Book Review: ‘Little America'

Book Review: ‘Little America : The War Within The War For Afghanistan’ By Rajiv Chandrasekaran -- Neil Sheehan, Washington Post

In the prologue to Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book on the war in Afghanistan, a young Marine corporal approaches a State Department political adviser who is visiting his outpost. “Sir, I just hope this all adds up,” the corporal says, “All of my friends are getting hurt over here.” The corporal receives no answer, but by the conclusion of “Little America,” the reader does. The corporal’s friends will have been killed or wounded in vain.

Americans are a historyless people. We are constantly being told by wishfully thinking leaders that history does not apply to us, that we are its “exception.” Unfortunately, we are not, which is why it bears repeating that what the Obama administration is attempting to do in Afghanistan bears a striking resemblance to what the United States attempted in Vietnam.

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My Comment: The following paragraph sums up what the reviewer of this book quickly realized ....

.... The reader also gets a keen sense of the chaos that reigns among the Americans and their allies. There is no central guidance from the top on how to wage the conflict. The Army fights one war, the Marines another, and the British a small and ineffective third. Civilian projects initiated by the U.S. Agency for International Development to win Afghan “hearts and minds” wither for lack of follow-through.

Indeed.