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One Tribe at a Time: The Paper that Changed the War in Afghanistan by [Jim Gant, Shawn Coyne, Steven Pressfield]

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Jim Gant

One Tribe at a Time: The Paper that Changed the War in Afghanistan Kindle Edition

by Jim Gant (Author), Shawn Coyne (Editor), Steven Pressfield (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition

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"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.

Length: 190 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jim Gant enlisted in the Army straight out of high school in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the age of 19, intent on joining the Special Forces. In 1989 he passed a gruelling selection and earned his Green Beret and Special Forces tab. In 1990, he took part in the first Gulf War as a member of the 5th Special Forces Group, and was promoted to staff sergeant. Jim enrolled in college and joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at New Mexico State University. He was commissioned in the U.S. Army as a 2nd Lieutenant and infantry officer in 1995. Jim spent four years as a lieutenant: two years as an Infantry platoon leader and two additional years as a Scout platoon leader. He then volunteered for and was accepted into Special Forces training again as an officer. He was a Captain and going through Special Forces training again when terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. Jim led a Special Forces team, Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 316 in Afghanistan’s Konar Province in early 2003. There, he met the Pashtun tribal leader Malik Noor Afzhal for the first time. Jim deployed again with his Special Forces team to Helmand Province 2004. Jim was then hand-picked to lead a special projects team for the next two years. In 2006, Jim volunteered to go Iraq, which was embroiled in a civil war, as the US and Iraqi casaulties were sky-rocketing. After 14 consecutive months of direct combat in Iraq, Jim returned to the US and became an Unconventional Warfare instructor at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It was in 2009 that Jim, with the help of his close friend and author, Steve Pressfield, wrote the white paper entitled “One Tribe at a Time.” Jim was then given the mission of a lifetime: return to Afghanistan, form an alliance with his old friend, Malik Noor Afzhal, and together fight the resurgent Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. In August 2010, Jim reunited with Malik Noor Afzhal, nicknamed “Sitting Bull.” Jim’s war-time awards include the Silver Star, Iraqi National Police Medal of Honor, and the Army Commendation Medal with V device, and Bronze Star with two oak leaf clusters. Jim considers his greatest military achievement the fact that the men who fought alongside him were awarded over 20 awards for valor. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN : B00JEN31W8
Publisher : Black Irish Entertainment LLC (March 31, 2014)
Publication date : March 31, 2014
Language : English
File size : 2339 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 190 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #600,017 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #148 in Afghan War History
- #475 in Afghan War Military History

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67 ratings

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B Shapiro

Spot On!

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2015

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Major Jim Gant got this spot on. In dealing with the tribes in Afghanistan conventional warfare is in the end not effective.
You must build relationships with the individuals and in particular the tribal leaders from which real power in Afghanistan derives.
For those who want a small snapshot of how to operate in tribal areas in Afghanistan or any tribal society particularly in the Middle East read this.

4 people found this helpful

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Sean the Good Spirit

The Truth on how we could have accomplished so much more!

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2014

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I went through the Special Forces course with Jim and knew, (hell, the whole group knew) there was something special aboout him. Jim always got it right the first time. He just "Got it". I wish the commanders who sacrificed so many of our warriors over there would have read this and took it to heart. We could have accomplished so much more meaningful and successful objectives over there. As usual the brass only care about their own rising star and not actual mission success. Jim's observations and strategies remind me a lot of Sun Tzu's "Art Of War". The brass should have paid more attention to that book as well, we would have a lot more people alive.
Jim's book is a must read, not just to get the perspective of the Afghan tribal mentalitiy, but for our own intra-social abilities and communications.
It's a great book written by a great warrior and leader. Thanks Jim. De Oppresso Liber!

13 people found this helpful

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gt surber

Use the tribes to win in Afghanistan

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2014

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Review - One Tribe at a Time by Jim Gant

"One Tribe at a Time" (published October 2009) is an article by Special Forces Major Jim Gant expressing his opinion that the only way to "win" the "war" in Afghanistan is to work directly with the individual tribes. Jim Gant does not feel that working with the national level or even regional level governments will win us the war. Gant had the opportunity to work closely and intimately with one of the Pushtan Tribes (al la Lawrence of Arabia type work) and found the experience rewarding and fruitful. Gant has looked at the history of Afghanistan and found that many experts claim the only lasting power sources in Afghanistan are the tribes. This article is his opinion that we must align ourselves with the individual tribes to gain their confidence and good will to defeat the Taliban.

The bibliography is impressive. The writing is clear and well done. The intext references to such as General Petreaus (author of a brilliant book on counter insurgency) and Andrew Exum (former Army Ranger Captain with Afghan combat experience) are several and supportive. See the "Introduction" by Steven Pressfield for more. The message that insurrections are won over time by working with the local peoples is well established, but frequently for various reasons not followed in modern warfare. This article is an articulate call to use that philosophy in Afghanistan.

4 people found this helpful

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DevilDog 3/7

Should be mandatory reading for Officers

Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2018

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if you want to know why we're failing in Afghanistan read this book, it a short read I was finished in day, this is one of those books that every Officer in either the Marine Corps, Army, or Navy Seals read.

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old sarge

Lessons learned, lessons ignored.

Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2015

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This is an interesting story of one mans efforts in Afghanistan to make sure we did it right. And what he learned and how it was ignored by the command structure .
While the book is somewhat dry reading it never the less is an interesting story.

2 people found this helpful

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The Paper Which Could Have Won The Afghan War

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2016

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Gant is a true American Hero for his accomplishments on and off the battlefield . Sadly our flawed political and military leadership did what the enemy could not do - destroy his accomplishments and his right to an honored place among warriors.

One Tribe At A Time is Gant's prescription for working with the realities of Afghanistan to protect and advance both American and Afghan interests. Gant recognized that we needed to work with Afghanistan's tribal culture which with the Afghan topography had made it the graveyard of great armies for 2,000 years, including that of the Russians.

Gant recognized that we needed to make the Afghan tribal culture a part of our winning strategy , not an impediment. This book is his paper on the subject, written after his first tour. It was embraced and adopted by our senior special forces leadership. When he returned to Afghanistan he found he was fighting not only the Taliban but also the Army bureaucracy where special forces are often seen as the enemy.

The book is not an adventure story but rather the presentation of the strategy and the reasoning supporting it.

The story is told in American Spartan

What I think we learned over the last 8 years was that Obama did not want a strong, effective military and did not want to prevail in Afghanistan....... that's a pretty strong indictment of the former President but his actions in curtailing the forces, implementing rules of engagement which tripled the American casualty rate, announcing our withdrawl and then releasing 5 top Taliban military leaders on the eve of Afghan elections sent a clear signal.

One person found this helpful

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dan

awesome book relative to American Spartan

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2015

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I read American Spartan first. That book was one of my favorites. Top 3 in afghan/Iraq stories. I think I would have read this first, never the less. Glad I read it.

One person found this helpful

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Brewster Righter

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2017

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Long, tautological, interesting, however.

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A very sensible approach to counterinsurgency warfare in Afghanistan, haphazardly presented

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2014

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Jim Gant's book is touted as the one piece of writing that actually scared Osama bin Laden, and whether this is the case or not, it is a useful book to read in terms of understanding Afghanistan in its current state and some sensible approaches to successfully dealing with the situation using a much lighter footprint than has historically been the case.

The basic tenet of the book is the author's focus on the primacy of working with tribes, not just the central government (something both the Russians and now the US led coalition found out does not bring success). The tribal organization of the Afghan society may be very different from what we know from Western democracies but it is a fact on the ground - and a fairly non-alterable one in the short run. So instead of the 'only tool being a hammer and therefore every problem looking like a nail' approach, the author suggests - and rightly so - to adapt to the local environment and have small groups of US troops (special forces, that is) directly integrated into the tribal system, helping the (focus being on the Pashto ones but Hazaras and Uzbeks are also options, according to the author) tribes uphold their value systems and allowing them to protect themselves from the Taliban - something the weak and seemingly ineffective central government has not managed to do so far.

Such a system is of course likely to have the odd military planner in a state of apoplexy, as there is less reliance on / influence of a direct chain of command and at times also less accountability (one of the suggestions is the availability of funds to promote issues important to a tribe, without prior approval or the same level of oversight usually applied). At the same time it is also a system that has been used with some success in previous counterinsurgencies, be it by the French in Indochina (often done with the Meo tribes), or later - in the opening stages of the Vietnam War - also by the Americans (a lightly fictionalized account from that era being Incident at Muc Wa (Go Tell the Spartans) A Story of the Vietnam War - based on Daniel Ford's own experiences in country, as later published in The Only War We've Got: Early Days in South Vietnam ).

Jim Gant, however, also states the one prerequisite for the strategy to work - which also makes it so difficult to implement in the modern political arena - namely the need to remain absolutely committed to the tribes and not to (when convenient) abandon them to their own devices again ( Incident at Muc Wa (Go Tell the Spartans) A Story of the Vietnam War describing a prime example here of how that can happen).

The only unfortunate element in the book - and my primary criticism - is the writing itself. It is of course more important for a soldier to be proficient in his trade than to be an accomplished penman but the writing here really leaves a lot to be desired and the book could both be made more hard hitting and much more pleasant to read with the help of a good editor. There are endless repetitions of the same sentences - sometimes first in italics completely detached from the main flow of the argument to then reappear a couple of pages later verbatim in the main text, sometimes with the order reversed. And while the author uses a chapter structure with distinct topics, he often seems to regress to earlier statements and not always to stick to the point.

Even so, I believe the book is definitely a worthwhile read, as the value of the content and the main messages outweighs the stylistic mess. While perhaps not in the same league as Trinquier's Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency (a book I very much recommend), it will add to your understanding of Afghanistan in particular, and counterinsurgency warfare more generally.

not such a good read factual and dry

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2020

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Nothing like as good as The American Spartan aboutthe same man

A. J. Hones

Excellent read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2018

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Excellent read

Fabio Sandonnini Punzi

good booklet

Reviewed in Italy on July 19, 2014

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the author tells it like it is, it is circumstanced and detailed. even if not all of his statements are 100% error proof, nonetheless the ideas are there, and ... he could be right. after all, the current model is not working, so maybe a different model could. anyway, as he says, he is still ready to put his money where his mouth is, which is a good thing. I liked the book and the way it is written.

Raphael Cavalieri Souza

Brilhante

Reviewed in Brazil on August 22, 2018

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O autor aborda de maneira simples e objetiva as técnicas, táticas e procedimentos para a abordagem de uma tribo a fim de ganhar seus corações e mentes

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