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One Tribe At A Time
"Major Jim Gant, a man seen by many of us as the 'perfect insurgent,'--an inspiring, gifted, courageous leader...
-- GENERAL DAVID H. PETRAEUS (U.S. Army, Ret.)
THE PAPER THAT ROCKED
OSAMA BIN LADEN
Team members during the May 2, 2011 U.S. military raid that killed Osama Bin Laden seized piles of Al Qaeda intelligence. One piece of evidence found in Bin Laden’s personal sleeping quarters was an English language copy of Jim Gant’s One Tribe at a Time. It contained notes in the margins consistent with others identified as written by Osama Bin Laden.
A directive from Osama Bin Laden to his intelligence chief was also discovered. It identified Jim Gant by name as an impediment to Al Qaeda’s operational objectives for eastern Afghanistan.
Bin Laden ordered that Gant be assassinated.
“[One Tribe at a Time] was hugely important…at a time when I was looking for ideas on Afghanistan…[Gant] was the first to write it down, in a very coherent fashion, very readable, very encouraging frankly…and there is enormous power in that.”
--General David H. Petraeus (U.S. Army, Ret.) quoted in American Spartan: The Promise, The Mission, and The Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant by Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post reporter Ann Scott Tyson read “One Tribe at a Time,” and - informed by her combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq and her eight years as a reporter in China - she realized that Jim’s paper made sense. She decided to write a story about Jim entitled, “Jim Gant, the Green Beret who could win the war in Afghanistan.” After the article appeared in January 2010, as Jim was in Washington, D.C., attending Pashto language training, he met Ann and the two fell in love. She followed his mission in Afghanistan and wrote AMERICAN SPARTAN: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant.
-- GENERAL DAVID H. PETRAEUS (U.S. Army, Ret.)
THE PAPER THAT ROCKED
OSAMA BIN LADEN
Team members during the May 2, 2011 U.S. military raid that killed Osama Bin Laden seized piles of Al Qaeda intelligence. One piece of evidence found in Bin Laden’s personal sleeping quarters was an English language copy of Jim Gant’s One Tribe at a Time. It contained notes in the margins consistent with others identified as written by Osama Bin Laden.
A directive from Osama Bin Laden to his intelligence chief was also discovered. It identified Jim Gant by name as an impediment to Al Qaeda’s operational objectives for eastern Afghanistan.
Bin Laden ordered that Gant be assassinated.
“[One Tribe at a Time] was hugely important…at a time when I was looking for ideas on Afghanistan…[Gant] was the first to write it down, in a very coherent fashion, very readable, very encouraging frankly…and there is enormous power in that.”
--General David H. Petraeus (U.S. Army, Ret.) quoted in American Spartan: The Promise, The Mission, and The Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant by Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post reporter Ann Scott Tyson read “One Tribe at a Time,” and - informed by her combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq and her eight years as a reporter in China - she realized that Jim’s paper made sense. She decided to write a story about Jim entitled, “Jim Gant, the Green Beret who could win the war in Afghanistan.” After the article appeared in January 2010, as Jim was in Washington, D.C., attending Pashto language training, he met Ann and the two fell in love. She followed his mission in Afghanistan and wrote AMERICAN SPARTAN: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant.
45 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 7, 2015
I am going to combine my review of this paper with a review of the book written by the author's wife, Ann Scott Tyson (American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant), about the events which took place after 'One Tribe At A Time' was initially circulated. Please click on the link for Ms. Tyson's book if you would like to read the review***.
***As of today, 7 October 2015, I haven't finished the book or reviewed it yet- I'll write a note here when I have finished both.
***As of today, 7 October 2015, I haven't finished the book or reviewed it yet- I'll write a note here when I have finished both.
December 18, 2014
Adapt or Bewail...and Fail
The repeated admonition is prepare, assimilate. adapt. This is a lesson the British learned at the local level. It is a lesson we learn and forget...and learn yet again. Long-term incorporation cannot be a matter of years, but of lifetimes. Read the paper and learn what many officers of brilliance advocate, to their near-destruction.
The repeated admonition is prepare, assimilate. adapt. This is a lesson the British learned at the local level. It is a lesson we learn and forget...and learn yet again. Long-term incorporation cannot be a matter of years, but of lifetimes. Read the paper and learn what many officers of brilliance advocate, to their near-destruction.
December 7, 2022
The books has its strengths, makes some valid points but I feel is somewhat limited in scope, poorly written, overly redundant and continues what I interpret as a bit too much hubris -- something I've occasionally been accused of, so I don't wish to cast too many stones, but as I've often asked myself about some things that seemed transparently obvious to me, virtually all of which I was shown to be right a large majority of the time -- like I've occasionally asked myself -- on a macro scale -- if I (he) was so damn right, why wasn't there a stampede following the SME to (greater) success? Often not a simple question, often requiring complex answers, but not unheard of so lessons learned are great and necessary BUT if lessons are/seem rarely learned, how much did one succeed in making essential points to affect change for the better? Perhaps it's time to lower the hubris and engage in more soul searching? With all due respect. Good book. Recommended, though could and should have been better...
April 18, 2024
Excellent piece.
I’m a practitioner-scholar and veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, amongst others. The war in Afghanistan was both politically and militarily mismanaged. The 2021 Withdrawal was not only a foreign policy disaster of epic proportions but a total betrayal of our Afghan allies. I firmly believe that the Withdrawal emboldened the West’s adversaries. It led to the invasion of Ukraine and current global instability. Moreover, the Withdrawal has only contributed to deteriorating regional security in South Asia and a burgeoningTaliban (TTP) led insurgency in Pakistan. Yet, there was an alternative to capitulation and Withdrawal. Jim Gant’s Tribal Engagement Strategy. I, for one, would have picked up an AK47 with 300 rounds and followed him. But one thing I do know is that we have not heard the last from Afghanistan. This is a must read for counterinsurgency scholars especially. Without Ground Truth then theory on its own is worthless.
I’m a practitioner-scholar and veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, amongst others. The war in Afghanistan was both politically and militarily mismanaged. The 2021 Withdrawal was not only a foreign policy disaster of epic proportions but a total betrayal of our Afghan allies. I firmly believe that the Withdrawal emboldened the West’s adversaries. It led to the invasion of Ukraine and current global instability. Moreover, the Withdrawal has only contributed to deteriorating regional security in South Asia and a burgeoningTaliban (TTP) led insurgency in Pakistan. Yet, there was an alternative to capitulation and Withdrawal. Jim Gant’s Tribal Engagement Strategy. I, for one, would have picked up an AK47 with 300 rounds and followed him. But one thing I do know is that we have not heard the last from Afghanistan. This is a must read for counterinsurgency scholars especially. Without Ground Truth then theory on its own is worthless.
February 8, 2020
The book often reiterates itself and is very generalized. Support for or against its narrative is almost moot. If you support its narrative, you are most likely inserting details because the author didn't provide many. If you criticize it, you are also most likely inserting details because there are so few. Therefore, its value is low.
It is written very much the way I have heard Soldiers talk about sports for years: generalized, imaginative, and with a hope for something awesome. If anything, this book is an elevator pitch. Eye catching, but it lacks rigor.
It is written very much the way I have heard Soldiers talk about sports for years: generalized, imaginative, and with a hope for something awesome. If anything, this book is an elevator pitch. Eye catching, but it lacks rigor.
July 21, 2025
Black Irish Books, the Publishing House of authors Steven Pressfield and Shawn Coyne, keeps chrusning out high quality books by top notch authors. This one is no different. Major Jim Gant has written a very powerful and persuasive treatise on how to win the war in Afghanistan. He also reminded this Iranian man of the ancient codes of tribe and honor that I was brought up in, and fired me up to live up to them.
June 1, 2020
Some effective solutions for Afghanistan. Precise, yet not overly wordy.
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December 8, 2016It's always Kunar. A little book desperately making the case for a very different (and fully tribal centric) way of operating in Afghanistan.
February 1, 2018
Thought provoking, what is alarming about this book is that it needed to be written in the first instance. It's all so obvious....
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews