite my Dem credentials, I strongly disagree with his depiction of Snowden as a "brave young man standing up to the most powerful government in the world." I personally don't see him at all as a hero, but as someone who gave away important national security information. He was by no means "a whistleblower" - whistleblowers go up the chain of command to report wrong-doing (which admittedly there was at the NSA); they don't go public and imperil American lives, (as he did and continues to do). I realize that's not a universal or even popular opinion - but it was enough to pull me away from Rall as an objective journalist. So don't think I'll be returning to this book at any point...
Also...while I am a dedicated Democrat, I found his introductory "background on the War Against Afghanistan" I little too one-sidedly leftist - just my own reading; I'm certainly no expert. But perhaps more importantly, the story is now dated - he first reported from Afghanistan in 2001, then went back in 2011 to follow-up...which means we're actually due for another ten-year update now, rather than reading "plans and intentions" for Afghan policy (both internal and U.S.) that are now a decade old, (see below final illustration, which ends the story in 2010):
In looking at Rall's other books, it looks like the only things he's written since this are graphic bios of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Edward Snowden. And here again - despite my Dem credentials, I strongly disagree with his depiction of Snowden as a "brave young man standing up to the most powerful government in the world." I personally don't see him at all as a hero, but as someone who gave away important national security information. He was by no means "a whistleblower" - whistleblowers go up the chain of command to report wrong-doing (which admittedly there was at the NSA); they don't go public and imperil American lives, (as he did and continues to do). I realize that's not a universal or even popular opinion - but it was enough to pull me away from Rall as an objective journalist. So don't think I'll be returning to this book at any point...
January 3, 2017
Sometimes when a book is really powerful (for whatever reason) it sometimes takes me awhile to review it. This book is amazing.
Curious about Afghanistan? I am. And please note in the subtitle Mr Rall draws our attention to the distinction that he was an unembedded journalist. Instant credibility! (<---in a world completely lacking it!) Indeed the sincere tone of his writing is as refreshing as his wonderful and telling "Simpsons-esque" comics.
At times I felt tense out of concern for Mr Rall as he navigates very dangerous territory into and around Afghanistan.
How fascinating then that he called attention to the study made (6 years ago) that targeted the exact area where I live (and was reading this very book) as one of America's most crime-laden areas where there is a 1 in 5 probability that one will be the victim of a violent crime! (I am paraphrasing obviously)
But to be clear,
I feel very fortunate that I live where I do instead of Afghanistan,
where the U.S. is fighting "terrorists" who are being trained in Pakistan at camps funded by the millions of dollars the U.S. gives to Pakistan.
Ted Rall's first hand perspective is an eye-opener, not just about Afghanistan, but also about how information ("news"? *pfffftttt) is handled and controlled by the U.S. Government/Military.
.
Curious about Afghanistan? I am. And please note in the subtitle Mr Rall draws our attention to the distinction that he was an unembedded journalist. Instant credibility! (<---in a world completely lacking it!) Indeed the sincere tone of his writing is as refreshing as his wonderful and telling "Simpsons-esque" comics.
At times I felt tense out of concern for Mr Rall as he navigates very dangerous territory into and around Afghanistan.
How fascinating then that he called attention to the study made (6 years ago) that targeted the exact area where I live (and was reading this very book) as one of America's most crime-laden areas where there is a 1 in 5 probability that one will be the victim of a violent crime! (I am paraphrasing obviously)
But to be clear,
I feel very fortunate that I live where I do instead of Afghanistan,
where the U.S. is fighting "terrorists" who are being trained in Pakistan at camps funded by the millions of dollars the U.S. gives to Pakistan.
Ted Rall's first hand perspective is an eye-opener, not just about Afghanistan, but also about how information ("news"? *pfffftttt) is handled and controlled by the U.S. Government/Military.
.
November 13, 2020
With this catchily-titled book, Ted Rall provides a fun and somewhat eye-opening expose of the "real" Afghanistan - rather than the hopeful image portrayed by the mainstream media during Bush's invasion and Obama's continued occupation of the country. Part travel journal, part anti-war diatribe, part political cartoon, this book only really delivers on the first, and this somewhat inconsistently. I found the comic sections mostly a waste of time - hardly entertaining or funny, very threadbare as far as cartoons go, and just a recap (or sometimes spoiler) of what is described in the travel-note sections.
I also did not entirely settle into Rall's overall left-wing perspective. Sometimes he and his journalist friends come across as unlikably snide, self-entitled despite their otherwise general dislike of America and its privileges, disgustingly dismissive of the armed forces, and surprisingly judgemental that, to me, his jokes and observations sometimes assume the shape of unconscious racism. This was written back in the day when Democrats weren't obsessed with pointing it out anywhere, so I guess it just struck me as odd, how much these "liberals" tended to look down upon the Afghans in their desperate squalor.
Ultimately the book's heart is in the right place though. It does reveal some very unsavoury truths about the military occupation of Afghanistan (he does not shy away from criticising Obama lip-service approach to foreign policy, which was refreshing). I might have given this book four stars, but there are just enough little moments where I felt like Rall come across as an asshole, the overall structure of the book was odd and very slapdash, and the cartoons were generally rubbish (nice pictures though).
On the whole, this was a perfectly a decent read. But I definitely preferred Irris Makler's Our Woman in Kabul, which was another journalistic book, focussed wholly Afghanistan following 9/11.
I also did not entirely settle into Rall's overall left-wing perspective. Sometimes he and his journalist friends come across as unlikably snide, self-entitled despite their otherwise general dislike of America and its privileges, disgustingly dismissive of the armed forces, and surprisingly judgemental that, to me, his jokes and observations sometimes assume the shape of unconscious racism. This was written back in the day when Democrats weren't obsessed with pointing it out anywhere, so I guess it just struck me as odd, how much these "liberals" tended to look down upon the Afghans in their desperate squalor.
Ultimately the book's heart is in the right place though. It does reveal some very unsavoury truths about the military occupation of Afghanistan (he does not shy away from criticising Obama lip-service approach to foreign policy, which was refreshing). I might have given this book four stars, but there are just enough little moments where I felt like Rall come across as an asshole, the overall structure of the book was odd and very slapdash, and the cartoons were generally rubbish (nice pictures though).
On the whole, this was a perfectly a decent read. But I definitely preferred Irris Makler's Our Woman in Kabul, which was another journalistic book, focussed wholly Afghanistan following 9/11.
September 20, 2021
There could have been a good book here but politics and a lazy repetitions results in a slog of a read, and as interesting and depressing as the whole narrative is, it is even worse when one is reading it in the present day (that being Summer of 2021).
It's the author's second book about traveling through Afghanistan. The 1st was shortly after 9/11, the second was almost a decade later, and he cobbled this book together in 2013 when the then-president made all kinds of promises about getting-the-troops-out which our author swallowed like a loyal liberal and never questioned like a good journalist.
I'm awaiting his third book in a few years, another decade on, where he will criticize Obama as much as he does Bush. Don't hold your breath, though, since near the end you come across a whopper of a line that, although not the words of the author personally, are words that he obviously agrees with:
"If only we’d followed the advice of a certain Joe Biden back then."
Yes, Joe Biden will fix all Afghanistan's problems. Bye-bye authorial credibility.
It's the author's second book about traveling through Afghanistan. The 1st was shortly after 9/11, the second was almost a decade later, and he cobbled this book together in 2013 when the then-president made all kinds of promises about getting-the-troops-out which our author swallowed like a loyal liberal and never questioned like a good journalist.
I'm awaiting his third book in a few years, another decade on, where he will criticize Obama as much as he does Bush. Don't hold your breath, though, since near the end you come across a whopper of a line that, although not the words of the author personally, are words that he obviously agrees with:
"If only we’d followed the advice of a certain Joe Biden back then."
Yes, Joe Biden will fix all Afghanistan's problems. Bye-bye authorial credibility.
June 26, 2018
A fascinating combination of comic and text exploring what it was like being a foreign freelance journalist in Afghanistan during the war.
September 26, 2021
A first-person account of visiting Afghanistan in both 2001 and 2010. The tone can sometimes tip toward a bit too angry — this is definitely not an objective, journalistic account — but it's very compelling, super informative, and entertaining. Love the comics interspersed throughout the text. Very helpful for trying to get a grasp on the very confusing, very slippery situation now and then in Afghanistan.
October 12, 2014
Well written, factual, and insightful, this book will make you question not just the war in Afghanistan, but most of the United States' foreign policy since 1940. Following 9/11 I was always suspicious of the "War on Terror" trope, thinking that a more effective approach to ensure our security would have been to treat the attack as the criminal act that it was, and pursue the criminals responsible. From the information I saw at the time, it looked like at least the invasion of Afghanistan may have been in pursuit of this goal. But after reading this, there is no question in my mind that NONE of the military actions taken in the aftermath of 9/11 were justified. Afghanistan was yet another case of the United States failing to learn from history, and failing to recognize the complexities of political and cultural life in the places we choose to invade.
When will we learn? When will we learn that military action will never change the political climate in unstable countries? When will we learn that we can't change a people's minds by bombing them? When will we learn that attacking a bad situation will inevitably make it worse? When will we learn that it is better to help the ordinary people in an unstable country than to try to destroy the sources of that instability? And perhaps most importantly, when will we finally understand that the only way journalism can be effective is when it is completely removed from any official influence?
Thank God there are still a few like Ted Rall who are willing to take on this impossible task, and give us the information we need to understand what is really happening in the world.
When will we learn? When will we learn that military action will never change the political climate in unstable countries? When will we learn that we can't change a people's minds by bombing them? When will we learn that attacking a bad situation will inevitably make it worse? When will we learn that it is better to help the ordinary people in an unstable country than to try to destroy the sources of that instability? And perhaps most importantly, when will we finally understand that the only way journalism can be effective is when it is completely removed from any official influence?
Thank God there are still a few like Ted Rall who are willing to take on this impossible task, and give us the information we need to understand what is really happening in the world.
September 16, 2015
It's hard to remember that there used to be a time when comics journalism didn't exist. It just seems so right, reading the latest from Ted Rall or Joe Sacco or even Guy Delisle. I find myself wondering how it could ever not have been a thing. Rall went to Afghanistan twice, once in 2001, shortly after 9/11, and more recently in 2009 (I think. I don't have the book handy at the moment to refer to. :-( ) Since his first trip was covered extensively in a previous book, this one deals with his second excursion and compares and contrasts between the two. He has an eye for detail and a penchant for the darkly humorous that bring the story vividly to life. The book is a mixture of cartoons, photos, and text--mainly the latter. Needless to say, Rall's eyewitness accounts differ a bit from what's been reported in the mainstream media over the years. Of course, Afghanistan looks very different when one actually talks to the locals, as opposed to riding around embedded with a bunch of soldiers. This is an excellent book, well worth reading.
July 21, 2021
I don't know where to start. So, that does it, I suppose. I presumed (along with everyone else) that the reason the US went into Afghanistan was because the base of the perpetrators of 9/11 was there, the training camps and all that. But, as Rall reveals, that wasn't it. It might've been for oil. It was probably practice subjugating a weak Middle Eastern country. Osama Bin Laden wasn't even in Afghanistan at the time, but in Pakistan, so that wasn't a connection. Rall even says that Afghans asked about Al Qaeda didn't know what it was. Al Qaeda are not the Taliban. Rall doesn't even use the word "terrorist" very often, let alone to describe the Taliban; he calls them Talibs. Thinking about what Rall describes the US did over there, now, I question the free use of "terrorist" to describe people over there. The US' liberal use of drones over there, bombing any gathering of civilians such as weddings is truly terrifying to conceive of, let alone go through or run the risk of as was the people's reality there.
This book really makes you feel sick about what the US has gotten into over there and done to the Afghan people. To really deepen that feeling of despair, I recommend Vice's "This is What Winning Looks Like".
Only issue was that Rall talks about some things a few times, sometimes in the form of his comics sections, that, coupled with the fact that Rall went to Afghanistan twice, was confusing. I understand now that what he was talking about at the beginning of the book was his first trip, but as I read through, everything was kind of hazy as a result of that initial confusion.
This book really makes you feel sick about what the US has gotten into over there and done to the Afghan people. To really deepen that feeling of despair, I recommend Vice's "This is What Winning Looks Like".
Only issue was that Rall talks about some things a few times, sometimes in the form of his comics sections, that, coupled with the fact that Rall went to Afghanistan twice, was confusing. I understand now that what he was talking about at the beginning of the book was his first trip, but as I read through, everything was kind of hazy as a result of that initial confusion.
September 7, 2017
This was adventurous! I didn't know much about Afghanistan and what was happening with the war. This book enlightened me tremendously. I am so grateful we have a constitutional free press and grateful for the journalists that put their lives on the line to report what is happening. Thank you Ted Rall and your cohorts for being so brave and putting so much forth as independent reporters on not only your investigative reporting, but opening up the world to Afghanistan so we can see what's actually happening, the progress or lack of made, what life is like and the mood of the Afghans.
April 28, 2019
I have become a huge fan of Ted Rall's work now that I have read several books. This one is probably one of his best and most important. He describes his experiences as a reporter in Afghanistan in which he visited and traveled with two other cartoonists but not with the protection of U.S. armed forces. He did this so he could see what is really going on there and how people felt about American intervention without any interpretive influence by the U.S. government. I found his results eye opening and extremely valuable.
September 27, 2017
This author set off my bullshit alert in the introduction with his rant about embedded reporters not being real journalists and we should only trust his observations of Afghanistan and then didn't tell me anything I didn't already know for a long period afterwards. Finally toward the end of the book, he takes a return trip ten years after the war started and has some fresh observations, but does 3-4 weeks spent in Afghanistan in 2001 and another 3-4 weeks a decade later make you an expert? He's more of an expert than me, but enough of an expert that we should ignore all other journalists as "fake news"? I don't think so.
February 13, 2023
This was a funny and insightful read. Rall offers some great perspective on what went wrong in Afghanistan.
I'd recommend this book for journalists and students of foreign policy. It doesn't explain every aspect of what went wrong with the war, but Rall does give some building blocks to understand this moment in American history.
I'd recommend this book for journalists and students of foreign policy. It doesn't explain every aspect of what went wrong with the war, but Rall does give some building blocks to understand this moment in American history.
November 27, 2024
Towards the end it did get a tad bit self-aggrandizing with the 'We were the only reporters getting the truth', albeit ringing true. Overall great read, agree with a lot of what was said in the epilogue.
October 8, 2017
At times funny and others tragic, this book is part cartoon, part travel diary, part journalism, and all thought-provoking.
October 27, 2020
Short book but great for an alternative and quite possibly Frank view of Afghanistan after 9/11
April 13, 2021
He pulls no punches
July 1, 2022
Brilliant hands on Diary of travels through Afghanistan during 2010
March 3, 2015
Quite eye-opening, and presented in a manner that I think should appeal to twenty-somethings and younger. It's a fast read on its own, but one can stick strictly to the cartoon pages to get an executive summary.
I highly recommend it for all Americans, and especially all 'Murricans. The politics of the author do leak out in a few spots, but this is acknowledged up front. This /may/ have some very slight impact on the characterization of certain facts in the book (really the only one I can think of is the assertion that the Administration "knew" Bin Laden was not going to be found in Afghanistan, but was always in Pakistan all along). I think argument might be made that in a lot things our national government involves itself, there is substantial "left hand knows not what the right hand is doing" potential. This is as far as I can see the author's political stance could shade things. The book is really a-political, just presenting facts as gathered through personal experience of the place, which is a good way to get to know what's really going on.
The book only confirmed most of my suspicions, which had been growing in slow fashion since we stopped seeing regular nightly news vignettes about soldiers recently killed. We really ought to be ashamed of ourselves for this. It was not a noble thing, and no spin can salvage it in my opinion.
Sadly, Mr. Rall shows that the human anguish is highly likely to continue and possibly worsen for the Afghans after we finally leave completely (and we should, post haste). This is a no-win situation, and it was so before the first special forces boots landed on the ground in 2001. Any and all moves now will cause human harm. The least harm from this point forward, I am convinced, will come from total and permanent withdrawal of all military forces, and an end to all government money-aid distributions, which only end up as fuel for continued violence from one quarter or other.
Afghans, for good or ill, must determine their own fate. The situation on the ground is too fractured for any sort of unilateral policy. Afghanistan is hardly unique that way. Good people will get killed, but it seems to me impossible for our best intentions, in whatever form the intervention appears, to truly prevent this.
The lesson now and from history seems to be that it is hubris to think you can shape these sorts of situations, much less control them, when the decision to intervene is made. Intervention doesn't work and cannot. It must be left to and remain with the people directly impacted. For them, the "muddling through somehow" must start from and I think is most effective at the smallest levels, individuals, families, villages. This is the way it would work organically, if the framework of State were not present. Things don't look neat and clean when you leave it this way, but I think this book shows readers that it's impossible for such things to be neat and clean, and any presentation that is showing some neat and clean solution, is either naive or propaganda (or both).
If you want to inspire afflicted peoples to search for and adopt their own solutions to problems, the best way is not by interposing yourself in their affairs, but by leading by example, persuading with your ideas and pointing to your own affairs as a model that's working better.
I highly recommend it for all Americans, and especially all 'Murricans. The politics of the author do leak out in a few spots, but this is acknowledged up front. This /may/ have some very slight impact on the characterization of certain facts in the book (really the only one I can think of is the assertion that the Administration "knew" Bin Laden was not going to be found in Afghanistan, but was always in Pakistan all along). I think argument might be made that in a lot things our national government involves itself, there is substantial "left hand knows not what the right hand is doing" potential. This is as far as I can see the author's political stance could shade things. The book is really a-political, just presenting facts as gathered through personal experience of the place, which is a good way to get to know what's really going on.
The book only confirmed most of my suspicions, which had been growing in slow fashion since we stopped seeing regular nightly news vignettes about soldiers recently killed. We really ought to be ashamed of ourselves for this. It was not a noble thing, and no spin can salvage it in my opinion.
Sadly, Mr. Rall shows that the human anguish is highly likely to continue and possibly worsen for the Afghans after we finally leave completely (and we should, post haste). This is a no-win situation, and it was so before the first special forces boots landed on the ground in 2001. Any and all moves now will cause human harm. The least harm from this point forward, I am convinced, will come from total and permanent withdrawal of all military forces, and an end to all government money-aid distributions, which only end up as fuel for continued violence from one quarter or other.
Afghans, for good or ill, must determine their own fate. The situation on the ground is too fractured for any sort of unilateral policy. Afghanistan is hardly unique that way. Good people will get killed, but it seems to me impossible for our best intentions, in whatever form the intervention appears, to truly prevent this.
The lesson now and from history seems to be that it is hubris to think you can shape these sorts of situations, much less control them, when the decision to intervene is made. Intervention doesn't work and cannot. It must be left to and remain with the people directly impacted. For them, the "muddling through somehow" must start from and I think is most effective at the smallest levels, individuals, families, villages. This is the way it would work organically, if the framework of State were not present. Things don't look neat and clean when you leave it this way, but I think this book shows readers that it's impossible for such things to be neat and clean, and any presentation that is showing some neat and clean solution, is either naive or propaganda (or both).
If you want to inspire afflicted peoples to search for and adopt their own solutions to problems, the best way is not by interposing yourself in their affairs, but by leading by example, persuading with your ideas and pointing to your own affairs as a model that's working better.
April 11, 2015
The title for this book comes from a conversation that Rall has with a (possible Taliban) old man, who denies GW Bush's argument that the Taliban 'hate us for our freedom'. Not so he says, we just want you out of Afghanistan.
Ted Rall was never in favour of the Invasion of Afghanistan (the war ON Afghanistan as he insists on calling it). On this account of his second trip to the country (the first was in 2001) he finds that the Taliban never seriously went away after their defeat. They remain the decisive power in the country, far more so than the corrupt and discredited central government in Kabul (still Hamid Karzai when this was written).
The major contrast that Rall finds between 2001 and 2010 is that, while Afghanistan was wrecked in 2001, Afghans were optimistic. The reputation of the USA as THE superpower meant that people thought finally someone was going to fix the country. In 2010, despite some recent progress in road fixing, the NATO presence had proved so ineffective and destructive that Afghan were truly despairing. If not even the US can fix the country, they seem to be thinking, then there truly is no hope.
Rall makes a distinction between the 'Old Taliban' whom NATO and the Northern Alliance overthrew, and the 'neo-Taliban'. The Old Taliban were vicious, but not corrupt, whereas the neo-Taliban are vicious and corrupt. It is the neos that will take over when the West withdraws.
Rall is also scathing about the practice of 'embedding' journalists with military units (hence this book's subtitle). At best journalists lose the objectivity, and worst they become active participants in the incompetence of NATO's operations. Rall has fun describing the professional journalists as looking utterly ridiculous as they ride around Afghanistan with full military escorts, never meeting any actual Afghans. Rall travels independent of embedding with fellow cartoonists Steven Cloud and Mat Bors, and tells his story in a mixture of cartoons, on the spot reporting, and reflection.
Ted Rall was never in favour of the Invasion of Afghanistan (the war ON Afghanistan as he insists on calling it). On this account of his second trip to the country (the first was in 2001) he finds that the Taliban never seriously went away after their defeat. They remain the decisive power in the country, far more so than the corrupt and discredited central government in Kabul (still Hamid Karzai when this was written).
The major contrast that Rall finds between 2001 and 2010 is that, while Afghanistan was wrecked in 2001, Afghans were optimistic. The reputation of the USA as THE superpower meant that people thought finally someone was going to fix the country. In 2010, despite some recent progress in road fixing, the NATO presence had proved so ineffective and destructive that Afghan were truly despairing. If not even the US can fix the country, they seem to be thinking, then there truly is no hope.
Rall makes a distinction between the 'Old Taliban' whom NATO and the Northern Alliance overthrew, and the 'neo-Taliban'. The Old Taliban were vicious, but not corrupt, whereas the neo-Taliban are vicious and corrupt. It is the neos that will take over when the West withdraws.
Rall is also scathing about the practice of 'embedding' journalists with military units (hence this book's subtitle). At best journalists lose the objectivity, and worst they become active participants in the incompetence of NATO's operations. Rall has fun describing the professional journalists as looking utterly ridiculous as they ride around Afghanistan with full military escorts, never meeting any actual Afghans. Rall travels independent of embedding with fellow cartoonists Steven Cloud and Mat Bors, and tells his story in a mixture of cartoons, on the spot reporting, and reflection.
September 5, 2016
Ted Rall gives a riveting and eye opening account of the past and current situation in Afghanistan. He is a serious and unembedded journalist trying to figure out why the United States has been staging its longest ever war there.
Early in the book, he states, “More than anything, I wanted to shed light on the Big Question No One Ever Wants to Think About, at least not in the United States: Why do “we” (the U.S. Government and military, and by extension people) keep getting into this sort of thing? Why are we mired in an economy based on endless war and a culture of mindless militarism?..............We never win. We pay a terrible price. Yet we keep sending tens of thousands of men and women to fight and kill and die or come back wrecked.”
The author relates his story of traveling to Afghanistan in 2001, right after 9/11 and then, with great courage and difficulty, returns to Afghanistan in 2010 to make comparisons and see what, if anything, had been accomplished. Darn little. Wasted money, wasted lives, and the neo-Taliban still strikes terror in the hearts of the entire population of the country.
Reading this book convinced me, without a doubt, that the American public has not received the true story of the situation in Afghanistan. The mainstream media, with its “embedded journalists” seems to be turning into mouthpieces for the government. Be it under Republican or Democratic administrations, our foreign policy has been and continues to be, an unmitigated disaster.
Early in the book, he states, “More than anything, I wanted to shed light on the Big Question No One Ever Wants to Think About, at least not in the United States: Why do “we” (the U.S. Government and military, and by extension people) keep getting into this sort of thing? Why are we mired in an economy based on endless war and a culture of mindless militarism?..............We never win. We pay a terrible price. Yet we keep sending tens of thousands of men and women to fight and kill and die or come back wrecked.”
The author relates his story of traveling to Afghanistan in 2001, right after 9/11 and then, with great courage and difficulty, returns to Afghanistan in 2010 to make comparisons and see what, if anything, had been accomplished. Darn little. Wasted money, wasted lives, and the neo-Taliban still strikes terror in the hearts of the entire population of the country.
Reading this book convinced me, without a doubt, that the American public has not received the true story of the situation in Afghanistan. The mainstream media, with its “embedded journalists” seems to be turning into mouthpieces for the government. Be it under Republican or Democratic administrations, our foreign policy has been and continues to be, an unmitigated disaster.
November 17, 2015
Ted Rall has a distinctive quality of speaking uncomfortable truths to -- well, not to power, exactly. But he speaks those truths. This book is an intriguing follow-up to his 2003 comics memoir To Afghanistan And Back (for which book he is recognized by a bookstore owner in Kabul, he explains), although this new text is about 70% standard text and only 30% comics.
Still, Rall's trademark candor and eye for detail make for a thoroughly engaging text, mixing derisive scorn for "embedded reporting" with humbled honesty about what he finds around the country after more than a decade of US occupation. His findings are by turns hopeful (roads everywhere!), tragic (fear and loathing pervade the nation), and absurd (that's not an oil pipeline -- that's a sewage pipeline).
The one annoying part of the book is the author's insistence on flopping back and forth between his 2001 trip and his 2010 trip. It's all past tense, and not much past perfect -- so phrases like "We had a hard time finding a place to spend the night" become obfuscated by uncertainty. It's a minor quibble, but it's enough to lose a star.
Still, Rall is one of a rare breed of journalists who is determined to report on war zones without surrounding himself with US troops and security personnel. (Those trappings, he points out, often make journalists more of a target, ironically.)
Highly recommended.
Still, Rall's trademark candor and eye for detail make for a thoroughly engaging text, mixing derisive scorn for "embedded reporting" with humbled honesty about what he finds around the country after more than a decade of US occupation. His findings are by turns hopeful (roads everywhere!), tragic (fear and loathing pervade the nation), and absurd (that's not an oil pipeline -- that's a sewage pipeline).
The one annoying part of the book is the author's insistence on flopping back and forth between his 2001 trip and his 2010 trip. It's all past tense, and not much past perfect -- so phrases like "We had a hard time finding a place to spend the night" become obfuscated by uncertainty. It's a minor quibble, but it's enough to lose a star.
Still, Rall is one of a rare breed of journalists who is determined to report on war zones without surrounding himself with US troops and security personnel. (Those trappings, he points out, often make journalists more of a target, ironically.)
Highly recommended.
May 11, 2015
I wanted to know about central Asia. Afghanistan is right there in the middle.
It's stressful for all parties, which is probably an understatement.
Ted Rall seems to capture well visually what happens there without gore and bloodshed, which I found surprising.
This book is from last year, 2014.
He does have plenty of interesting photographs and comics to illustrate his point, but it's more jarring to me than anything with, say, Malala, without any hint of what we can do about it.
For this reason, I didn't rate it very high.
It ends with "thank you for worrying about me." ? Productive.
I showed my mother the photo I found most interesting: a sign with what looks like heavy artillery and a red x over it, "No Weapons Please" on top and Dari on the bottom, probably saying the same thing.
It's stressful for all parties, which is probably an understatement.
Ted Rall seems to capture well visually what happens there without gore and bloodshed, which I found surprising.
This book is from last year, 2014.
He does have plenty of interesting photographs and comics to illustrate his point, but it's more jarring to me than anything with, say, Malala, without any hint of what we can do about it.
For this reason, I didn't rate it very high.
It ends with "thank you for worrying about me." ? Productive.
I showed my mother the photo I found most interesting: a sign with what looks like heavy artillery and a red x over it, "No Weapons Please" on top and Dari on the bottom, probably saying the same thing.
September 8, 2014
If you thought that Afghanistan was the "good war," be prepared to have your view seriously challenged. Ted Rall takes his reader beyond the spoon-fed company line coverage given to the war by the corporate media in America. He talks to real Afghans who have to live with the repercussions of actions taken by both the native Taliban and the invading/occupying US troops (and foreign NGOs). He spot-lights the changes between the country he visited during the initial US invasion in 2001 and the country he witnessed on his return in 2010. It is a step forward...a step backwards...or is it the same as it ever was for both the invaded and the invader. Ted Rall gives the evidence...we have to make our own decisions.
August 12, 2018
This was pretty uneven to me, sometimes seeming like serious journalism and other times slipping into pretty aggressive opinion. I appreciate the comparison between the author’s multiple trips to Afghanistan but I got confused sometimes because it jumped around too much. The comics didn’t add much. I wish it were either just all text or all comics.
I did find it interesting to challenge the notion of Afghanistan as “the good war,” especially after just reading another book about the Iraq war. I also liked learning about the concepts of embedded and unembedded journalists.
I did find it interesting to challenge the notion of Afghanistan as “the good war,” especially after just reading another book about the Iraq war. I also liked learning about the concepts of embedded and unembedded journalists.
February 8, 2015
For a liberal progressive, the antidote to "American Sniper". Mr. Rall made me read up on things I didn't know before (for example, the authenticity of the Bin Laden tape that confessed to 9/11, the TAPI). It was also a pleasure to read a book by someone who gets the regional power dynamics (the Iran-India discussions tempered with China and Pakistan).
Fantastic book. Great graphic novel.
Fantastic book. Great graphic novel.
January 24, 2016
Very unusual book on the travels of a journalist in Afghanistan, consisting of written travelogue, information on life in Afghanistan, plenty of opinions, photos and cartoons. His viewpoints don't always jive with what we hear from the general media and the U.S. government which might be annoying to some but I found it interesting.
August 13, 2016
I like Ralls's irreverence, ascerbic sensibility, and fearlessness when criticizing powers-that-be.
February 17, 2015
Like him or not, Ted Rall tells a different story than what we are accustomed to hearing from our servile mass media. Required reading for all those want to have an opinion on our longest war.
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