Abu Muqawama: Post
Abu Muqawama retains its autonomy and the views and beliefs expressed within the blog do not reflect those of CNAS.
To be fair, "fog of war" was suggested by the editors...
Elizabeth Bumiller, you are in the penalty box of the English language. Describing the many great memoirs that have been written about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, she writes these books "explore the timeless theme of the futility of war."* If that hackneyed phrase was even accurate to describe the books she profiles, we would forgive her, but since almost all of the books she describes deal with war at its tactical levels divorced from the question of whether or not the violence is realizing political objectives, it makes no sense. Here's a question: whatever happened to the authors of The Unforgiving Minute
As the author of a quickly forgotten memoir
War is necessary if reprehensible. Because it's so awful, war should be waged well. It should be fought by well-trained men and women, managed by the most talented and creative young officers, and executed by adaptive, nimble fighting organizations supported by empathetic, resolute publics.
*"Futility of war" aside, the article is actually quite good, as are most of the books profiled.
**I have, like, three times as many followers on Twitter than Craig, though. Boo-yah!
"War is necessary if reprehensible. Because it's so awful, war should be waged well. It should be fought by well-trained men and women, managed by the most talented and creative young officers, and executed by adaptive, nimble fighting organizations supported by empathetic, resolute publics. "
Even when they are totaly fcking insane, like Iraq. Emphatic resolute public, and damn cost/benefit analysis? Abu M, your War As Sport attitude is shining through, what youre saying is that the homefans need to be supportive even when the coach is insane.
Kings of War had a blog post some time back about art - painting, memoirs, novels, fiction - generated out of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, if I recall correctly. Or maybe it was to ask the commenters about the best books and art? Don't remember. I do recall that Dexter Filkins name came up a lot in that thread. The Good Soldiers seems to come up a lot, too, in addition to some of the memoirs mentioned above.
Anyway, it's an enormous topic and perhaps one article isn't enough space to explore it? I like the way Elizabeth Bumiller mentioned non-traditional forms of communication such as blogs (although, that's old school now. Technology moves at the speed of light!)
You know what is especially interesting? The anecdotes shared in spaces like this or on Twitter or whatever. Seriously, a lot of nonsense and junk and jockeying will happen in a comments section, and then, someone will let loose with a specific anecdote and it just knocks you out. What? What happened? Can that be so? If it's a good site, and some credibility has developed and you know the others , you might even sort of half-way believe it could be true. Skepticism is a fine thing.
I have no idea what I am rambling on about, but perhaps it is time to do a more thorough survey! A project I would love to see is someone gleaning the best anecdotal comments from sites like this or Kings of War or Ink Spots or Small Wars Journal and displaying them in some way. Graphically (graphic novel?) perhaps, or even a short play. That Doonesbury Sandbox book is nice, but I think something more could be done interspersing comments, blog posts, emails, graphic novel-like drawings. Photos: people put photos on their sites and they are part of the visual memoir, the online diarying of these wars. Something akin to Post Secrets, but military themed. There is a playwright in Chicago working with vets and reportedly working on some very interesting projects. Great town for the arts, by the way.
Oh, and one or other of those memoirs is going to be presented at the Pritzker Military Institute, I see from the schedule. One of these days I might even attend, but come on. The timings! Difficult for people with day jobs....
Fair enough, Abu M.
But as a thought virus, I would like to offer the paralel between the COIN-crew and the Tea-Partymovement: Both genuine movements disgusted with their leaders being coopted by political actors into rara-groups for those in power they opposed at the start. Theres not a lot of tooth left in CNAS these days, it seems.
Just saying ;-)
Madhu:
1) Chicago is a great town.
2) Chicago is a great town for the arts.
3) Chicago is a great town.
4) As someone who works in the medical field (I think), can't you work a swing shift?
5) Don't you want to sample Streeterville glory?
6) You're right: the virtual medium has probably produced, or captured, some of the war's art.
7) First, this is not meant to disrespect the writers chronicled, a few of whom I've read and enjoyed quite a bit (Fick, Exum) (doesn't the article's author know the term "think tank?"). Second, the article's author seems to suggest, and my sense of Vietnam does as well, that there's a time lag between war termination and publication. When will the Iraq or Afghanistan's "A Rumor of War" or "Fields of Fire" be published? Or has it already been published and I'm too dumb or illiterate and ill-read to know it? I suppose there's already a corpus too large to read unless one has a decent amount of time.
8) Chicago is a great town.
9) Don't you want to sample Streeterville glory?
ADTS
"9) Don't you want to sample Streeterville glory?"
That's pretty darn funny, ADTS. Yeah, I really should make more of an effort - I'll have to figure something out.
Fnord..did you just Tea Bag CNAS?
On my own blog, On Violence, I'm reading and debating the memoirs written for the two current conflicts. I have to say that article did not nearly have the depth I expected or wanted.
Rereading my above comment, I wanted to clarify I was referring to the WaPo article. This blog post actually had better analysis. Off to look for a copy of Abu M's memoir to add to the list...
Senator John McCain used that hackneyed phrase "fog of war" to describe why it allegingly took the Army five weeks to figure ought that Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire. What BS! Even AM wrote (11-02-09 post) that he knew about fratricide just week after Tillman's death.
. . .
In his Sundance documentary, "The Tillman Story," Amir Bar-Lev says he was pretty hard on the Democratic Congress for their role in the aftermath of Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death. In his book, “Where Men Win Glory,” Jon Krakauer only blamed the Bush administration and Army. However, the cover-up was actually a thoroughly bi-partisan affair. In particular, the Democratic Congress and the Obama Presidency protected General Stanley McChrystal from punishment for his role in the cover-up of Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death.
The documents at feralfirefighter.blogspot.com describe how General McChrystal has been protected by Congressman Henry Waxman, Senator James Webb (along with Senators Carl Levin and John McCain), the New York Times Reporter Thom Shanker, the Center for a New American Security's Andrew Exum, and President Obama.
It’s not surprising that after the initial cover-up fell apart, Army officers and the Bush administration lied to protect their careers. But after they took control of both Houses in 2006, the Democratic Congress could have gone after those responsible. Or at least not promoted them!
Just before the 2006 mid-term elections, Kevin Tillman published his eloquent letter, “After Pat’s Birthday” (truthdig.com). Kevin hoped a Democratic Congress would bring accountability back to our country. But, just as with warrantless wiretapping and torture, those responsible for the cover-up of his brother’s friendly-fire death have never been held accountable for their actions.
Five years ago, Pat Tillman’s family were handed a tarnished Silver Star. It was a travesty of justice that General McChrystal was promoted to the Army’s highest rank, and handed his fourth star.
The hackneyed phrase "fog of war" was used by Senator John McCain to explain why it allegedly took the Army five weeks to tell Pat Tillman's family he was killed by friendly fire. What BS! (AM himself wrote in his 11-02-09 post that he learned about it just a week afterwards). "The TIllman Story" that just premiered at Sundance ago is partly a war memoir that will be worth watching when it's released later this year (although I prefer the original title, "I'm Pat ----ing Tillman!." Blunt, but honest).
. . .
In his Sundance documentary, "The Tillman Story," Amir Bar-Lev says he was pretty hard on the Democratic Congress for their role in the aftermath of Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death. Jon Krakauer's book, “Where Men Win Glory,” only blamed the Bush administration and Army. However, the cover-up was actually a thoroughly bi-partisan affair. In particular, the Democratic Congress and the Obama Presidency protected General Stanley McChrystal from punishment for his role in the cover-up of Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death.
The documents at feralfirefighter.blogspot.com describe how General McChrystal has been protected by Congressman Henry Waxman, Senator James Webb (along with Senators Carl Levin and John McCain), the New York Times Reporter Thom Shanker, the Center for a New American Security's Andrew Exum, and President Obama.
It’s not surprising that after the initial cover-up fell apart, Army officers and the Bush administration lied to protect their careers. But after they took control of both Houses in 2006, the Democratic Congress could have gone after those responsible. Or at least not promoted them!
Just before the 2006 mid-term elections, Kevin Tillman published his eloquent letter, “After Pat’s Birthday” (truthdig.com). Kevin hoped a Democratic Congress would bring accountability back to our country. But, just as with warrantless wiretapping and torture, those responsible for the cover-up of his brother’s friendly-fire death have never been held accountable for their actions.
Five years ago, Pat Tillman’s family were handed a tarnished Silver Star. It was a travesty of justice that General McChrystal was promoted to the Army’s highest rank, and handed his fourth star.
Alright, I've read the post and wanted to share my thoughts:
I think the article missed out on some major short-comings of the post 9/11 war memoirs.
The first short-coming, barely hinted at in the second to last paragraph, is the dearth of war novels. Memoirs are in vogue right now, across the publishing world, so this is no surprise. The problem is that, particularly in war time situations, memoirs cannot be as honest as novels. I'm surprised Tim O'Brien is quoted saying what he said. As he wrote in "The Things They Carried" sometimes the "seeming truth" of war time is more important than the "happening truth."
Because these books are memoirs, they lack honesty and feel self-centered. Compare Fick's "One Bullet Away" to Evan Wright's "Generation kill." "Generation Kill" is cruder, more violent, and punishingly brutal. Marine leadership is depicted as incompetent and near suicidal, civilians die. Generation Kill presents soldiers as they are; good and bad, warts an all. Fick justs presents the good side. Mulaney in his book doesn't have a single negative thing to say about anyone.
My more serious complaint is that these books claim to promote understanding of counter-insurgency (COIN). They were written by soldiers who deployed pre- General Patreaus' counter-insurgency manual. Fick fought during the invasion of Iraq, Mulaney fought in Afghanistan in 2003, three years before the manual's release in 2006. If American troops were waging good COIN in Iraq and Afghanistan, why did Patreaus write the manual? Why did the military reform its strategy? While reading the memoirs, you wait to read Mulaney or Fick criticize how the Army wages counter-insurgency warfare at the time, but these criticism never come, at least not openly. This is a strange complaint, because I love Fick's editorial writings.
On the other end of the spectrum, "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Lutrell, the most popular recent war memoir (it soon will be made into a movie), is openly anti-COIN.
Finally, I've read a lot of war memoirs, and I thought I'd mention some good ones that weren't mentioned here. The first is "Soft Spots" by Clint van Winkle, about PTSD; and "The War I Always Wanted" by Brandon Friedman. I'd recommend these post 9/11 war memoirs before any others.Also, for other war memoirs that I feel actually depict war warts and all, read Andy Rooney's "My War" about his experience as a war report during WWII, and "The Things They Carry" by Tim O'Brien which is one of the greatest books of all time.
I recommend " The Good Soldiers" by David Finkel.
@ Eric C:
I wonder if a novel, or memoir, is going to be the optimal art form (can we use the term optimal when applied to art? No, not really.) for the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars? That was why I was glad to see other forms mentioned. Painting and photography were also brought up in that Kings of War thread, which I ought to look up, but don't have time now, and another point was made by SNLII: enough time may not have passed for the more "definitive" novels to have been written. Time will tell.
The Good Soldiers is amazing. It's so beautifully written, but I always wonder about non-fiction written as "fiction" in terms of the quality of writing. What I mean is: even if the author had all that data to sort through and interviews, how could he know the thoughts of some of the people he was portraying? I'm not so familiar with this form of reading, so I don't know if that sort of thing is standard. At any rate, it's an amazing book.
It should say, "in terms of style of writing," not quality above. The style seems fictionalized. Is this what people call creative non-fiction? I always have a problem with some creative non-fiction.
Aargh, huge topic.
Andrew Exum, you are in the penalty box of the spelling of the English language. I appreciate your comments, but you mispelled my name. It's Elisabeth with an s. Cheers, Elisabeth
@ Madhu - We haven't seen a novel yet, so I think the jury is still out on that. As far as film goes, the Iraq war films so far have been sub-par. Perhaps the Hurt Locker will reverse that trend, but I don't know.
My guess would be reportage, but not reportage written by soldiers. Generation Kill was about as close to perfect as it gets.
Add your comment