Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan

September 11 offered an obvious answer to why Afghanistan mattered, and several books have examined the interaction between the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the rise of militant Islam. Last year, Steve Coll was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Ghost Wars," a twenty-year history of America in Afghanistan. But save the exception of Taliban published by Ahmed Rashid, Afghanistan was consistently conspicuously absent from the Western booklist. When Robert Kaplan first published this book, in 1990, he meant to shed light into a war whose geopolitical importance was inversely related to its attention in the press. "Soldiers of God" is a typical Kaplan book that interweaves the author's first-hand account of the region with a deep interest in understanding its history and a solemn sense of realism that pervades the narrative. In telling his story, Mr. Kaplan begins with an introductory chapter on the war's barbarity-particularly the impact that Soviet mines had on the war and the country's landscape. He then looks at Peshawar, the Pakistani city that acted as the war's staging room, at least for the mujahedin side, before examining the tribal dynamics of the war, and specifically the Pathans' men relationship to their women. It is in chapter 3 that Mr. Kaplan makes his trip into Afghanistan and gives a first-hand account of the Khyber Pass that connects Pakistan to Afghanistan; from then on, the reader gets an intimate and intricate image of the war's first line of attack, just as the portraits of the mujahedin get enriched with more detail and precision. The greater image that emerges is how America let the Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI, run this war and how this jeopardized the subordination of American interests to Pakistan's own geopolitical priorities. Mr. Kaplan is very somber about this: "In the end, the mujahidin's willingness to suffer to a nearly unimaginable degree eventually overcame, and thus masked, the awful mistakes of American and Pakistani policy makers." The revised edition includes a new chapter, "The Lawless Frontier" which marks Kaplan's return to the region (in the spring of 2000), and which narrates the way that Pakistan promoted the Taliban as a substitute for Gulbuddin Heykmatyar's inability to consolidate his power in Afghanistan and thus serve Pakistan's interests. If there is an easy way to explain this complex dynamic between Afghans, Pakistanis and Americans, "Soldiers of God" is it. But in the end, Mr. Kaplan would shy away from any grandiose statements; "For American policy makers, there may be no reliably applicable lessons of the Afghan war except that you win some and you lose some," he writes. A sad conclusion to a war that cost 1.3 million lives.

This is an extremely well-written book that covers many asepcts of the mujahidin battle against the Soviets (and their Afghan proxies) in Afghanistan throughout the 1980's. Although Kaplan gives a disclaimer in his new forward that, "Soldiers of God is not a primer for current or future policy in Afghanistan," I disagree and think this should be at the top of the list for an easily digestable and insightful view into what it was like to be with the mujahidin then-- a view that is probably still applicable today. This was the third Kaplan book I have read. It differs from the other two (Eastward to Tartaray and Balkan Ghosts) in that it is a more focused-- both geographically and in its narrative-- and Kaplan reveals a lot more of himself, especially in candidly revealing his weaknesses in trying to keep up with the muj. He also discusses his personal views and biases about faith, and how those views evolved after observing the muj he was with exercise their beliefs and faith in a simple, noble fashion. Kaplan was lucky enough to have fallen in with a group of "good" muj-- they took care of him and earned his admiration-- he admits this bias. Even back then, however, the more fundamentalist groups were extremely hostile and the sinister designs that would culminate in the catasrophic events of 9/11 were developing. Kaplan's insights from that era are just as relevant today. Many of the same characters are still running around, and the struggle is in many ways similar-- an element of the population revolting not just against the foreign influence, but also against the Afghan government and its forces. Overall, this is an excellent book to read if you want to understand the motivations and intricacies of this conflict, which still rages today. Kaplan is honest and articulate in his assessments not only of events on the ground, but also the international community's treatment of the problem, and his own personal views and how they were formed. This is an informative, engaging, and most importantly essential read if you want or need to know about Afghanistan.

Kaplan's book should be mandatory reading for every single elected official in the Executive and Legislative branch as well as all of our military leaders. Kaplan's understanding of the forces at play in Afghanistan and Pakistan (which are inextricably linked) is second-to-none. As an Infantry Officer with 6+ months experience in Afghanistan, I can say that reading Kaplan's book gave me great insight into the enemy we are fighting and the relationship that exists between them and their Pakistani neighbors who routinely provide them safe haven outside the reach of the Coalition Forces. Chock-full of insight that few Westerners have ever been exposed to, Kaplan delivers a phenomenal account of the Mujahideen from the inside-out. I highly recommend this book.

Soldiers of God provides a good account of Afghanistan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The book may seem a little dated because Kaplan doesn't mention the Taliban, though they probably weren't that powerful when the book was published in 1990s. Soldiers of God focuses on the history of Afghanistan such its creation. It deals with the Soviet invasion of the 1980s and American involvement in that war. The different factions and ethnic groups are dealt with giving a useful background into understanding the conflict. The role of women and islam in society are also dealt with.

The title of Robert Kaplan's Soldiers of God made me pick this book up and buy it and I was not sure exactly what to expect from it. What I did not expect was a magnificent account of the mujahedeens' long battle against the Soviets, a clearer picture of the geography of Afghanistan, its relationship with Pakistan and the dark years of Soviet invasion. Kaplan's description and stories about the Mujaheedeen commanders as well as warlords and pro-Soviet leaders of Afghanistan brings the reader into a tumultuous period of the country's past. His proximity and access to some of them makes me feel like I know something about them that readers of newspapers or articles on Afghanistan don't. His trips into Afghanistan and how he crossed the tough terrain made me marvel. Anecdotes of fellow travellers, photographers, translators, and hosts of the camps where they stopped at pulled me further into this riveting book. Superb work by Kaplan, he shares with us the face of a war that many did not bother to cover.