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The Good War: Why We Couldn’t Win the War or the Peace in Afghanistan Hardcover – November 11, 2014

by Jack Fairweather (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 13 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Basic Books (November 11, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0465044956
  • ISBN-13: 978-0465044955
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #394,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars'The irresistible Illusion'
By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on November 25, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Author Jack Fairweather is a former foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and the Washington Post. He won the British Press Award for his reporting on the Iraq invasion and is the author of A WAR OF CHOICE. Fairweather is currently a Middle East editor and correspondent for Bloomberg News, and he lives in Istanbul with his wife and two daughters.

Given the quality of the writing in this penetrating and wholly absorbing book one would think that the days of the gifted writer of journalism is resurrecting. Rather than the usual slapdash reportage of hyperirritable catastrophes that new take favor over true journalism, Fairweather writes in the style of the greats, careful with language, with footnotes, with index and resources, while at the same time creating a driving force in the reader to continue his train of thought and line of reasoning.

Does anyone understand Afghanistan? Russia failed and now we are failing to bring about a peace that likely is not possible as long as outside forces are present to impose modes of governance that simply are not part of the essence of this poor country.

To quote Fairweather in his introduction: `This is the story of how the world's most powerful leaders plotted to build a new kind of nation in Afghanistan that was pure fantasy. It is the story of how those leaders pinned their hopes on a marginal tribal leader and failed to heed his prescient advice, and how he in turn outplayed them. It is the story of why the long-suffering Afghan people rejected salvation from a global army of would-be rescuers. And finally it is the story of how the promise of a new military doctrine was ended by the Good War in Afghanistan and what it means for the future of western military action in the developing world.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsStill looking for the answer
By Steve Kohn on January 20, 2015
Format: Hardcover
I've just finished reading "The Good War" and still don't think we know where the war went wrong. With as many sources as the author had, I wonder if he still didn't have enough, or if the story we're given is not the whole story, just one version of it (the Rashomon effect). Maybe that's inevitable in as complicated a country as Afghanistan.

My problems with the book:
-- Bagram Air Base is hardly mentioned (just two entries in the index). Anyone who's been to Afghanistan knows its importance, logistically, tactically, but also for its prison and special ops center.
-- The book has little discussion of the fighting in the east, near the Pakistan border.
-- Too much credence is given to objections to the use of drones and special forces night raids that targeted known enemies.
-- Vignettes about individuals help to give us some appreciation for the difficulties and dangers, but I question how relevant some of them were. Some seemed to be included simply because the author knew or were friends with them, not because of their ability to symbolize events. (Tom Gregg of the UN, for example.)
-- There's not enough (for me) discussion of the civil war before we invaded, and the chaos and destruction it created, arguably greater than the American effort to rebuild the country.
-- The author describes corruption, but does not give this critical subject enough attention. No mention at all, for example, of the billion dollars that disappeared from the Kabul Bank in 2010. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404914.html)
-- Not nearly enough discussion of the terrorism of the Taliban...in fact, far too much sympathy, I thought, for including the Taliban in any future government.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsAbsolutely fascinating
By Eric C. Petersen on March 3, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
If you are like me - reasonably well informed on world events - the Afghan War is pretty much a blur, probably because there was no consistent coverage of events in the US media; things seemed to go from a near instant defeat of the Taliban in the opening days of the conflict to "the surge" about a decade later. What happened in the interim, and why? Fairweather provides the answers in an eminently readable yet detailed account. Attempting to summarize this whole fiasco would be tedious coming from me (but not Fairweather) but pretty much boils down to Western civilian and military leadership elements sitting in D.C., London and other spots determining "how things should work" in Afghanistan lacking any understanding of how things actually work there, and have for centuries. However, this book in not judgmental, serious mistakes were made not in bad faith, but in error, and what those errors were are clearly illuminated in the book. There are a host of very interesting personalities presented, some generally known political, military and diplomatic individuals, but also a lot of "unknowns" who were active in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, it was the latter group who best understood the dynamics of Afghan society, its complex tribal interrelationships, and how best to carry out reconstruction activities, unfortunate as their advice was generally ignored and instead a tidal wave of money (and troops) was thrown at the country to "get the job done faster," an approach that only led to egregious fraud and failed projects: Fairweather quotes one source that estimates of the $100 billion of aid pushed in Afghanistan's direction only about $15 billion actually impacted infrastructure projects, the rest simply "disappeared.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsVery well documented. States the obvious, we never ...

Very well documented.States the obvious,we never have understood tribal countries and insist Democray should work for everyone when there is no basis for the local residents to... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Bill Lamont
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Great

Published 9 months ago by Andre Tucker
2.0 out of 5 starsWay Too Many Details

I can see I'm out of step with the other reviewers, but I thought the book was very dryly written and included way, way too much information about the subject. Read more

Published 11 months ago by A Southern Reader
5.0 out of 5 starsCovers the history of the US and NATO operations in ...

Covers the history of the US and NATO operations in Afghanistan and lists many reasons why things went so poorly.

Published 13 months ago by Tom Arneson
5.0 out of 5 starsA sharp narrative told with verve that reveals our Afghan folly.

With searing narrative drive and the pace of a novelist, Jack Fairweather, fast becoming one of the great modern military historians writes of the folly that has led to Afghanistan... Read more

Published 15 months ago by Jonathan Green
5.0 out of 5 starsSome good might still come out of it

Fairweather begins with the solemn reflections of Hamid Karzai , the President of Afghanistan, in his private garden. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Hande Z
5.0 out of 5 starsExpert level examination of the Afghanistan War...

A good book for folks who have been to Afghanistan post 9-11 or study Afghanistan. This book critically examines the political and strategic motives that propelled and influenced... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Jim Hogberg
5.0 out of 5 starsThe vertical integration of strategic to tactical perspective is...

An extremely well researched narrative, covering the entire war, from its conception to the declared withdrawal of US combat troops in 2014. This book has something for everyone. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Jeffrey Tegman
5.0 out of 5 starsThe definitive account of President Karzai's rise to power

Jack Fairweather's "The Good War" is the best chronicle of the war in Afghanistan I have read in the last ten years. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Pitcairner
4.0 out of 5 starsBritish, CIA, US Flag Level View -- Scores Settled, Some Facts Wrong...

I did a fast read last night and formed the following impressions:

01 This is a British perspective heavily weighted by a very narrow range of sources that favor a small... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Robert David STEELE Vivas

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