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Title: The Forever War
ISBN: 0307266397
Author:
Dexter Filkins
Publicate Date: 2008-09-16
Publish: 2008-09-16
List Price: $25.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $15.68
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $16.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Opens up new views
I've read quite a few books about the Iraq war, but none of them really cover the same ground as The Forever War. Filkins' role as a journalist allows him access to people and places that are seen through a one-way lens in books written by soldiers, embedded journalists or political analysts.
Filkins also differs from the "competition" in style: The book consists of short tales and impressions gathered over years spent in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are in turn moving, shocking, heart-warming and surreal: A Westerner's comfortable existence doesn't equip you to imagine a world where someone lives by selling the meat of goats that have wandered into minefields and exploded. There is little in the way of analysis or conclusions, but together, the stories paint a picture that is much more vivid than mere combat descriptions or battle plan dissections can convey.
The book made quite an impression on me and definitely ranks up as one of the best yet written about America's present conflicts. I would recommend it to everyone interested in a deeper understanding of what's behind the explosion-filled news stories.
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2: A dangerous life in an American disaster zone
This is a great book; easy to read and thought provoking. Filkins introduces us to his world; a choatic military disaster in the middle east. Written in short story form, we see the war from one man's perspective. His respect and admiration for the "grunts" and Iraqi/Afgangi victims comes through on every page. Filkins makes no judgements, it's not a political book, we only see the results of the Bush Administrations actions in the years 2002-2006 (the Rumsfeld years). When Filkins left there seemed to be no hope for Iraq. We can only hope and pray that in 2009 that hope has returned.
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3: Brilliantly Layered Impressions of Afghanistan and Iraq
The source of THE FOREVER WAR is 561 notebooks that Dexter Filkins filled in a nine year period, when he worked as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times in Afghanistan and The New York Times in Iraq. In a section of acknowledgements at the end of his book, Filkins thanks Jonathan Segal, his editor at Knopf, who "helped shape my unwieldy ideas and an even more unwieldy manuscript..." While Filkins is surely being generous, what he and Segal succeed in delivering is a highly layered rendering of Filkins's experiences that both clarifies and conveys the complexity of these failed states. Filkins and Segal, in other words, have managed this mother lode of on-the-scene impressions brilliantly. They have created a book that is highly perceptive, never strident or polemical, and absolutely riveting.
The layering of experience is everywhere in TFW. One quick illustration is Chapter Eight, which focuses on a maternity hospital in Diwaniya that Jerry Bremer visits. This begins with Bremer's advance man, who is a Republican political operative, not an Iraqi expert. Then Bremer exits his Chinook and gives a speech, like a politician campaigning, citing statistics showing that all 200 hospitals in Iraq are open, that the country's health care is improving, and so on. But what Filkins learns from the doctors is that there is no electricity. As a result, the hospital cannot sterilize instruments or warm the incubators and its premature babies are dying. In this and other visits to this hospital, Filkins also finds one employee who hates Saddam more than the American occupation but another who hates the chaos of the occupation more than Saddam. This single short chapter, in other words, shows the effort to manage the story, the reality, and the complex reactions and allegiances of the Iraqis. Throughout, TFW has a very rich narrative.
In TFW, Filkins does many things exceedingly well. But among my favorites is his discussion of the nihilism of the insurgents. In contemplating videos of suicide bombing, he writes:
"The videos made me wonder. What was more important to these guys, the suicide or the murder? You'd think it would be the murder, but I wasn't always so sure; there was a hint of nihilism in everything Al-Qaeda did. At the end of the Palestine-Sheraton video, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia at the time, gave a little speech. He promised victory for the Islamic world and, barring that, annihilation. `If the enemy wins,' Zarqawi promised, `we will burn everything.'" This nihilism is apparent in everything Filkins writes about Al-Qaeda.
Other excellent chapters examine ethic cleansing, IEDs, and the death of Lance Corporal William L. Miller. Highly recommended.
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4: A "wow" experience
Dexter Filkins' "The Forever War" is the gripping tale of a journalist's experience in the Middle East. Dexter Filkins covered the Middle East since 1998. He is able to draw upon the unique perspective of viewing Afghanistan before 9-11, Ground Zero on 9-11, and the consequences of 9-11 in the Middle East. If you are looking for an explicit commentary of the war, an analysis of other American achievements and mishaps, or a damning expose of the backwardness of the Middle East you will be disappointed. Instead, this book is an incredible synthesis of anecdotes that will allow the reader to form his own idea of the War of Terror. This book made me think -- it is as deep as the war itself. It it the only book on Iraq that has been able to capture the implicit intellectual complexities of this war. Not only is the book fantastic from an intellectual standpoint, it is a wonderful piece of literature. "The Forever War" really is a well written book. Bravo, Mr. Filkins, for a job well done. Thank you for your courage and honesty. Most of all, God Bless our troops, and the innocents of Iraq and Afghanistan. If I only learned one thing from Mr. Filkins, it is that no one really understands the war until they have lived through it.
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5: The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from a personal perspective
The Forever War is Dexter Filkins's personal account of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a foreign correspondent for the New York Times stationed in Afghanistan (2001-02) and Iraq (2003-06), Filkins has bona fides in spades. Fortunately, he's also a good writer. Filkins's straightforward prose is well-crafted and clear, never detracting from the real story.
Rather than a comprehensive account of the wars, The Forever War is a zoom lens focusing on discrete scenes. One scene might describe a roof-top discussion with a patrolling U.S. marine, while the next scene jumps to an interview with the family of a suicide bomber. Filkins doesn't waste any time with transitions between unrelated scenes. This choppy structure is occasionally jarring but becomes easier to follow over time. Taken together, the disparate scenes reveal a great deal about the larger war, particularly the futility of the conflict. Despite aggrandizing political statements to the contrary, things aren't getting any better in Iraq, and there's no clear way forward. At times, I found myself wishing for a more global perspective--a more panoramic shot--to help me understand the larger picture and to place Filkins's experiences within a more complete timeline. However, there are plenty of other books that present that perspective. In this book, Filkins is trying to do something different and far more valuable.
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