Review: "Greetings from Afghanistan, Send More Ammo: Dispatches from Taliban Country" by Benjamin Tupper

There were several points in Benjamin Tupper's astounding book, "Greetings from Afghanistan" where I had to set the thing down for a few moments and regain my composure before I could continue, sometimes more than once in the same essay. Based on Tupper's postings on "The Sandbox," Doonesbury's milblog, and on pieces presented on NPR and other media outlets, the book is a collection of well-observed and -drawn sketches from the year he spent as an ETT operating on an ANA FOB in Afghanistan. No, I will not explain those terms; if you are going to read this book you had best learn what these acronyms mean and get used to seeing them.

Tupper brings a keen eye and a mordant wit to his descriptions of the everyday triumphs and tragedies of combat operations in Afghanistan, bringing home to the reader how ordinary even sheer terror can become. He is obviously, and justly, proud of his work at the "Tip of the Counterinsurgency Spear." He is also obviously, and justly, frustrated at how little understanding there seems to be that the best methods of pacifying the country do not involve the application of hard power, that the distribution of used clothing and stuffed animals (an activity which earned him the nickname "Captain Carebear") can be more effective than a well-placed artillery barrage in suppressing the Taliban. His praise, and occasional criticism, of Afghans he knew and worked with, does a great deal to help the reader realize that, like us, these people want to live free and peaceful lives.

Where Tupper's work really shines, and where it most touched me, is in the descriptions of his comrades-in-arms. You can walk away feeling that you actually met people such as Ski, Vandy, Deg and a handful of others who have stood up on our behalf. We see how alive they were in the field and, for those who made it home, how troubled re-entry into society can be for people who have been kept on edge for so long, and for whom coming back to civilian life removed much of the sense in their lives. It provides an apt illustration of the long-noted conundrum of how to turn the warrior off when so much time and energy has been spent turning him on, and of the effect this has not only on the warrior but on those around him.

I would like to say more, so much more, but I find it difficult once again to maintain composure. Let me simply say that you will know much that you did not before for reading this, and you will know things that the news cannot tell you. It is, as Ken Sterns says on the jacket blurb, "Raw, direct and powerful... vitally important." Afghanistan remains the forgotten war we are currently engaged in, despite a renewed focus on operations there. In a way, success there is far more important than success in Iraq. "Greetings from Afghanistan" brings this lesson home trenchantly, profanely, humorously and sadly. It left me shaken, but also optimistic that men (and women; their absence was perhaps the most noticeable, but this may be excused for reasons which, I think, become obvious) such as Tupper serve on our behalf and bring reports to us.

This is not a dispassionate review, and I realize that. This book does not allow it.