Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Apple
Android
Windows Phone
Android
To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
$17.93
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
Only 14 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Interested in the Audiobook Edition?
If you’re the author, publisher, or rights holder of this book, let ACX help you produce the audiobook.Learn more.
Product Details
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (May 1, 2013)
For the vast majority of Americans who have never been to Afghanistan, and often wonder as to whether or not we should continue our (the U.S. and NATO's) mission there, I highly recommend Dr. Carter Malkasian's "War Comes to Garmser" - a breath of fresh air from the stale punditry that often comes out of Washington, DC. The author has delivered a superb, tactical-level description of a highly complex environment that we have wrestled with for the past 12+ years - and has regularly done so through the eyes of the Afghans themselves.
Dr. Malkasian lived and worked alongside the U.S. Marines for two years; more importantly, he took the supreme effort to learn Pashto, and toiled hand-in-hand with the local Afghans - reminiscent of Homer Atkin's character in "The Ugly American". While acknowledging the myriad challenges towards achieving a peaceful Afghanistan, he equally leaves the door open to the possibility of a stable Afghanistan - but it will surely take a healthy dose of expectation management on our own part, and solution that is very much in line with Afghan norms.
For those who can expect to participate in a future counterinsurgency effort or a "Small War" - whether as an infantry grunt, a military planner, a political officer, or an economic development specialist - I think Dr. Carter Malkasian's "War Comes to Garmser" should be required reading - definitely one of the best works to have yet come out of America's longest war.
Comment
3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
I have finally finished reading this slim book on the train commuting to London and Oxford and finally at home. His style and the content are simply gripping. Human terrain at it's best, context, details and insight.
I have not read many of the books on the contemporary Afghan conflict, it is for this "armchair" observer too sad. This book is different, it is about the Afghan people, their leaders, institutions and their visiting foreign guests.
The last chapter, the conclusion 'The End or the Intermission', is excellent. I expect those who have served anywhere in Afghanistan, outside the wire, will agree with his reflections and so taken from his final paragraph: 'What I think I can say is that Afghanistan surely will not be the last of America's interventions in messy wars in developing states - our history is too full to think otherwise......Garmser offers no answers as to whether such conflicts are worth it. It merely suggest they are likely to be troublesome, murky, messy and grey'.
Comment
One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Carter Malkasian does a tremendous job here of describing so many issues and how they interact with one another in the complex environment of Afghanistan. The author is able to translate national level themes and politics and show how they were relevant for him at the district level. Conversely, the author takes lessons from the district level and shows how they have greater application up to Kabul. I have never seen an author bridge the gap from tactical to operational so competently. Other themes touched on: From a Civ-Mil perspective the author deftly shows the interaction between military and civilians and how it can work if done right and held by the right people. A valuable lesson of how this can be done. Malkasian offers The best explanation of why the Taliban enjoy local support. They are unified and able to exploit local grievances to their advantage. The tribes and the government are weak because they are not united.
The authors suggestions for what we should learn from our experiences in Afghanistan are spot on with a dose of reality, a welcoming change from others.
Malkasian is able to show how the events of the last 40 years converge to create the current environment. This is not a biased view or some Graveyard of Empires nonsense. It is a realistic look at the motivations of various Afghans representing different perspectives based on their own perspective of reality, which is completely legitimate based on local, social norms.
This is really a great book and I highly recommend for scholars of Afghanistan, diplomats, military officers, and researchers. It has broad relevance not only for Afghanistan, but across the developing world. This book will likely stand the test of time.
Comment
One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
This book, by a respected practitioner of stabilization assistance, who is also a military historian, provides the necessary context for understanding the roots of the struggle against the Taliban and how the struggle against it can be won by the Afghans themselves. It underlines the importance of local initiative and leadership in any struggle against a rural-based insurgency and the need for backing from the central government for the effort to succeed over the longer run. What is missing in the Afghan context is a central government which is sufficiently supportive of effective local efforts and which sets an example of unselfish behavior in the best interests of its own people. The book also illustrates the need for US advisors to demonstrate an intense level of commitment to the well-being of the people of the country in which they are serving, in order to be successful in their advisory role. The author's role in the successful struggle against the Taliban is deliberately underplayed in this account to conform with his role as a historian but his actual conduct as reported in the press was instrumental in helping the Afghans work together successfully. He represents an example of what some Americans are capable of in a very difficult environment.
Comment
One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
This item: War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier
![]({"http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t5jtVcP3L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[230,346],"http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t5jtVcP3L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[331,499]})
