The period of time immediately following September 11, 2001 – for Americans at least – feels now like a blur. It’s not that media reports were necessarily unclear, nor was the swift reaction of the Bush Administration to the attacks. But previously unknown organizations, (Al-Qaeda, the Taliban), people (Bin Laden, Mullah Omar), and places, (Kabul, Kandahar), were bandied about the airwaves with a frequency that demanded at least feigned familiarity.
The confusion of those early months soon faded as it became clear who was the “real enemy, (Saddam Hussein) and I think few of my fellow Americans tried or wanted to understand what happened in the final months of 2001.
Flagrant disregard for the US Constitution aside, the world may remember that on October 7, America launched “Operation Enduring Freedom. By December, the Taliban had largely relinquished control due to Afghani rebellion and American support. However, it is the hitherto obscure actions of the American military between September and December that bestselling author and award-winning journalist Eric Blehm recounts in his new book “The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan.
The efforts of Special Forces team ODA 574 to assist Hamid Karzai lead a rebellion in the Taliban stronghold of southern Afghanistan receive perhaps less attention than they otherwise would, in light of Karzai’s relative fecklessness at “forging a new Afghanistan.
Yet Blehm’s story works hard to assert itself as the timeless tale of a small band of warriors, vastly outnumbered, succeeding against impossible odds. This scenario has drawn audiences since before the Greeks beat the Persians at Thermopylae. And Blehm’s work will attract an audience, particularly among an American public hungry for military success and hazy about foreign-sounding names.
Even for those aware of Karzai’s alleged corruption and election thievery, the man portrayed here as a “visionary idealist cannot be sullied by politics. The author establishes Karzai’s nobility in the prologue with an anecdote from Blehm’s interview with the Afghan president in 2008. Blehm shows Karzai a photo of ODA 574 and asks “Do you remember the date they died?
“Of course [Karzai answers], “How could I forget?
From there, Blehm creates a world of good and bad guys to rival Tolkien’s. Names of chapters include “Death on the Horizon and “Madness, while sections of text are separated by tiny images of swords. The first chapter, titled “A Most Dangerous Mission, opens with two figures in a starlit field: the wise leader and the brave warrior in consultation.
“Tomorrow is the night.
“…The signal fires will be lit as planned.
“Your men are ready?
“They are.
Not all the dialogue is so stilted. In fact, Blehm often includes banter between the American servicemen that both entertains and begs the question of just how much artistic license he has taken. However, with the characters of Karzai and Amerine, captain and commander of ODA 574, Blehm is at pains to depict only dignity and intelligence. Amerine is so idolized that I assumed he must have been among those that Karzai pointed to as having died in Afghanistan. (Sorry to spoil this, but he’s not.)
When not evoking a battle for Middle Earth, Blehm references hallowed conflicts in American history. When helicopters first drop ODA 574 in Afghanistan, Blehm points out that the signal fires used to indicate the landing site is “the same ‘all clear’ signal that the Allied pilots had often relied upon when inserting their Jedburgh teams into Nazi-occupied France. To some extent, this is not Blehm’s contrivance but the mentality of the US military. The area the Green Berets plan to defend against the Taliban at Shawali Kowt they dub “The Alamo.
The logistics of fighting begin to read like other classics of contemporary military non-fiction, such as Mark Bowden’s “Black Hawk Down. Hollywood may have to wait for US forces to actually leave Afghanistan and US involvement there to take on a rosier tint, but don’t be surprised if “The Only comes to a theater near you. If you live in the USA, that is.
Blehm understandably portrays the Americans as “good, particularly in contrast to the Afghanis. Even those Afghanis fighting to overthrow the Taliban are portrayed as neither brave nor honest, when they are described at all; Karzai and tribal leader Bari Gul providing two exceptions.
The book is intended for Americans, who would do well to read it, if only to remind themselves what happened in the post 9/11 fog, namely, a lot of bumbling. Early indications that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld represented more of a liability than an asset in America’s War on Terror become clear through anecdotes such as how during a press briefing on November 6, he let slip the information that Karzai had left Afghanistan for Pakistan at a time when Karzai most needed to demonstrate strength to the Taliban and reliability to his potential rebels. The historic tension between the military and the CIA also snarls the operation. The unpreparedness of the US military to engage in Afghanistan, for violence or development, has yet to be addressed, nine years later.
The cultural differences – references to Afghan Standard Time and taking breaks in operations for prayer – provide almost comic relief. As a piece of writing, Blehm elegantly combines bits of comedy with plenty of action and highly researched logistical details; if you like military pieces you’ll enjoy a pleasurable read.
But the subject remains too topical. Even for an American audience not overly sensitive to allegations of Orientalism, the fact that soldiers are still being killed there makes the book’s title ring hollow. The final ironic injustice, the two deaths and horrific injuries suffered by ODA 574 as a result of friendly fire makes the entire work feel almost farcical.
However, similar to how the American military’s foibles in Somalia ultimately yielded a best-selling book and blockbuster, the book has all the elements it needs for consumption. Sit back, relax, and forget the lives that have been destroyed, both in Afghanistan and the US. Or just comfort yourself that they died for “The Only Thing Worth Dying For. Which is what, again?
The Only Thing Worth Dying For: How Eleven Green Berets Forged a New Afghanistan By Eric BlehmHarperAvailable now in bookstores across the US and Europe.
