Little America: The War within the War for Afghanistan - Hardcover

Chandrasekaran, Rajiv

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1408830078 ISBN 13: 9781408830079

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012

Synopsis

The American Government invested millions in Helmand, Afghanistan in the 1950s and 1960s to transform the barren desert into a veritable oasis. It became the largest international development effort after the Marshall Plan. 'Little America' was the name for this specific region, first used in the 1940s by Afghanis themselves. Four decades later in 2009, the region was again the focus of the US efforts in the country, as waves of Marines descended upon the Helmand River Valley.

In this extraordinarily insightful, illuminating book, Rajiv Chandrasekaran focuses on southern Afghanistan in the year of Obama's surge. Little America is a story of the long arc of American involvement, and of the campaign to salvage a victory in southern Afghanistan on Obama's watch., and reveals the epic tug of war that occurred between the president and a military that, once on the ground, increasingly went its own way. This political battle's profound ramifications for the region and the world are laid bare through a cast of fascinating characters - disillusioned and inept diplomats, frustrated soldiers, headstrong officers - who played a part in the process of pumping millions of dollars of American money and soldiers into Afghan nation-building. He addresses the British involvement around Kandahar prior to the arrival of the US Marines, and reveals the uneasy - and, at times, openly hostile - relationship between the United States and Britain as they began in 2009 to share responsibility for Helmand.

What emerges is a detailed picture of unsavoury compromise - warlords who were to be marginalised were suddenly embraced, the Karzai family transformed from foe to friend, fighting corruption no longer a top priority - and a venture that has become unsustainable in every way: politically, financially, and strategically. As in his award-winning Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by bringing to life a corner of a conflict and Chandrasekaran reveals the bigger story of the war. Has the war in Afghanistan been worth the money spent and bloodshed? Through vivid, on-the-ground storytelling, Little America takes readers toward an answer in a way no other book on Afghanistan has.

About this title

Review:

Vital reading ... comprehensive, perceptive and detailed work ... Little America is powerful and important and should be read by anyone interested in this on-going and deeply depressing war (Jason Burke, Observer)

A handbook on how not to run a foreign war ... the book tells its story extremely well (Max Hastings, Sunday Times)

A beautifully written and deeply reported account of America's troubled involvement in ­Afghanistan (New York Times Notable Books of 2012)

An enthralling examination of the failures of American decision-making in Afghanistan ... engrossing and sharply reported ... as an examination of the failings of American decision-making it is second to none. **** (Daily Telegraph)

Chandrasekaran is at his observant best when chronicling the absurdities of the State Department bureaucracy as it went to war in Kabul ... the book is effectively a critique of US policy and performance, and he makes a nuanced and convincing case (Guardian)

Book Description:

The author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City (winner of the 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize) now gives us the startling, behind-the-scenes story of the struggle between President Obama and the US military to remake Afghanistan.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1408830078
• ISBN 13: 9781408830079
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384