Though we have, and will continue to, debate the value and the importance of the various social, legal, and political pillars that underpin successful societies, we know this much. It is impossible to live a life of peace in a world of chaos. Just a glance the way of the war-torn regions of human civilization, where the rule of law has failed, where justice has ceased to flow from the state and its institutions, and where the government ignores the will of the people, demonstrates this truth. These are dark places in which corruption has so thoroughly eclipsed fairness and lawfulness that peaceful people can only survive by conforming, by obeying, by being drawn down into that darkness. In this world, there is no room left for morality, not for those who want to live another day, not for those who have families to protect, and certainly not for those who disagree with their regime. Though The Forever War is, in many respects, just another book about the war-torn, the extent to which it exposes this truth bestows upon it the power to prick even the most calloused of consciences.
In The tradition of true gonzo journalism, Mr. Filkins, who has reported from the Middle East for the L.A. Times, the New York Times and the New Yorker, recounts, here, his various journeys through Afghanistan and Iraq during the American occupation of both countries. From the young Afghan boys who race heedlessly across minefields to the tormented Iraqi fathers whose families are threatened and murdered on even the suspicion of working for the Americans, the reader is plunged headlong into a world that, thanks to the corrosive effects of corruption and religious fundamentalism, is defenseless against the atrocities of its demented criminals. Such conditions are antithetical to peaceful living, driving many who would have otherwise been productive and educated citizens into flight from their decaying countries.
The American government, trying to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq would undoubtedly attempt to argue that these are merely temporary conditions that will clear up when democracy is implemented and the trust of the people earned back, but Mr. Filkins, in both his description of the mistakes of the Bremer administration and the insular isolation of the Green Zone as a whole, leaves little doubt that it will be decades before life is normal in Iraq. And Iraq is perhaps the healthier of the two nations, with Afghanistan lacking even the shreds of a civil society around which a fair state might cohere. For while it may be true that the Western powers have pacified certain areas within these countries, they do not control the countryside from which insurgents bide their time until the inevitable,American withdrawal.
The Forever War is, emotionally, a difficult read. In his ride-alongs with the US military as they try to clear out insurgents, in his runs through dangerous and troubled Baghdad, and in his interactions with friendly and bellicose locals both in Afghanistan and Iraq, Mr. Filkins has successfully painted a picture of a part of the world so fragmented, so fraught with paralytic corruption, so infected by insurgents, that it is hard to imagine it ever recovering. However, as much as his conclusions are cause for depression, the extent to which he distinguishes the human story from the regional one makes this a worthwhile read. Over and over again, we are presented with examples of people who want to live, who want to provide for their families, who want to be safe. But those lives are denied them by the destructive forces that plague their world. There are moments of cultural connection, moments of hope in which maybe there could exist mutual understanding, but how can that delicate union be nurtured while the insurgent bombs are falling, while the world is thunder and rage?
Written prior to the Sunni Awakening in 2007, The Forever War suffers from being somewhat dated. The severity of the violence has seemingly ebbed from its nihilistic heights during Mr.Filkins' time in both countries. Nonetheless, this remains an excellent read. Its battles thrill, its conditions appall, its exposes amaze and its introspections devastate. Most importantly, however, it is another brick in the wall of our understanding of the folly of war. Justice cannot be brought with bombs and guns.Democracy cannot be instituted with smart bombs and tanks. It has to be cultivated. It has to be grown. Freedom is not AstroTurf. It cannot be manufactured. when it is, this is the result. (4/5 Stars)
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