[JQQ]∎ PDF The Forever War Dexter Filkins 9780307266392 Books

The Forever War Dexter Filkins 9780307266392 Books

Download As PDF : The Forever War Dexter Filkins 9780307266392 Books

The Forever War Dexter Filkins 9780307266392 Books

… only the dead have seen the end of war
The Forever War is a treasure. A reader could find most of what is worth saying about the What, Why and Wherefore of America’s engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Dexter Filkins spent 3 and a half years in Iraq, from the beginning of the invasion to the sad state of civil war and the collapse of that society resulting from that conflict and was essentially fearless in going where he needed to go and talking to whom he know needed to be interviewed, plus a tern as Embedded Journalist during the Marines storming of Fallujah. He knew The Story was evolving and he pursued it.
He was in Afghanistan before the invasion working there for the Los Angeles Times when the Taliban where in control and OBL and the Arabs where training for Jihad. Returned when the reaction to 9/11 launched the Allied invasion and stated until moved by the New York Times to Iraq. He never seemed to have lost the journalist quest for finding all components of The Story; that is the beauty of this book.
The “Bad Guys” are to him Insurgents but as he notes “Insurgent” is a necessary but imprecise term and its meaning was in a state of flux as time passed.

Returning home and having the time and support to write this book he notes that he had to greatly simplify his response to the question “What was it like over there?”, because eyes would began to glaze over. Do we really want to know? For those who do this summary is a must.


Tags : The Forever War [Dexter Filkins] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. From the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, a searing, unforgettable book that captures the human essence of the greatest conflict of our time. Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins,Dexter Filkins,The Forever War,Knopf,0307266397,Military - Persian Gulf War (1991),Iraq War, 2003-2011.,Iraq War, 2003.,War on Terrorism, 2001-,GENERAL,General Adult,History,History - Military War,History Military Persian Gulf War (1991),Iraq,Iraq War, 2003-2011,Islamic,MILITARY HISTORY - 1990-,Military,Military - General,Non-Fiction,Social Science General,Terrorism,United States

The Forever War Dexter Filkins 9780307266392 Books Reviews

Bought this book in 2012, and I have read it many times over. His “witness” to Taliban law and methods of justice were remarkable in that he was given access to such events. But what he saw of Taliban “justice” was prior to 9/11. For the most part the book documents Dexter Filkins embedded with US troops in Iraq. Filkins relays the stories of war up close and personal, and provides a spellbinding story that you won’t want to put down. Dexter Filkins is an excellent writer.
With the recent mess in Syria I decided it was finally time for me to become more informed about the Middle East. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have felt embarrassed for a long time about my lack of understanding of the region, the cultures, the history, and the meaning of current events. I have sort of a compulsive brain so whenever I decide to study anything I generally try to adopt a systematic plan begin with broad introductions that are “balanced” then dive into interesting details and explore more partisan viewpoints. But I decided with the Middle East to just go with my gut and start with whatever book seemed most appealing to me at the moment so I decided to begin with Dexter Filkins’s book on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

After the first couple of chapters I was worried that I had made a mistake. I could tell that Dexter Filkins was a good writer, and the narrative was going to be interesting, but it became quickly apparent that the book was going to be made up of a series of vignettes, and I was afraid that I would not get enough of the context to understand what the vignettes meant. As I went along, however, I eventually decided this was an excellent place to start precisely because Filkins does such an excellent job portraying the complexities of what actually happened on the ground.

I will just give one example. One of the stories he tells is about a doctor in a hospital in Iraq after the invasion. At the time of his visit the hospital was without power due to the war and a lot of babies were not surviving because of it. Filkins was talking to the doctor about it and the doctor was explaining how these power outtages did not happen under Saddam. Filkins wondered how many babies were dying and the doctor explained that they did not have good records anymore because without the discipline instilled by Saddam’s regime the hospital staff was not bothering to do their job. But then Filkins asked the doctor if he thought it would have been better to leave Saddam in power and the doctor said no, things were bad under Saddam, and they would eventually get better now that he was gone.

What was interesting to me about this story was that it did not fall neatly into any of the standard ideological positions on the war in the United States. It does not fall easily into the pro-war narrative of the US as liberators spreading democracy but it also does not fall easily into the anti-war narrative of the US as a colonial power that should have left well enough alone. It would be very hard for either side to use this story in their propaganda. I am convinced that the world is too complex and multi-dimensional to fit into the two-dimensional narratives we try to foist upon it and I think Filkins’s book does an excellent job of portraying the complexity without filtering it through a simplistic ideological lens.

For that reason - and also because it was just a really absorbing narrative, Filkins knows how to spin a good yarn, and there are many genuinely moving and heart-breaking stories in this book - I wound up feeling like this was actually an ideal place to begin my studies of a very complex region. I might even return to it, and read it again, once I do have more of the context just because it was such a good read.
… only the dead have seen the end of war
The Forever War is a treasure. A reader could find most of what is worth saying about the What, Why and Wherefore of America’s engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Dexter Filkins spent 3 and a half years in Iraq, from the beginning of the invasion to the sad state of civil war and the collapse of that society resulting from that conflict and was essentially fearless in going where he needed to go and talking to whom he know needed to be interviewed, plus a tern as Embedded Journalist during the Marines storming of Fallujah. He knew The Story was evolving and he pursued it.
He was in Afghanistan before the invasion working there for the Los Angeles Times when the Taliban where in control and OBL and the Arabs where training for Jihad. Returned when the reaction to 9/11 launched the Allied invasion and stated until moved by the New York Times to Iraq. He never seemed to have lost the journalist quest for finding all components of The Story; that is the beauty of this book.
The “Bad Guys” are to him Insurgents but as he notes “Insurgent” is a necessary but imprecise term and its meaning was in a state of flux as time passed.

Returning home and having the time and support to write this book he notes that he had to greatly simplify his response to the question “What was it like over there?”, because eyes would began to glaze over. Do we really want to know? For those who do this summary is a must.