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The Dogs are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan
The Dogs are Eating Them Now is a highly personal narrative of our war in Afghanistan and how it went dangerously wrong. Written by a respected and fearless former foreign correspondent who has won multiple awards for his journalism (including an Emmy for the video series "Talking with the Taliban") this is a gripping account of modern warfare that takes you into back alleys, cockpits, and prisons –telling stories that would have endangered his life had he published this book while still working as a journalist. Smith was not simply embedded with the military: he operated independently and at great personal risk to report from inside the war, and the heroes of his story are the translators, guides, and ordinary citizens who helped him find the truth. They revealed sad, absurd, touching stories that provide the key to understanding why the mission failed to deliver peace and democracy.
From the corruption of law enforcement agents and the tribal nature of the local power structure to the economics of the drug trade and the frequent blunders of foreign troops, this is the no-holds-barred story from a leading expert on the insurgency.
From the corruption of law enforcement agents and the tribal nature of the local power structure to the economics of the drug trade and the frequent blunders of foreign troops, this is the no-holds-barred story from a leading expert on the insurgency.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 23, 2012
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September 1, 2013
Read it.
January 8, 2014
In the years ahead, as we watch yet worse conflict in Afghanistan, this book will come to be seen as definitive in explaining the tragedy. "We lost the war in southern Afghanistan," writes Smith, "and it broke my heart." Tracing the years from 2005 to 2013, which he covered as a journalist, the author probes this defeat with remarkable insight and gripping authenticity.
Three major themes stand out for me in this book. The first is the dramatic and inexorable rise in violence in the area despite the huge increase in foreign troops who were supposed to pacify the Taliban. Smith is driven to conclude that the military incursion in fact feeds Taliban growth rather than countering it. This connects to a second theme -- that the Taliban is much more an indigenous rural rebellion rather than an externally inspired terrorist group. That rural revolt is especially spurred by US and NATO moves to eradicate local poppy crops. Inability to see these localized roots and strength brings on the overconfidence of Canadian and other foreign military commanders. A third key theme is the developing corruption of official Afghan governing structures, especially the police. Drug smuggling becomes a core factor in this and channels illicit funds to the Taliban in the process.
Smith draws a grim picture and finds it hard to see hopeful prospects for the future. But at the same time he writes with great affection for southern Afghanistan and its people. His portraits of friends and contacts there are evocative and deeply sympathetic. It is striking that despite his tough assessment Smith has chosen to return and live in the country and work for the International Crisis Group.
This is a vivid and important book -- a serious contribution to understanding a disappointing Canadian foreign policy experience. There are more questions its conclusions raise. What does all this say about future Canadian initiatives? How should the world respond to other extreme regimes elsewhere? Does intervention make sense in civil war situations? What this book stresses is that answers must be thought through on the basis of realistic detailed information from the ground.
Three major themes stand out for me in this book. The first is the dramatic and inexorable rise in violence in the area despite the huge increase in foreign troops who were supposed to pacify the Taliban. Smith is driven to conclude that the military incursion in fact feeds Taliban growth rather than countering it. This connects to a second theme -- that the Taliban is much more an indigenous rural rebellion rather than an externally inspired terrorist group. That rural revolt is especially spurred by US and NATO moves to eradicate local poppy crops. Inability to see these localized roots and strength brings on the overconfidence of Canadian and other foreign military commanders. A third key theme is the developing corruption of official Afghan governing structures, especially the police. Drug smuggling becomes a core factor in this and channels illicit funds to the Taliban in the process.
Smith draws a grim picture and finds it hard to see hopeful prospects for the future. But at the same time he writes with great affection for southern Afghanistan and its people. His portraits of friends and contacts there are evocative and deeply sympathetic. It is striking that despite his tough assessment Smith has chosen to return and live in the country and work for the International Crisis Group.
This is a vivid and important book -- a serious contribution to understanding a disappointing Canadian foreign policy experience. There are more questions its conclusions raise. What does all this say about future Canadian initiatives? How should the world respond to other extreme regimes elsewhere? Does intervention make sense in civil war situations? What this book stresses is that answers must be thought through on the basis of realistic detailed information from the ground.
May 22, 2019
This is not a review but is based on an interview I had with the author. It was originally published in the Georgia Straight newspaper.
Fourteen seconds of silence pass on an audio recording of Graeme Smith’s interview with Brig.-Gen. David Fraser. Finally, the commander answers a question about Canadian forces handing prisoners over to an Afghan penal system fraught with abuse and torture.
“He knew that he was wading into deep waters by talking about detainees, and he was brave to do so,” Smith recalled on the phone from Kabul, Afghanistan. “But the stuff he said wasn’t accurate. He said in 2006 that nothing bad happens to these people, and he looked me in the eye and he used that reassuring tone of voice that generals have. And he was wrong.”
Smith, now a senior analyst with International Crisis Group, was a Globe and Mail correspondent in southern Afghanistan from 2005 to 2011.
In The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan, Smith retraces his time in Kandahar province and a personal transformation from an “excited young journalist” enthusiastic for NATO’s mission to one of the war’s sharpest critics. For that work, he has been nominated for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, for which he’s scheduled to pass through Vancouver on February 21.
Smith told the Straight that although a lot of stories he covered contributed to that “unravelling”, as he characterized it, it was Canadian forces’ culpability in the torture of prisoners passed to Afghan authorities that troubled him more than any other.
“It’s hard to feel like things are going well and you’re on the side of good when you’re getting these stories day after day after day—stories about people being choked and burned and whipped and electrocuted and whatever,” he explained. “The whole premise of the war was built on this idea of the rule of law….That there have to be rules of some kind. But then what was scary was when you got to Afghanistan, it was easy to see that rules were being broken. If we were going to be describing ourselves as being on the side of good, that got tougher and tougher as the years went by because we weren’t behaving in a particularly good way when it came to detainees and other issues.”
Two days after Smith’s August 23, 2007, report on detainee abuses appeared in the Globe and Mail, Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed the matter in Parliament and denied there was any problem. Later, Canadian forces quietly introduced some reforms concerning the handover of prisoners, but Smith said he feels there still remains a “stubborn reluctance” to fully take responsibility and address what happened.
An inability to tackle complex and inconvenient problems in real time was one of NATO’s greatest shortcomings, he said. For example, the United States and Canada for years failed to recalibrate strategies on Pakistan despite overwhelming evidence that Afghanistan’s southern neighbour was playing a major role in the conflict.
A reckless use of air support was another policy blunder that NATO allies were slow to acknowledge and correct, Smith continued. It could also often seem like there were parallel wars being waged in Afghanistan with little communication between the two.
“The American counter-terrorism forces had a different mission and a separate chain of command from the NATO troops,” he writes in the book. “While the elite commandos hunted for threats to global security, the rest of the international forces were struggling to put down a local insurgency. Translated into action, this meant that bearded Americans ran around at night kicking down doors, while clean-shaven regular troops went on day patrols and held meetings to foster goodwill and set up the basics of government.” (For more on U.S. clandestine operations in Afghanistan, read the Straight’s review of Jeremy Scahill’s Dirty Wars: The World as a Battlefield.)
Armies that looked relatively the same but sometimes acted independently of one another created disorder that could be detrimental to all, Smith noted.
“Those differences between the groups of foreigners who were running around in Afghanistan were so confusing to the Afghans,” he said. “Just as we had trouble deciphering the different Afghan tribes, they had trouble deciphering the different groups of foreigners who were often acting at cross purposes.”
A passage from The Dogs Are Eating Them Now illustrates the extent to which that confusion might be detrimental to any legacy Canada hopes to leave behind in Afghanistan.
“They saw all of us as Americans,” Smith writes. “For years, people in Kandahar city would look at me and ask, ‘America, yeh?’ and it was hard to persuade them I was from Canada—and then, to convince them Canada was a real country.”
Still living in Afghanistan today, Smith conceded that he sometimes finds himself depressed by the lack of progress made by a NATO force that was likely the most powerful military alliance ever assembled.
“What I think we can hold on to is hope,” he added. “I think despite all the massive screw-ups that I document in the book, I think there is still hope that this situation can be salvaged—maybe not beautifully, but it could still be salvaged.”
Smith, however, noted that a major report he’s produced for International Crisis Group that’s scheduled to be released before the end of March warns that Afghanistan is likely headed for violence worse than it has seen in years.
“It’s a tough thing, trying to get Canadians to still care about Afghanistan,” he said. “I think people would rather just pretend it never happened, which is really a shame because I really feel like we have to have a sense of responsibility for this mess.”
Fourteen seconds of silence pass on an audio recording of Graeme Smith’s interview with Brig.-Gen. David Fraser. Finally, the commander answers a question about Canadian forces handing prisoners over to an Afghan penal system fraught with abuse and torture.
“He knew that he was wading into deep waters by talking about detainees, and he was brave to do so,” Smith recalled on the phone from Kabul, Afghanistan. “But the stuff he said wasn’t accurate. He said in 2006 that nothing bad happens to these people, and he looked me in the eye and he used that reassuring tone of voice that generals have. And he was wrong.”
Smith, now a senior analyst with International Crisis Group, was a Globe and Mail correspondent in southern Afghanistan from 2005 to 2011.
In The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan, Smith retraces his time in Kandahar province and a personal transformation from an “excited young journalist” enthusiastic for NATO’s mission to one of the war’s sharpest critics. For that work, he has been nominated for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, for which he’s scheduled to pass through Vancouver on February 21.
Smith told the Straight that although a lot of stories he covered contributed to that “unravelling”, as he characterized it, it was Canadian forces’ culpability in the torture of prisoners passed to Afghan authorities that troubled him more than any other.
“It’s hard to feel like things are going well and you’re on the side of good when you’re getting these stories day after day after day—stories about people being choked and burned and whipped and electrocuted and whatever,” he explained. “The whole premise of the war was built on this idea of the rule of law….That there have to be rules of some kind. But then what was scary was when you got to Afghanistan, it was easy to see that rules were being broken. If we were going to be describing ourselves as being on the side of good, that got tougher and tougher as the years went by because we weren’t behaving in a particularly good way when it came to detainees and other issues.”
Two days after Smith’s August 23, 2007, report on detainee abuses appeared in the Globe and Mail, Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed the matter in Parliament and denied there was any problem. Later, Canadian forces quietly introduced some reforms concerning the handover of prisoners, but Smith said he feels there still remains a “stubborn reluctance” to fully take responsibility and address what happened.
An inability to tackle complex and inconvenient problems in real time was one of NATO’s greatest shortcomings, he said. For example, the United States and Canada for years failed to recalibrate strategies on Pakistan despite overwhelming evidence that Afghanistan’s southern neighbour was playing a major role in the conflict.
A reckless use of air support was another policy blunder that NATO allies were slow to acknowledge and correct, Smith continued. It could also often seem like there were parallel wars being waged in Afghanistan with little communication between the two.
“The American counter-terrorism forces had a different mission and a separate chain of command from the NATO troops,” he writes in the book. “While the elite commandos hunted for threats to global security, the rest of the international forces were struggling to put down a local insurgency. Translated into action, this meant that bearded Americans ran around at night kicking down doors, while clean-shaven regular troops went on day patrols and held meetings to foster goodwill and set up the basics of government.” (For more on U.S. clandestine operations in Afghanistan, read the Straight’s review of Jeremy Scahill’s Dirty Wars: The World as a Battlefield.)
Armies that looked relatively the same but sometimes acted independently of one another created disorder that could be detrimental to all, Smith noted.
“Those differences between the groups of foreigners who were running around in Afghanistan were so confusing to the Afghans,” he said. “Just as we had trouble deciphering the different Afghan tribes, they had trouble deciphering the different groups of foreigners who were often acting at cross purposes.”
A passage from The Dogs Are Eating Them Now illustrates the extent to which that confusion might be detrimental to any legacy Canada hopes to leave behind in Afghanistan.
“They saw all of us as Americans,” Smith writes. “For years, people in Kandahar city would look at me and ask, ‘America, yeh?’ and it was hard to persuade them I was from Canada—and then, to convince them Canada was a real country.”
Still living in Afghanistan today, Smith conceded that he sometimes finds himself depressed by the lack of progress made by a NATO force that was likely the most powerful military alliance ever assembled.
“What I think we can hold on to is hope,” he added. “I think despite all the massive screw-ups that I document in the book, I think there is still hope that this situation can be salvaged—maybe not beautifully, but it could still be salvaged.”
Smith, however, noted that a major report he’s produced for International Crisis Group that’s scheduled to be released before the end of March warns that Afghanistan is likely headed for violence worse than it has seen in years.
“It’s a tough thing, trying to get Canadians to still care about Afghanistan,” he said. “I think people would rather just pretend it never happened, which is really a shame because I really feel like we have to have a sense of responsibility for this mess.”
July 15, 2018
This book is less an analysis of the war in Afghanistan and more Graeme Smith's coming-of-age story as a young Canadian journalist learning his trade and developing his point of view of the situation there. The writing is very straightforward and unpretentious and the book is highly readable.
The description above compares this book to those of Dexter Filkins (The Forever War), Sebastian Junger (War) and Philip Gourevitch (We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families). I've read these other three books and would agree that Smith's book has a similar feel and compares favorably to the others. (I felt Filkins's book is the best by a pretty big margin and Junger's and Smith's books are above Gourevitch's by a small margin.)
The description above compares this book to those of Dexter Filkins (The Forever War), Sebastian Junger (War) and Philip Gourevitch (We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families). I've read these other three books and would agree that Smith's book has a similar feel and compares favorably to the others. (I felt Filkins's book is the best by a pretty big margin and Junger's and Smith's books are above Gourevitch's by a small margin.)
February 24, 2017
Full disclosure: Graeme is a personal friend and I have an enormous amount of respect for his analysis of Afghanistan, which is based on his many years of experience in Afghanistan and his profound insight into the people, tribal dynamics, power, problems, and money of Afghanistan.
While this book concentrates on a certain part of his experience in Afghanistan, it explains the complicated and frustrating situation in Afghanistan better than most other things I've read.
While this book concentrates on a certain part of his experience in Afghanistan, it explains the complicated and frustrating situation in Afghanistan better than most other things I've read.
January 23, 2015
If you’re not yet aware of this book and its background let me briefly explain before I get into my review. The edition I just read is the new American edition (which has an added Forward) as the book was originally published in 2013 in Canada. Graeme Smith is Canadian and covered the Afghanistan war as fought by NATO (mostly Canadian troops) in Southern Afghanistan around the city of Kandahar. He spent more time in this region than any other reporter from September 2005 to 2009, returning again in 2011 to the present time as a Senior Analyst for the International Crisis Group. When he uses the words “Our War” he is referring to Canada’s war (although he talks about it in terms as NATOs war). Why it has taken so long for the book to be published in the United States is surprising. I first heard about it in an LA Times book review published last month.
Let me begin by saying the book is an incredible read and should be read by anyone interested in the brief recent history of Afghanistan (since the fall of the Taliban). Graeme Smith’s writing is crisp, informative, self-deprecating and an adventure story for the reader. Structured mostly as a memoir covering his time in South Afghanistan where he reported using translators and dressed in native cloths. The chapters take us through the years from his arrival in 2005 to the present. His journey is one of disillusionment as he changes his views and reaches counter intuitive conclusions about NATOs war strategy. Smith’s reporting goes deeper than the grand strategies and goals of the global war on terror and/or nation building pealing back as he does to what life on the ground is like. This via stories about local officials, warlords, farmers, shop owners, Canadian soldiers, insurgents and the Taliban. The stories he tells are tragic, disheartening, heroic, and entertaining. One story tells about his interviewing 45 Taliban insurgents. Only three even recognized that Canada was a country and only one knew Canada was above the United States. Most said that this kind of information was not meaningful to them.
The book begins with the line, “We lost the war in Southern Afghanistan and it broke my heart.” Smith saw positive about the troop surge of 2005 as bringing “a whole basket of civilization to the south”. Now he says that the years our armies “…pounded their way into the South will be remembered for the heights of violence that exceeded the gruesome body count of the Taliban wars of the 1990s.” The conclusion he draws is that as the foreign footprint broadened more ordinary Afghani’s were driven to side with the insurgents. In one chapter Smith sums up four lessons he learned about the war; 1) The war is a family feud, 2) Air strikes pushed people to join the insurgency, 3) Destroying poppy fields makes things worse, 4) Taliban nationalism leaves room to negotiate.
Several times Smith in native dress crossed the border into Quetta, Pakistan. As I read his description of the trip and the city with its multitude of flags flying supporting various tribes I thought my god it sounds like a city out of Star Wars. Alien and unrecognizable.
There is a chapter in T. E. Lawrence’s SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM where Lawrence discussed the tribes of Syria with Prince Fiscal. If the Arab revolt was to succeed and take Damascus Fiscal would need help from local Syrian tribes. Lawrence explains that Syria is divided geographically by three mountain ranges running north to south. In the east are the more educated professional and financially successful class. As one go west over the first range of mountains you find what we might call today blue collar workers and yet further to the east over another range of mountains he points out are numerous tribes of religious fundamentalists who raid, pillage and are great warriors. Fiscal points out to Lawrence that they need those in the East and Lawrence says no… the need is for those in the west. The need was for warriors, fighters who could be made to believe in a religious cause. Fiscal responded that eventually he will need this group to help govern and how could he do it with the likes of these? Lawrence replied not to worry as they will not stay to govern or to be governed as they will return to the ways of their Fathers.
As I read Smith’s book I though again about Lawrence’s observation. Who is to say what will happen in Afghanistan when NATO leaves. Will the insurgency lose strength and return to some normality or will things break out into Civil War? That is what Smith is doing in Afghanistan now working in Kabul... he is waiting to see.
Let me begin by saying the book is an incredible read and should be read by anyone interested in the brief recent history of Afghanistan (since the fall of the Taliban). Graeme Smith’s writing is crisp, informative, self-deprecating and an adventure story for the reader. Structured mostly as a memoir covering his time in South Afghanistan where he reported using translators and dressed in native cloths. The chapters take us through the years from his arrival in 2005 to the present. His journey is one of disillusionment as he changes his views and reaches counter intuitive conclusions about NATOs war strategy. Smith’s reporting goes deeper than the grand strategies and goals of the global war on terror and/or nation building pealing back as he does to what life on the ground is like. This via stories about local officials, warlords, farmers, shop owners, Canadian soldiers, insurgents and the Taliban. The stories he tells are tragic, disheartening, heroic, and entertaining. One story tells about his interviewing 45 Taliban insurgents. Only three even recognized that Canada was a country and only one knew Canada was above the United States. Most said that this kind of information was not meaningful to them.
The book begins with the line, “We lost the war in Southern Afghanistan and it broke my heart.” Smith saw positive about the troop surge of 2005 as bringing “a whole basket of civilization to the south”. Now he says that the years our armies “…pounded their way into the South will be remembered for the heights of violence that exceeded the gruesome body count of the Taliban wars of the 1990s.” The conclusion he draws is that as the foreign footprint broadened more ordinary Afghani’s were driven to side with the insurgents. In one chapter Smith sums up four lessons he learned about the war; 1) The war is a family feud, 2) Air strikes pushed people to join the insurgency, 3) Destroying poppy fields makes things worse, 4) Taliban nationalism leaves room to negotiate.
Several times Smith in native dress crossed the border into Quetta, Pakistan. As I read his description of the trip and the city with its multitude of flags flying supporting various tribes I thought my god it sounds like a city out of Star Wars. Alien and unrecognizable.
There is a chapter in T. E. Lawrence’s SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM where Lawrence discussed the tribes of Syria with Prince Fiscal. If the Arab revolt was to succeed and take Damascus Fiscal would need help from local Syrian tribes. Lawrence explains that Syria is divided geographically by three mountain ranges running north to south. In the east are the more educated professional and financially successful class. As one go west over the first range of mountains you find what we might call today blue collar workers and yet further to the east over another range of mountains he points out are numerous tribes of religious fundamentalists who raid, pillage and are great warriors. Fiscal points out to Lawrence that they need those in the East and Lawrence says no… the need is for those in the west. The need was for warriors, fighters who could be made to believe in a religious cause. Fiscal responded that eventually he will need this group to help govern and how could he do it with the likes of these? Lawrence replied not to worry as they will not stay to govern or to be governed as they will return to the ways of their Fathers.
As I read Smith’s book I though again about Lawrence’s observation. Who is to say what will happen in Afghanistan when NATO leaves. Will the insurgency lose strength and return to some normality or will things break out into Civil War? That is what Smith is doing in Afghanistan now working in Kabul... he is waiting to see.
January 6, 2014
Graeme Smith was the only Western journalist living full time in the dangerous south of Afghanistan from 2005 to 2013. Like many other Canadians my main impression of the war from the media was the good our troops were doing rebuilding this damaged country. The truth according to Smith is that we were bogged down in interfering in a civil war.
Soldiers, supposedly there to help restore peace, carved "Nuke Afghanistan" on rocks. Smith begins his book by stating, "We lost the war in Afghanistan and it broke my heart."
He details the blunders of foreign troops and ultimate failure of NATO's intervention despite good intentions. As foreign troops increased in number with the goal of destroying the Taliban's influence, there resulted in a dramatic increase in violence. He describes the growing corruption of officials we supported.Due to mistakes in the countryside, such as attempts to destroy the poppy fields only inspired many of the peasants to side with the Taliban. Canadians and other foreign military believed that destroying the farmer's poppy fields would improve conditions by putting an end to the drug trade,but made the allied forces unpopular.
This an important and powerful book which should be read in order to avoid similar mistakes in future conflicts.
Soldiers, supposedly there to help restore peace, carved "Nuke Afghanistan" on rocks. Smith begins his book by stating, "We lost the war in Afghanistan and it broke my heart."
He details the blunders of foreign troops and ultimate failure of NATO's intervention despite good intentions. As foreign troops increased in number with the goal of destroying the Taliban's influence, there resulted in a dramatic increase in violence. He describes the growing corruption of officials we supported.Due to mistakes in the countryside, such as attempts to destroy the poppy fields only inspired many of the peasants to side with the Taliban. Canadians and other foreign military believed that destroying the farmer's poppy fields would improve conditions by putting an end to the drug trade,but made the allied forces unpopular.
This an important and powerful book which should be read in order to avoid similar mistakes in future conflicts.
January 9, 2014
Graeme Smith is a Canadian journalist who spent many years covering the war in Afganistan, researching the underlying issues. The book is organized in a time line with his growing impressions and knowledge of the forces at work. His research leads him to an opinion that as international force escalated, the insurgency also increased. He does not call them the Taliban, having decided that hatred of Nato brought about from ground fire fight, bombs killing their families (civilians), destruction of their crops (eradication of poppies- for most their only means of support) led to thousands of recruits from local farmers, not Taliban, but very willing to fight under their leadership, calling it revenge.
He postulates three intertwined influences: The drug mafia, the elected government with power only in cities, and the tribal farmers (insurgents, maybe Taliban). Government is corrupt at every level intercepting foreign aid, and also taking payments from drug shipments on the highways built by Nato. The leaders of the insurgents intercept foreign shipments of arms, aided by government police, and also play the same game getting protection money from shipment of drugs.
He describes the continuous escalation urged by leaders of foreign armed forces and politicians completely out of touch with reality on the ground.
He postulates three intertwined influences: The drug mafia, the elected government with power only in cities, and the tribal farmers (insurgents, maybe Taliban). Government is corrupt at every level intercepting foreign aid, and also taking payments from drug shipments on the highways built by Nato. The leaders of the insurgents intercept foreign shipments of arms, aided by government police, and also play the same game getting protection money from shipment of drugs.
He describes the continuous escalation urged by leaders of foreign armed forces and politicians completely out of touch with reality on the ground.
January 14, 2014
2013 was a banner year for reading as I saw it. Notable reads were by Graeme Smith The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan . I do remember Smith’s dispatches from Afghanistan as a Globe and Mail correspondent and it wasn’t till I saw an interview with him at the CBC show Power and Politics and “hey, I remember that guy from the Globe” that his book was worth a look see. It was, believe me. Smith’s chronicles are not strictly through the lens of the military, diplomats, government, insurgents but through his own – by getting out amongst and befriending the Afghan population at considerable risk. As I saw it, this asserted creditability to his theme that western involvement although amiable and good intentioned was misguided and at times ineffectual.
Reminds me a few years ago at our local Quebec Major Junior hockey games and the “military appreciation nights” The topic of Afghanistan was front and center on all the displays and we were encouraged to get “educated”. Fine, but education is a two way street with the good, bad and ugly. Surely sometime/somebody would come along. Enter 2013 and Graeme Smith – he educated me.
Reminds me a few years ago at our local Quebec Major Junior hockey games and the “military appreciation nights” The topic of Afghanistan was front and center on all the displays and we were encouraged to get “educated”. Fine, but education is a two way street with the good, bad and ugly. Surely sometime/somebody would come along. Enter 2013 and Graeme Smith – he educated me.
August 18, 2017
We lost the war in southern Afghanistan and it broke my heart.
Everyone pretended to care but nothing ever happened. They passed captured troops over to ruthless jailers and pretended torture didn't happen. They burned poppy crops but never bothered looking into the actual drug trade, which seems to be responsible for the flow of weapons into the country. They insisted troop surges and airstrikes would cripple the enemy when it only riled them.
Smith cared. He spent years in Afghanistan alongside soldiers, warlords, governors, insurgents and everyday people. His belief that international intervention could improve the country makes his conclusions all the more damning.
The thing that bothers me is that no one ever learns: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. This time it'll be different. But it never is.
The bleakest, but probably best book I've read on Afghanistan.
Everyone pretended to care but nothing ever happened. They passed captured troops over to ruthless jailers and pretended torture didn't happen. They burned poppy crops but never bothered looking into the actual drug trade, which seems to be responsible for the flow of weapons into the country. They insisted troop surges and airstrikes would cripple the enemy when it only riled them.
Smith cared. He spent years in Afghanistan alongside soldiers, warlords, governors, insurgents and everyday people. His belief that international intervention could improve the country makes his conclusions all the more damning.
The thing that bothers me is that no one ever learns: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. This time it'll be different. But it never is.
The bleakest, but probably best book I've read on Afghanistan.
July 23, 2014
War in the west over the last 100 years has been total war over ideology and nationalism and as such we have had difficulty recognizing wars fought differently. Smith chronicles our experience in asymentrical warfare in a land where war can at times have short-term goals. Western naivete is fully demonstrated by Smith as Afghans fight (or not) for tribal and short term economic gain ignoring the wide-sweeping generalizations and statements of the western military. Hopefully, once western leaders become more aware of how incompetent and easily manipulated we can be when confronted by small local wars we might stop getting involved. Therein lies the brilliance and utility of Graeme Smith's book, not to mention his clear eyed view of the war(s).
February 11, 2015
I believe this book is a must read for Canadians and in fact citizens of Western nations. It documents how a simple plan, punishing the Taliban for supporting terrorists, gets morphed into an unrealistic dream. Who decided that we should be dragging what amounts to a tribalistic society into our version of a modern western nation. Of course our leadership couldn't admit that their strategy was ill conceived and then after it had failed, acknowledge that failure. I don't know where Aphganistan will end up and whether our lose of Canadian lives will make for a better world, but not being honest with Canadians won't build a stronger citizenry here.
December 21, 2013
Really gripping account of life as a reporter in southern Afghanistan. The accounts in the book, and Graeme's insights, are the kind that most people find it hard to articulate. But The Dogs Are Eating Them Now is brutally honest not just about the war in Afghanistan but also about journalism and living in conflict zones. Anyone with even a fleeting interest in reporting or the region should read this.
August 16, 2016
Powerful, sad, compelling book I tore through in a couple of days. Does a very good job of laying out situations in an easily understandable way, providing objective analysis of all sides, and interpreting the observations with candor and reason.
This is someone who was close to the war (which continues) and has provided some painful clarity on the pitfalls of optimism and the perils of ignorance.
It's a few years old now, but still very fresh, and I expect it to be so for some time.
This is someone who was close to the war (which continues) and has provided some painful clarity on the pitfalls of optimism and the perils of ignorance.
It's a few years old now, but still very fresh, and I expect it to be so for some time.
May 5, 2015
Powerful look at the war in Afghanistan from the perspective of a Canadian reporter who is neither a hawk nor a dove, but a clear-sighted observer with enormous compassion for both sides.
September 28, 2018
I greatly enjoyed Canadian journalist Graeme Smith's narrative about the never ending war in Afghanistan. Each chapter focuses on a different month or year predominantly from September 2005 to June 2011. Having grown up with this conflict being an ever constant presence in the news media (but growing less and less prominent) it was amazing to read about Smith's experiences on the ground in the country. His overall focus is on southern Afghanistan where the Taliban hold a much stronger presence. Amazingly their power has only continued to grow 7 years after the book concludes in 2018.
It is truly troubling to see how many financial resources are squandered through corrupt Afghan government officials and the misguided efforts of the West. From Smith's narrative it becomes obvious that the entire endeavour was misguided from the start and like so many modern conflicts failed to completely understand and evaluate relevant conflicts from the past.
One of the most fascinating contrasts in the book is after Smith is forced to leave Afghanistan in 2011 after angering a local Afghan politician with criminal ties. The afterword picks up in January 2013 when he returns to find a country on the brink of even greater violence. The majority of the people he interviews during that time express almost no optimism about the future prospects of the country. Yet somehow the government (now under a different leader) continues to hold a degree of power and international legitimacy. Yet the corruption, killings and territorial struggles continue. It remains one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century and one that shows no signs of concluding.
It is truly troubling to see how many financial resources are squandered through corrupt Afghan government officials and the misguided efforts of the West. From Smith's narrative it becomes obvious that the entire endeavour was misguided from the start and like so many modern conflicts failed to completely understand and evaluate relevant conflicts from the past.
One of the most fascinating contrasts in the book is after Smith is forced to leave Afghanistan in 2011 after angering a local Afghan politician with criminal ties. The afterword picks up in January 2013 when he returns to find a country on the brink of even greater violence. The majority of the people he interviews during that time express almost no optimism about the future prospects of the country. Yet somehow the government (now under a different leader) continues to hold a degree of power and international legitimacy. Yet the corruption, killings and territorial struggles continue. It remains one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century and one that shows no signs of concluding.
July 14, 2020
This was a well-written & informative snapshot (2006-2009 was main focus, but some coverage also of the "Surge & Pull-out" phases, up through 2014 ) of the situation in Afghanistan, mainly from the Canadian perspective on the south of the country, in & around Kandahar. Smith was often embedded with Canadian troops on various missions, but also did independent reporting out of a small office near the center of Kandahar--until there was a break-in and heightened security concerns. Smith does a great job, I think, of tackling the issues of the on-going insurgency in Afghanistan, as well as the in-your-face corruption in the local police, governmental authorities, and military. One important area of negligence & corruption Smith exposes is the treatment of prisoners by Afghan authorities, complicated by the look-the-other-way complicity of the Canadian forces often making the initial arrests. Fascinating investigation into several of the prison breaks by Taliban prisoners in Kandahar.
Smith does a good job of articulating the complexities of the Afghan situation--and the various motives & strategies of the numerous main players. The author provides background & contextual
understanding for why it's not a simple matter of winning big battles and taking control of territory, which often then cannot be held properly, due to local police/military abuse, corruption & neglect, feeding discontent among the local populace towards the government and swelling the Taliban's recruits.
Got this for a birthday present; read on my Kindle.
Smith does a good job of articulating the complexities of the Afghan situation--and the various motives & strategies of the numerous main players. The author provides background & contextual
understanding for why it's not a simple matter of winning big battles and taking control of territory, which often then cannot be held properly, due to local police/military abuse, corruption & neglect, feeding discontent among the local populace towards the government and swelling the Taliban's recruits.
Got this for a birthday present; read on my Kindle.
July 20, 2025
"The war may have felt justified in our guts, but it played out in southern Afghanistan like a farce." - Graeme Smith
The Dogs Are Eating Them Now is an informative read that offers a searing look at the war in Afghanistan from 2006-2013. Written by Globe and Mail journalist and Canadian Graeme Smith who was embedded with largely Canadian troops, this book follows his own growth as a journalist and his shifting view of the war.
I appreciated the multiple perspectives he acquired through his interviews with Afghan locals, authorities and politicians, Taliban insurgents and NATO soldiers. The writing is straightforward and easy to follow. I learned a lot about Afghanistan and the war from reading this book but I feel like I only scratched the surface in my understanding of the complicated history and politics of the country.
Smith offers several reasons for the war and they all seem accurate given the context provided. I could sense that he was disgusted with the NATO forces' attitudes towards the Afghan people (evidenced by the graffiti "Nuke Afghanistan") and the disinterest and delusions of the NATO countries. He emphasizes the notion that these forces in fact made the violence worse by interfering with the tribal system inherent in Afghan culture and the destruction of the poppy fields through their "war on drugs". He intimates that the presence of the US and NATO forces destabilized the precarious balance between tribes and the government.
There is no easy answer to the issues in Afghanistan. This is clear even though the book was already 12 years old by the time I read it. I'd be interested to read Smith's views on the current loss of any semblance of democracy in the country and the egregious degradation of the rights of women and girls now in 2025.
The Dogs Are Eating Them Now is an informative read that offers a searing look at the war in Afghanistan from 2006-2013. Written by Globe and Mail journalist and Canadian Graeme Smith who was embedded with largely Canadian troops, this book follows his own growth as a journalist and his shifting view of the war.
I appreciated the multiple perspectives he acquired through his interviews with Afghan locals, authorities and politicians, Taliban insurgents and NATO soldiers. The writing is straightforward and easy to follow. I learned a lot about Afghanistan and the war from reading this book but I feel like I only scratched the surface in my understanding of the complicated history and politics of the country.
Smith offers several reasons for the war and they all seem accurate given the context provided. I could sense that he was disgusted with the NATO forces' attitudes towards the Afghan people (evidenced by the graffiti "Nuke Afghanistan") and the disinterest and delusions of the NATO countries. He emphasizes the notion that these forces in fact made the violence worse by interfering with the tribal system inherent in Afghan culture and the destruction of the poppy fields through their "war on drugs". He intimates that the presence of the US and NATO forces destabilized the precarious balance between tribes and the government.
There is no easy answer to the issues in Afghanistan. This is clear even though the book was already 12 years old by the time I read it. I'd be interested to read Smith's views on the current loss of any semblance of democracy in the country and the egregious degradation of the rights of women and girls now in 2025.
May 25, 2020
Personally took me a while to get into, mostly because the writing style was a little different than I was used to and there is a lot to follow with the various names and operations of those involved in the Afghanistan War. I appreciate the author's viewpoint and honesty throughout and the risks he took to collect all of this information as a journalist during the war. I found myself much more engaged as the book went on and think it is a good place to start for understanding the intricacies of the Afghan war with info. unheard of in the typical news media or released by Western Governments.
February 24, 2022
This book provides an in-depth look into the ‘on the ground’ issues with the war in Afghanistan. Definitely there was a big disconnect between high level leadership and what was really happening with the Taliban and the general population. Also the amount of corruption was staggering, not a surprise that it existed but the depth that existed.
I found the book meandered somewhat and I was never really sure the direction or overall case the author was making. However for getting a sense of what the real day to day life was like in Afghanistan this book hits the mark.
I found the book meandered somewhat and I was never really sure the direction or overall case the author was making. However for getting a sense of what the real day to day life was like in Afghanistan this book hits the mark.
April 29, 2025
This is a true tale of a gutsy Canadian Journalist who risked life and limb in covering the war in Afghanistan during the earlier years. Very well written and to the point about his experiences and the pointlessness of this war. It has my highest praise in revealing the violence, corruption, profiteering and the stupidity of this reckless intervention.
Having been a soldier during the Vietnam War, it brought back some poignant memories of the criminality in the way American military forces were uselessly spent upon these ludicrous and unwinnable conflicts.
Having been a soldier during the Vietnam War, it brought back some poignant memories of the criminality in the way American military forces were uselessly spent upon these ludicrous and unwinnable conflicts.
September 15, 2024
Almost sickeningly cynical, but I'll let the man cook. This journalistic account of the war in Afghanistan by a loose-canon reporter was a refreshing perspective. There's no glory in his narrative of the conflict, only people being themselves in the midst of brutality and chaos.
October 2, 2017
Objective insight from an embedded Canadian journalist. Chapter 12 a must.
-- Anonymous staff member
-- Anonymous staff member
November 19, 2019
Shocking, revolting, frustrating situations - thanks Graeme for this impressive account you’ve lived through.
November 19, 2018
I read this book in two days which may say something about the accessibility of the book or it may say something about how terrible my life circumstances were at the time that I desperately needed to escape through reading about someone else’s escapades in Afghanistan...but that’s neither here nor there.
I found the book to be highly readable even as I gnashed my teeth over the absolute lack of care and concern for the Afghan people and their country shown by some of the highest officers and policy makers both in and out of Afghanistan. Smith depicts a nation divided in half and speaks of his time in the war wracked south as a front row spectator to the rise and fall of “progress” in Afghanistan. We ALMOST made it a better place and Smith waxes poetic about the times he could walk through the streets of Kandahar or own a small office without incident. Then comes the mismanagement, the apathy, and the loss of key Afghan allies and by the time we (the West) withdraw, what happens to the people and places we leave behind is anyone’s guess.
Growing to political consciousness in the early 2000s this book and my own memories of the War on Terror just makes me...angry and profoundly sad. This book is a look at how even the most powerful nations in the world can fall prey to their own hubris and their own apathy and kill thousands of civilians in the process. So did I LIKE this book? No. But did I feel it was a necessary read? Unfortunately.
I found the book to be highly readable even as I gnashed my teeth over the absolute lack of care and concern for the Afghan people and their country shown by some of the highest officers and policy makers both in and out of Afghanistan. Smith depicts a nation divided in half and speaks of his time in the war wracked south as a front row spectator to the rise and fall of “progress” in Afghanistan. We ALMOST made it a better place and Smith waxes poetic about the times he could walk through the streets of Kandahar or own a small office without incident. Then comes the mismanagement, the apathy, and the loss of key Afghan allies and by the time we (the West) withdraw, what happens to the people and places we leave behind is anyone’s guess.
Growing to political consciousness in the early 2000s this book and my own memories of the War on Terror just makes me...angry and profoundly sad. This book is a look at how even the most powerful nations in the world can fall prey to their own hubris and their own apathy and kill thousands of civilians in the process. So did I LIKE this book? No. But did I feel it was a necessary read? Unfortunately.
December 16, 2022
An eye-opening look at the war in the South and a brilliant glimpse into how servicemen and journalists perceived the conflict. Not without its shortcomings, but, because it only sets out to recount the stories experienced by the author, it doesn't lose any points for its piecemeal and episodic nature. Also nice to get a non-American viewpoint.
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July 30, 2015http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0...
Review by Amira Elghawaby
Canada will officially end its military engagement in Afghanistan in March 2014 after losing 158 Canadian Forces personnel and spending billions of dollars on the war effort. So, was it worth it?
You won't find the answer in Graeme Smith's award-winning retrospective The Dogs Are Eating Them Now on his time as a foreign correspondent for the Globe and Mail. In fact, you'll only find more questions that beg for answers -- and our collective attention.
If you rely on the Canadian government for answers, you'll get jingoistic claims of success -- including that Canada successfully secured Kandahar (the size of Nova Scotia) "with just 2,500 soldiers," without a hint that anything ever went wrong beyond the initial deployment.
That's contradicted in Smith's first line of the book. "We lost the war in Southern Afghanistan, and it broke my heart," he writes in the beginning of an engrossing narrative, chronicling four years of his time spent investigating the mission and its repercussions. We'll recall some of his stories: interviews with detainees claiming torture at the hands of Afghan captors, which threatened to sink the Conservative minority government with its first scandal, as well as an acclaimed Emmy-winning video series called "Talking to the Taliban" that offered rare insight into the mind frames of those fighting against Western forces.
But there are underlying themes that many Canadians will likely not have picked up on; themes that slowly begin to dawn on Smith as he becomes further embedded in the country. They include the realizations that far too many mistakes were made by international forces and that there were far too many miscalculations and misunderstandings about just how to bring peace and stability to a land desperate for it.
Read more here: http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0...
Review by Amira Elghawaby
Canada will officially end its military engagement in Afghanistan in March 2014 after losing 158 Canadian Forces personnel and spending billions of dollars on the war effort. So, was it worth it?
You won't find the answer in Graeme Smith's award-winning retrospective The Dogs Are Eating Them Now on his time as a foreign correspondent for the Globe and Mail. In fact, you'll only find more questions that beg for answers -- and our collective attention.
If you rely on the Canadian government for answers, you'll get jingoistic claims of success -- including that Canada successfully secured Kandahar (the size of Nova Scotia) "with just 2,500 soldiers," without a hint that anything ever went wrong beyond the initial deployment.
That's contradicted in Smith's first line of the book. "We lost the war in Southern Afghanistan, and it broke my heart," he writes in the beginning of an engrossing narrative, chronicling four years of his time spent investigating the mission and its repercussions. We'll recall some of his stories: interviews with detainees claiming torture at the hands of Afghan captors, which threatened to sink the Conservative minority government with its first scandal, as well as an acclaimed Emmy-winning video series called "Talking to the Taliban" that offered rare insight into the mind frames of those fighting against Western forces.
But there are underlying themes that many Canadians will likely not have picked up on; themes that slowly begin to dawn on Smith as he becomes further embedded in the country. They include the realizations that far too many mistakes were made by international forces and that there were far too many miscalculations and misunderstandings about just how to bring peace and stability to a land desperate for it.
Read more here: http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0...
December 27, 2016
Having very little understanding of the Afghanistan War to begin with, this book was informative and interesting but still easy to understand. Puts today's political climate in context. Makes me want to learn more.
August 31, 2015
"They found it difficult to imagine that English-speaking soldiers who wore similar uniforms, carried the same weapons and fought on the same side would have fundamental disagreements about the war. They saw all of us as Americans. (For years, people in Kandahar city would look at me and ask, 'Amerika-yeh?' and it was hard to persuade them I was from Canada--and then, to convince them Canada was a real country)."
"The middleman spelled it out: the real money, he said, came from kidnappings and extortion. He had expertise in both. Recently, he said, he held a Chinese engineer hostage for almost two weeks. The kidnap victim served as local director of a Chinese construction firm with a major road contract in the nearby province of Wardak. The company had not purchased any protection from the insurgents, he said, so the foreigner became fair game for kidnapping. Taliban grabbed him, received a ransom of $500,000, and set him free. The Chinese firm arranged to pay a monthly protection fee to the local Taliban in that district, and an identical amount to Hizb-e-Islami militia operating nearby. This insurance proved useful two days later, when bandits kidnapped the same Chinese engineer. Hizb-e-Islami gunmen tracked down the kidnappers and forced them to hand over the hostage, unharmed, and set him free a second time. At that point, he said, the Kabul government issued public statements crowing about how Afghan security forces had pressured the insurgents into giving up the kidnap victim. 'This offended the Taliban,' he said. 'So they captured him again, and told the government, "Do what you can. We will keep this engineer." The Chinese man spent another month in captivity, including thirteen days with the man in front of me. The kidnapper seemed proud of his hospitality, describing how he gave the hostage proper food and exercise. Eventually they released the captive for a third and final time, and the construction work continued. Insurgents took a substantial fee."
"The middleman spelled it out: the real money, he said, came from kidnappings and extortion. He had expertise in both. Recently, he said, he held a Chinese engineer hostage for almost two weeks. The kidnap victim served as local director of a Chinese construction firm with a major road contract in the nearby province of Wardak. The company had not purchased any protection from the insurgents, he said, so the foreigner became fair game for kidnapping. Taliban grabbed him, received a ransom of $500,000, and set him free. The Chinese firm arranged to pay a monthly protection fee to the local Taliban in that district, and an identical amount to Hizb-e-Islami militia operating nearby. This insurance proved useful two days later, when bandits kidnapped the same Chinese engineer. Hizb-e-Islami gunmen tracked down the kidnappers and forced them to hand over the hostage, unharmed, and set him free a second time. At that point, he said, the Kabul government issued public statements crowing about how Afghan security forces had pressured the insurgents into giving up the kidnap victim. 'This offended the Taliban,' he said. 'So they captured him again, and told the government, "Do what you can. We will keep this engineer." The Chinese man spent another month in captivity, including thirteen days with the man in front of me. The kidnapper seemed proud of his hospitality, describing how he gave the hostage proper food and exercise. Eventually they released the captive for a third and final time, and the construction work continued. Insurgents took a substantial fee."
May 18, 2015
The situation in Afghanistan is only worsening; this book explains the tragedy of the many who have lost their lives. The author of this book traced the war in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2013. He is a journalist that gives a remarkable insight to such a deep and unsettling war. The author writes with such deep and gripping detail that the entire text is raw and unnerving. The author is a journalist, who was the only Western correspondent at the time. His insight and courage in a time of war has allowed the readers of his book to feel the pain and hardships of war.
The main theme of this book is violence and the extremity to which it goes. He talks about how western intervention only feeds terrorist groups such as the Taliban instead of stopping them. This Canadian journalist has a rare insight into a war that no one knows much about. It is a war in Southern Afghanistan that has gravely impacted the country as well as the Western military.
The author illustrates a grim picture of the awful situation and finds it hard to see hopeful prospects for the future. But at the same time he writes with great affection for southern Afghanistan and its people. His portraits of friends and contacts there are deeply sympathetic. It is striking that despite his tough assessment, the author has chosen to return and live in the country and work for the International Crisis Group.
This is a vivid and important book and it is a serious contribution to understanding a disappointing Canadian foreign policy experience. Overall, the author’s way of describing war and its atrocities is what kept me entranced while reading this book. I really enjoyed reading this book. This book allows you to view war through a journalist’s eyes instead of the typical view on war. Typically we only know war through the eyes of the victor and those who are fighting it. We do not typically see it through the eyes of a bystander, of someone not directly involved.
The main theme of this book is violence and the extremity to which it goes. He talks about how western intervention only feeds terrorist groups such as the Taliban instead of stopping them. This Canadian journalist has a rare insight into a war that no one knows much about. It is a war in Southern Afghanistan that has gravely impacted the country as well as the Western military.
The author illustrates a grim picture of the awful situation and finds it hard to see hopeful prospects for the future. But at the same time he writes with great affection for southern Afghanistan and its people. His portraits of friends and contacts there are deeply sympathetic. It is striking that despite his tough assessment, the author has chosen to return and live in the country and work for the International Crisis Group.
This is a vivid and important book and it is a serious contribution to understanding a disappointing Canadian foreign policy experience. Overall, the author’s way of describing war and its atrocities is what kept me entranced while reading this book. I really enjoyed reading this book. This book allows you to view war through a journalist’s eyes instead of the typical view on war. Typically we only know war through the eyes of the victor and those who are fighting it. We do not typically see it through the eyes of a bystander, of someone not directly involved.
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