War Comes to Garmser
Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier
For sale in CIS only!
War in Afghanistan will never be understood without getting to grips with the small places – the provinces, districts, and villages – where most of the fighting occurred, away from the cities, in hundreds of hamlets, valleys, and farms amid a vast landscape. Those small places and their people were the frontlines, and it is only there that we can truly find answers to the questions that lay at the heart of the war: why people supported the Taliban, whether intervention brought peace, whether a better outcome was ever possible. Garmser is a small place that has seen much violence; a single district within one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. Its 150,000 people inhabit a fertile strip along the Helmand River no more than 6 miles wide and 45 miles long. Carter Malkasian spent years in Garmser district as the political officer for the US Department of State. He tells the history of thirty years of war, from 1979 to 2012, explaining how the Taliban movement formed in Garmser; how, after being routed in 2001, they re- turned stronger than ever in 2006; and how Afghans, British, and Americans fought with them between 2006 and 2012. He describes the lives of Afghans who endured and tried to build some kind of order out of war. While Americans and British came and went, they carried on, year after year, inhabitants of a small place.
About the Author
Carter Malkasian spent nearly two years in Garmser district as the political office working for the US Department of State. A Pashto speaker, he lived in a Marine outpost but spent most of his time with Afghans, often riding, eating, and sleeping with them. He has interviewed hundreds of Afghans about war, their district, and its history, including forty or so Taliban.
