James Fergusson (4)

A book to put anyone off soldiering. You may not get killed ( the face to face technological advantage is with the Westerners) but you will be isolated, undersupplied, ignored, messed about by your allies and distant HQ. What's more your efforts will be totally pointless and leave things much as they were or slightly worse. Makes strong case that the Western approach prioritised violence (especially the Paras & the US), thereby creating resentment and wrecking any chance of peacemaking or development. Much of the book is rather hard to follow unless you are familiar with the units and organisation of the Services. The last chapters contain the payoff when he goes to meet the Taliban. Narrative at this point is strong and the encounter revealing. They are of course human and making calculations of advantage (rational in Tim Harford's sense), though being totally resolved and resigned to die in battle they do have a different perspective! One says how his father and grandfather died by the bullet so it's what he expects too. The historical aspect is revealing: the afghan fighters remember the previous faranghee invasions, Soviet wreckage is everywhere to be seen; he even spots a youth out duck hunting with a muzzle loader stamped with VR "1842". Dumb idea to assign the Brits to Helmand, as it's where they fought (and took a beating) in previous centuries. And the map used for strategic decisions is a Western fiction, ignoring lines of tribal loyalty, pilgrimage, trade and influence.… (more)

Fergusson first reported from Afghanistan during the late 90s back when the Taliban were still conquering their way across the country (his more recent reporting led to the books A Million Bullets and Taliban: The Unknown Enemy both of which I read last year and found highly readable). While he was there he took on a local Afghan, Mir, as a translator who later got in trouble due to his involvement with foreign journalists. As a result Fergusson helped his former translator get political asylum in the U.K.

In this book the author relates this series of events along with Mir's adjustment to his new life, his struggle to get his family out of Afghanistan and how things change following the American invasion of Afghanistan and the Taliban are ousted. Its an engaging, entertaining and informative read.… (more)

This was Fergusson's follow-up book to A Million Bullets. When that book was written Fergusson's suggestion of negotiations with the Taliban was a fairly radical and certainly unpopular idea. 3 years later when Taliban came out, everyone was talking about negotiations, but it wasn't clear how this was to proceed. In this book Fergusson presents us with a short history of the Taliban movement. He argues that it was not as unified and monolithic in its ideology as its most reactionary and repressive elements would suggest and also argues fairly convincingly that for many Afghans it was better than the chaos and lawlessness of the civil war period that preceded it. He argues that the Taliban is not beholden to the ideology of Al-Qaeda and that it should be possible to negotiate with them to come to an agreement which will end the war in Afghanistan, allow for a NATO withdrawal and ensure that Al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups will not return to the country. Fergusson interviews a host of Afghan leaders, including members of the current regime, former Taliban leaders (some who have reconciled with the present government and others who have not) and some from the Northern Alliance who are most dead-set against an agreement with the Taliban.

Some may feel that Fergusson is a little too sanguine about the Taliban's repressive ideology and the question always remains over whether negotiating from a position of perceived weakness is going to yield very positive results, but once again it does appear that Fergusson is ahead of the curve in much of what he says. Very recently some of his suggestions, such as the release of some Taliban leaders from Guantanamo, the removal of the UN travel ban of some ex-Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and the unified support of the US, Afghan government and the Arab States for one negotiating track have been implemented. What kind of results these moves yield yet remain to be seen.… (more)