NONFICTION: WAR AND CULTURE WAR AND CULTURE
Above the Din of War
by Peter Eichstaedt (Chicago Review Press, Inc.)
As the 2014 troop- drawdown deadline nears, this may be the penultimate summer that U.S. troops spend in .
What will the transition from combat to support mean for the people left behind? And what impact will that have on American lives?
Those questions lay the foundation for Colorado author ‘s powerful collection of interviews with Afghan people.
The answers are complicated and nuanced. The distance between Kabul and Boston can be as well as in miles.
“Three people were killed in the ; imagine , and not in one place, but in around the country, and not on one day of the year, ,” Eichstaedt said.
“Imagine that, and Americans can the outrage that is growing among the population after 12 years of war. This has gone on, , , Afghan civilians . They feel the same outrage, times 100, that we feel about Boston.”
Eichstaedt, who lives in Broomfield, is a veteran journalist who recently was the Afghanistan director of the . His work in Afghanistan included managing journalism , including a one-year project to build investigative journalism projects.
He spent much of 2004 in Afghanistan, helping set up an independent news agency for Afghans cautiously optimistic about the changes promised by policy makers. When he returned in 2010, after working as the IWPR , Eichstaedt was stunned to find that hopefulness by .
“We’re really good at war, but at re-establishing societies,” he said recently.
“As I was finishing work on this book in 2012, there were attacks in August and September, and the majority of American soldiers’ deaths were from Afghans who were being trained. because they were at the way they were being treated — .
“And the way the U.S. responded was to and translate it into the local language, explaining how the Afghans could better understand and get along with Americans. It was the exact wrong approach.”
In contrast, Eichstaedt’s approach was to seek out and interview Afghans on their own terms. He was not the naive reporter he was when he ran the short-lived or covered the state legislature for the Santa Fe .
Instead, he established relationships with local nonprofit organizations there that have solid relationships with the people. Before flying to Kabul, Eichstaedt knew who would be meeting him at the airport, and the address of the secure house to which he’d be driven. He never traveled without his translator.
“That’s something I insist upon, because it allows me to move around these places relatively safely,” he said.
“You need to make sure you do have security systems, even though you’re never perfectly safe. There was that If you go to the country, where 75 percent of the Afghan people live, it’s difficult to get a police escort because they know they’ll be attacked by the Taliban. Almost all of the international journalists refuse to go to the countryside unless they’re embedded with troops. That alone tells you who’s in charge of the countryside.”
Even if Eichstaedt hadn’t , the Afghans he interviewed would have clued him in.
“When the Afghan government and the U.S. military talk about success in Afghanistan, they bank it on being able to control major population centers in the country, and there, it’s true,” he said.
“But only 25 percent of Afghans live in cities. The vast majority live in the country, and that’s where the Taliban maintains control. There are shadow governments in every province in the country. I hate to say it, but the reality is, and this is what Afghans told me, that Afghanistan is united only when there is a common enemy. , all the each other.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
Afghans on Afghanistan
In Colorado author Peter Eichstaedt’s “Above The Din of War,” Afghans talk about how 30 years of war has shaped, and fragmented, their country.
