Afghanistan Report

[Rolling Stone‘s Michael] Hastings [who wrote the article that cost General Stanley McChrystal his job, has written a] superb new book on the Afghanistan War: The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan. The bulk of the book is devoted to his experiences in Afghanistan and his examination of how the war has been managed and the propaganda that has been disseminated to sustain it. Because Hastings writes as someone who expressly believes that U.S. should not be in Afghanistan, and (even more rarely) as someone who has no concern whatsoever for whom he offends by reporting the truth, the book provides vital insights about the war and how it has been run that are not available anywhere else.

  Glenn Greenwald

I just bought this book for my Kindle (Woody, who sometimes has trouble staying connected to the wireless, and once in a while seems to take a parallel jump warp speed - although he has stayed connected and been very steady for the past week or two, knock wood). Normally, I go for library loans or free (or under $3.00) books from Amazon. I figured this was a good use of $15, and hopefully a vote to keep people like Michael Hastings reporting.

And, hopefully, Greenwald is correct when he says…

Ordinarily, I would urge as many people as possible to buy the book of someone like Michael Hastings solely in order to support the kind of journalism he does: the more successful his book is, the more it bolsters this journalistic approach and the more of a repudiation it is to the power-serving reporters who attacked him. But this book is very worthwhile in its own right. The Afghanistan War is now more than ten years old with no end in sight, and this is one of the most eye-opening accounts provided yet about why it has dragged on, from one of the bravest and most intrepid journalists who has covered it.

PS - that picture is an Amazon link to purchase the book, should you be interested.

UPDATE: 8/17/13 - Michael Hastings died in a very suspicious auto "accident" in June of 2013.  Begin here to follow the story.