The Afghan Campaign

With "The Afghan Campaign", Steven Pressfield has succeeded in extending Alexander the Great's conquests beyond the golden man himself and into the minds of the men who fought for him. The book is not so much about the tactics of war as it is about the grittiness and harsh decisions that must be born by the soldiers who fight the war. Pressfield's characters are not prepared for the vulgarity and madness demanded by war and so rationalize their descents toward ruthlessness step by step in order to maintain their sanity: they make liaisons and accommodations with their foe, looking the other way at the obvious contradictions they face. Brilliant tactics work brilliantly in pitched battle, but in the face of an entrenched guerilla resistance, colorful battlefield heroism must yield to cold ruthlessness and rage. Some reviewers have commented that there is an excess of moralizing in this book; that it is being used to highlight the conflict going on in Afghanistan today. I disagree. In 300+ B.C.E., rationality and logic were long established in Greece, becoming the defining character of Western thought. This thought collided with the East then as it does now. Alexander struggled against the guerilla tactics of the various Afghan tribes, had to make ruthless war on the native population in order to subdue them, and then make accommodations to hold them reasonably passive. The present Afghan conflict originated and has proceeded much differently. The reader does not have to be knowledgeable of Alexander the Great or ancient history in order to enjoy this book. "The Afghan Campaign" is simply a good story, fast-paced and well-written, with interesting characters who are forced to recognize that war is hell and then deal with this realization as best they can.

Though Pressfield draws many intriguing and insightful connections from Alexander's Afghan war to conflicts in the region at present, the parallels are not what makes the book the masterpiece it is. Indeed, it is merely a patch in the great mosaic he has created for the reader; one must not overlook the other outstanding qualities inherent in the characters and the myriad emotions and trials they go through. For the book is about many things. It is that ageless story of an innocent transformed into a heartless instrument of war, of forbidden love, and of friendship bolstered by blood. Romance, war, horror, and tragedy. The reader will find all of these in "The Afghan Campaign." The book follows a young Macedonian youth named Matthias, who enlists as a mercenary in Alexander's army as it leaves the glories and supreme wealth of Persia. Matthias and his lifelong friend, Lucas, are eager to join up with relatives already in service and to partake in the triumphs of conquest. Yet, in Afghanistan, the foe will not fight a conventional battle. Using guerilla tactics and unspeakable acts of torture, the various tribes of the region, under the command of Spitamenes (who manages to outwit even Alexander), lure the undefeated army into a hellish conflict. Falling in with a group of hardened veterans (each one a memorable and intriguing character), Matthias and Lucas struggle to stay alive, safeguard their friends, and salvage what little bit of humanity they can out of a war where massacre and apathy are the norm. The best attribute of the book is the sense of realism. Pressfield tosses you a half-pike and sends you into the unforgiving mountains of tribal Afghanistan. Not one detail, however unthinkable or disgusting, is left out, giving the reader a true idea of what war, in any time period, is like. You feel the grit and taste the blood. From the nausea of slashing the throat of a bound, pleading, and possibly innocent captive to the stench of a battlefield covered in horse excrement, the book will, in effect, make the reader a witness to war. Pressfield has obviously taken ample time to thoroughly research all pertaining subject matters. For those who have read a Pressfield book before, there is no reason you should waste time reading this review. The author has served up another classic akin to Gates of Fire. For others, I cannot even put down on paper the emotions I experienced whilst reading this brilliant piece of historical fiction. Whether you are looking for a great, complex, and informative read or want to learn more about the problems going on in the Middle East now and throughout history, this is your book.

In 1981's "Excalibur," director John Boorman warns us through Merlin: "For it is the doom of men that they forget." Not so Steven Pressfield, who repeatedly holds up the past as a mirror to our present--and never more devastatingly than in his latest and most brilliant novel, "The Afghan Campaign." Matthias, a young Greek seeking glory and opportunity, signs up with the army of Alexander the Great. But the Persian Empire has fallen, and the days of conventional, set-piece battles where everyone can instantly tell friend from foe are over. Alexander next plans to conquer India, but first he must pacify its gateway--Afghanistan. It is here, for the first time, that the Macedonians meet an enemy unlike any other. "Here the foe does not meet us in pitched battle," warns Alexander. "Even when we defeat him, he will no accept our dominion. He comes back again and again. He hates us with a passion whose depth is exceeded only by his patience and his capacity for suffering." Matthias learns this early. In his first raid on an Afghan village, he's ordered to execute a helpless prisoner. When he refuses, he's brutalized until he strikes out with his sword--and then botches the job. But, soon, exposed to an unending series of atrocities--committed by himself and his comrades, as well as the enemy--he finds himself transformed. It is not a transformation he expected--or relishes. He agonizes over the gap between the ideals he meant to embrace when he became a soldier--and the brutalities that have drained him of everything but a grim determination to survive at any cost. Pressfield, a former Marine himself, repeatedly contrasts how noncombatants see war as a kind of "glorious" child's-play with how those who must fight it actually experience it. He creates an extraordinary exchange between Costas, an ancient-world version of a CNN war correspondent, and Lucas, a soldier whose morality is outraged at how Costas and his ilk routinely prettify the indescribable. It's a scene that could be lifted (though it isn't) straight from "Full Metal Jacket," where an editor for "Stars and Stripes" orders his correspondents to play up the upcoming visit of Ann-Margaret, while ignoring stories on American and South Vietnamese blunders and defeats. And we know the truth of this exchange immediately. For we know there are doubtless brutalities inflicted by our troops on the enemy--and atrocities inflicted by the enemy upon our soldiers--that never make the headlines, let alone the TV cameras. We know, though we don't wish to admit, that, decades from now, thousands of these men will carry horrific memories to their graves. These memories will remain sealed from public view, allowing their fellow but unblooded Americans to sleep peacefully, unaware of the price that others have paid on their behalf. Like the Macedonians (who call themselves "Macks"), our own soldiers find themselves serving in an all-but-forgotten land among a populace whose values c

Steven Pressfield transports readers to another time and place like no author I've read since James Clavell's Shogun. Having read each of his previous novels, I've been anxiously waiting for "The Afghan Campaign." It's exceeded my every expectation. He puts flesh and bone on the historical skeleton of Alexander's campaigns, then fills the veins with blood. If you want to understand why Afghanistan became a graveyard for the Soviet army, or gain a whole new level of sympathy and respect for American troops serving there now, read this book. And if you're a writer or a would-be writer, watch how this master of the craft makes a foreign landscape become so real that you can almost remember having been there yourself. One warning: if you do pick up "The Afghan Campaign,: you might also want to get some Visine, because once you start reading, it's probably going to be the middle of the night before you finally put it down.