Edward Girardet

This book is as complete a tale of the misery of Afghanistan as could be written by a reporter who was there. On the positive side: the incredible hospitality of the Afghan people, who give to the visitor and traveler when they themselves have little to spare. The rest: misery, death, and the imprisonment of women in their homes. Page 323: " On Vice President Cheney's orders, the US government also provided the Taliban with a grant worth 43 million dollars." There's nothing more needs to be said.… (plus d'informations)

Journalist Edward Girardet's KILLING THE CRANES will probably not be a popular book in the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. There are too many career politicians and professional war-mongers who will feel threatened by what Girardet has to say.

After more than thirty years of reporting on the nearly-continuous wars that have torn Afghanistan apart, Girardet has developed a deep respect and even affection for its proud people. He has no personal political agenda to promote here, other than a fervent wish for an end to the wars that have left the country's economy in ruins and millions of people uprooted and destitute.

I read Girardet's earlier book, AFGHANISTAN: THE SOVIET WAR, over twenty years ago, and was most impressed with his encyclopedic knowledge of Afghanistan as a country, as well as the overview that book offered of the various warlords and rival mujahideen factions who were at the time resisting the Soviet occupation forces. Girardet, a reporter who has trekked over the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan countless times, built on those experiences and the contacts he made then and in the years since to write KILLING THE CRANES. I would like to call the current book the 'culmination' of his years of experience in the Afghan wars, but, given the fact that the country is currently still being 'occupied' by the U.S.-led coalition of forces, or ISAF (laughingly referred to by those who live there as "I Saw Americans Fighting), there is no way of knowing how much longer the wars will continue. (And I say this despite the current 2014 deadline for withdrawal, which I will believe when it happens.)

When I read a book like KtC, I tend to turn down page corners to mark passages I want to remember or cite. This book is in pretty sad, dog-eared shape now, and I have since despaired of actually using all of the passages I've marked. Suffice it to say that it is simply chock-full of quotable, memorable stuff, so I'll just give a couple of examples.

First of all, why in the hell can't a supposedly modern, forward-thinking government like ours ever seem to learn anything from history? We certainly followed closely the ill-fated Soviet venture in Afghanistan which lasted nearly ten years. Indeed the CIA was giving financial and materiel support to the muhahideen forces from the earliest days of that war, from even before the actual Soviet invasion at the end of 1979. Girardet cites current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's book, FROM THE SHADOWS, in which Gates "maintained ... that the United States had begun providing financial aid to the mujahideen six months prior to the invasion. It was one way of undermining the Afghan communists and their Soviet backers."

Girardet also points out how our CIA often worked together with Pakistan's intelligence agency (ISI), since proven to be notoriously corrupt and unreliable, in supporting the most radical extremist groups during the Soviet war. The Peshawar-based warlord Hekmatyar Gulbuddin profited the most from this support. This decision to work closely with "the most fanatical Islamic factions ... was fatal. It led to the destruction of Kabul, and provided the insurgeny leadership that is now fighting NATO troops in Afghanstan. Simply put, it was the US backing of the Islamic extremists in the 1980s that helped produce the current military quagmire in Afghanistan."

Girardet also pulls no punches in describing the rampant graft and corruption that existed in the 1980s in the Paki and Afghan government circles, and still does, as America continues to throw billions of dollars down the bottomless pit of the Afghan problem. He notes: "As more American diplomats and agents from this period are entering retirement and willing to speak openly, more information is becoming available as to the utter incompetence of the CIA and other intelligence organizations in their handling of the Afghan issue."

Current officials of the corrupt Karzai regime continue to line their pockets and buy expensively lavish homes in places like the UAE and Dubai, grabbing whatever they can get while the getting is good, knowing the foreign aid dollars will not last forever.

In regard to the notorious Osama bin Laden, Girardet has his own stories to tell, like his first meeting with that supposedly charismatic leader back in the mid-80s. He describes him as talking with a "slight American accent as if learned at school," and speaking "with the confidence of someone who enjoyed an affluent background, but who also sounded like a spoiled brat who always got his own way." The meeting ended badly, with bin Laden shouting after Girardet, "If I see you again, I'll kill you. Don't ever come back." Girardet was not impressed with bin Laden as a person. In fact in the Epiloge, he notes: "The killing, or as some say, the assassination of bin Laden on May 2, 2011 is unlikely to affect the war. He was never that popular, even among the Taliban, and resentment toward Arabs remains deep."

In the current issue of HARPER'S there is an open letter from former Senator (and presidential candidate) George McGovern to President Obama. In it he offers several suggestions - advice, actually. Chief among his proposals is that the U.S. withdraw its troops - all of them - immediately from Afghanistan and Iraq. I hope the president has read this letter and is seriously considering the advice therein. McGovern has nothing to gain or lose by making what seems to many such a radical proposal. He is, after all, an old man. The president's current advisors on the wars on the other hand are all professional careerists - not just politicians, but military men whose careers are advanced by war. President Obama would do well to seriously consider Senator McGovern's suggestions. He would also be well-served by reading this new book, Girardet's KILLING THE CRANES. There is so much hard-won wisdom here from a man who has spent most of his adult life trying to present a clear and accurate picture of what is happening in this beautiful country, Afghanistan.

But the economy, natural disasters, other wars, upcoming elections - all of these things press in upon our president, clamoring for his time and attention. It seems unlikely he'll stop and read a 400-plus page book. But I guess I can always hope. In the meantime I will recommend KILLING THE CRANES high.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA… (plus d'informations)