Hopeless but Optimistic: Journeying through America's Endless War in Afghanistan

by Douglas A. Wissing

Overview

Award-winning journalist Douglas A. Wissing's poignant and eye-opening journey across insurgency-wracked Afghanistan casts an unyielding spotlight on greed, dysfunction, and predictable disaster while celebrating the everyday courage and wisdom of frontline soldiers, idealistic humanitarians, and resilient Afghans. As Wissing hauls a hundred pounds of body armor and pack across the Afghan warzone in search of the ground truth, US officials frantically spin a spurious victory narrative, American soldiers try to keep their body parts together, and Afghans try to stay positive and strain to figure out their next move after the US eventually leaves. As one technocrat confided to Wissing, "I am hopeless—but optimistic."

Wissing is everywhere in Afghanistan, sharing an impressionistic view from little white taxis coursing across one of the world's most mine-ridden places; a perilous view from outside the great walls surrounding America's largest base, sequestered Bagram Air Field; and compelling inside views from within embattled frontline combat outposts, lumbering armored gun trucks and flitting helicopters, brain trauma clinics, and Kabul's Oz-like American embassy. It's Afghan life on the streets; the culture and institutions that anneal them; the poetry that enriches them. It includes the perspectives of cynical military lifers and frightened short-timers; true believers and amoral grabbers; Americans and Afghans trying to make sense of two countries surreally contorted by war-birthed extractive commerce.

Along with a deep inquiry into the 21st-century American way of war and an unforgettable glimpse of the enduring culture and legacy of Afghanistan, Hopeless but Optimistic includes the real stuff of life: the austere grandeur of Afghanistan and its remarkable people; warzone dining, defecation, and sex; as well as the remarkable shopping opportunities for men whose job is to kill.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253022851
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	08/08/2016
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Douglas A. Wissing is an award-winning journalist and author of eight books, including Funding the Enemy: How US Taxpayers Bankroll the Taliban and Pioneer in Tibet: The Life and Perils of Dr. Albert Shelton. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CNN.com, Fox.com, Salon.com, and Time.com, among other publications.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations
Prologue
1. Landing
2. Problems
3. In/Out
4. Reify
5. Shoulders
6. Salerno
7. Retrograde
8. Better
9. Boom
10. WHAM
11. Luck
12. Shitholes
13. Road
14. Friends
15. Kandahar
16. Leatherneck
17. Sex
18. Drugs
19. Brains
20. Birds
21. Geronimo
22. Dream
23. Ship
24. Slaughter
25. System
26. Believers
27. Rumi
28. Enduring
29. Beauty
30. Sustaining
31. Challenges
32. Women
33. Dutch
34. Intermediates
35. Embassy
36. Loss
37. Optimism
Epilogue
Index

What People are Saying About This

Karl E. Meyer

This is a fine and troubling book about America's plunge into the nightmare otherwise known as Afghanistan. Wissing's concise thirty-odd chapters are like graphic flash-cards conveying the confusing mix of violence and corruption, along with bursts of decency and courage, that define this endless war. And alas! No exit is yet in sight. I particularly appreciated its account of day-to-day frustrations of US personnel who have scant contact with the ordinary Afghans they are pledged to protect. They remain locked in a bottle filled with venomous scorpions.

Andrew J. Bacevich

As with an album of closeup photographs, Douglas Wissing's concise essays cast a sharp and revealing light on their subject. Here we confront in granular detail the waste and folly that is America's war in Afghanistan.  An empire in decline does not make for a pretty picture.

Alex Berenson]]>

When historians of the future try to explain how the United States could have accomplished so little in Afghanistan despite spending so much blood and treasure, this trenchant and honest book will be a crucial source.  An important read for anyone who cares about American foreign policy in the 21st century.

Nazif Shahrani]]>

A seasoned, award-winning journalist systematically and methodically unpacks with brutal honesty the wasting of a trillion US-taxpayers' dollars by America's Deep State in withdrawal through its longest, privatized, 21st-century-war in Afghanistan. This is Wissing's most insightful and heartfelt account of his embeds with America's best and most dedicated warriors, male and female, in the most insurgency-ridden corners of Afghanistan. Hopeless but Optimistic is a well-crafted, often humorous, and candid narration of Wissing's most intimate encounters with America's worst US State Department careerists burning money, army officers spinning self-delusional victory spiels, and the highly paid development consultants re-doing the same projects over again. It is a story of America's military industrial complex–driven wars filled with moral outrage. A must-read for anyone interested in learning why America's longest war and reconstruction efforts in collaboration with its corrupt partners in Afghanistan have produced hopelessness, though they remain optimistic.

Nazif Shahrani

A seasoned, award-winning journalist systematically and methodically unpacks with brutal honesty the wasting of a trillion US-taxpayers' dollars by America's Deep State in withdrawal through its longest, privatized, 21st-century-war in Afghanistan. This is Wissing's most insightful and heartfelt account of his embeds with America's best and most dedicated warriors, male and female, in the most insurgency-ridden corners of Afghanistan. Hopeless but Optimistic is a well-crafted, often humorous, and candid narration of Wissing's most intimate encounters with America's worst US State Department careerists burning money, army officers spinning self-delusional victory spiels, and the highly paid development consultants re-doing the same projects over again. It is a story of America's military industrial complex–driven wars filled with moral outrage. A must-read for anyone interested in learning why America's longest war and reconstruction efforts in collaboration with its corrupt partners in Afghanistan have produced hopelessness, though they remain optimistic.

Peter Van Buren]]>

If I could recommend one book about Afghanistan to the next president, it'd be this one. If s/he can't learn the lessons of the failed war in Iraq from the ground truth, maybe s/he can learn them from Wissing's brilliant, funny, sad, irreverent, serious, deeply reported, hopeless—but always optimistic—book. Required reading.

Andrew J. Bacevich]]>

As with an album of closeup photographs, Douglas Wissing's concise essays cast a sharp and revealing light on their subject. Here we confront in granular detail the waste and folly that is America's war in Afghanistan.  An empire in decline does not make for a pretty picture.

Karl E. Meyer]]>

This is a fine and troubling book about America's plunge into the nightmare otherwise known as Afghanistan. Wissing's concise thirty-odd chapters are like graphic flash-cards conveying the confusing mix of violence and corruption, along with bursts of decency and courage, that define this endless war. And alas! No exit is yet in sight. I particularly appreciated its account of day-to-day frustrations of US personnel who have scant contact with the ordinary Afghans they are pledged to protect. They remain locked in a bottle filled with venomous scorpions.

Abdulkader Sinno]]>

Hopeless but Optimistic provides a fascinating ground level account of the effect of absurd and inappropriate Washington strategies on Afghans and on American soldiers. Its short hard-hitting chapters illustrate with pithy anecdotes how 'hearts and minds' and other senseless silver-bullet approaches to the war only benefitted well-connected Beltway contractors and Afghan drug traffickers and warlords, and failed to help Afghan farmers and American soldiers. Americans prefer to forget Afghanistan, but that would be a shame because this lost trillion dollar war illustrates the hubris of policies sold by both the Bush and Obama administrations. This book vividly illustrates the cost of this hubris beyond the trillion dollars wasted and the official casualties numbers.

former US Representative; former vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission and co-chairman of the Iraq St - Lee H. Hamilton

Afghanistan is one huge enigma for most Americans. Wissing's book helps us sort it out. He has repeatedly been in Afghanistan, observed everything, and reports it all in this remarkable volume. This book is the place for most of us to learn about this woebegone, but resilient land, and America's endless war.

Alex Berenson

When historians of the future try to explain how the United States could have accomplished so little in Afghanistan despite spending so much blood and treasure, this trenchant and honest book will be a crucial source.  An important read for anyone who cares about American foreign policy in the 21st century.

Peter Van Buren

If I could recommend one book about Afghanistan to the next president, it'd be this one. If s/he can't learn the lessons of the failed war in Iraq from the ground truth, maybe s/he can learn them from Wissing's brilliant, funny, sad, irreverent, serious, deeply reported, hopeless—but always optimistic—book. Required reading.

Abdulkader Sinno

Hopeless but Optimistic provides a fascinating ground level account of the effect of absurd and inappropriate Washington strategies on Afghans and on American soldiers. Its short hard-hitting chapters illustrate with pithy anecdotes how 'hearts and minds' and other senseless silver-bullet approaches to the war only benefitted well-connected Beltway contractors and Afghan drug traffickers and warlords, and failed to help Afghan farmers and American soldiers. Americans prefer to forget Afghanistan, but that would be a shame because this lost trillion dollar war illustrates the hubris of policies sold by both the Bush and Obama administrations. This book vividly illustrates the cost of this hubris beyond the trillion dollars wasted and the official casualties numbers.

Editorial Reviews

"A scathing dispatch from an embedded journalist in Afghanistan. . . . Pungent, embittered, eye-opening observations of a conflict involving lessons still unlearned."—Kirkus Reviews

"One of the state's most intrepid combat reporters, Wissing went to Afghanistan for a third time in 2013, expecting to watch the war wind down. Instead, he found a place still rife with conflict. . . . [Wissing] gives readers a view of both the perils and the many examples of money being wasted in a country where even something as seemingly benign as digging wells has devastating consequences."—Indianapolis Monthly

"It's that kind of book. It reminds us of Peter Van Buren's We Meant Well book on Iraq."—Diplopundit

"This is not a book that directly engages the theories and conceptions of twenty-first-century US military intervention, in its full-spectrum approach from counterinsurgency to development, in numerous working papers, articles, and monographs. It does not invoke 'hard power,' 'soft power,' or 'smart power.' But in this case, that is an asset. Sometimes the most effective response to all the proposals of what could or should be is the observation of what is."—H-Diplo

"Wissing's moving and exceptionally well-written account makes sad reading . . . The book becomes a heart-breaking travelogue, accompanied by Wissing's own photos. . . . [but] however corrupt and misguided the war, however much damage it has done, Wissing says, 'I met American after American determined to make the world a better place.'"—Bloom Magazine

"On page after page, as Wissing travels around the country, we are told how U.S. operatives continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over, leaving a trail of unfinished/sabotaged projects that have no value to the people of Afghanistan."—OpEd News

"As with an album of closeup photographs, Douglas Wissing's concise essays cast a sharp and revealing light on their subject. Here we confront in granular detail the waste and folly that is America's war in Afghanistan.  An empire in decline does not make for a pretty picture."—Andrew J. Bacevich, author of America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History

"When historians of the future try to explain how the United States could have accomplished so little in Afghanistan despite spending so much blood and treasure, this trenchant and honest book will be a crucial source.  An important read for anyone who cares about American foreign policy in the 21st century."—Alex Berenson, author of The Wolves (A John Wells Novel)

"A seasoned, award-winning journalist systematically and methodically unpacks with brutal honesty the wasting of a trillion US-taxpayers' dollars by America's Deep State in withdrawal through its longest, privatized, 21st-century-war in Afghanistan. This is Wissing's most insightful and heartfelt account of his embeds with America's best and most dedicated warriors, male and female, in the most insurgency-ridden corners of Afghanistan. Hopeless but Optimistic is a well-crafted, often humorous, and candid narration of Wissing's most intimate encounters with America's worst US State Department careerists burning money, army officers spinning self-delusional victory spiels, and the highly paid development consultants re-doing the same projects over again. It is a story of America's military industrial complex–driven wars filled with moral outrage. A must-read for anyone interested in learning why America's longest war and reconstruction efforts in collaboration with its corrupt partners in Afghanistan have produced hopelessness, though they remain optimistic."—Nazif Shahrani, author of The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War

"This is a fine and troubling book about America's plunge into the nightmare otherwise known as Afghanistan. Wissing's concise thirty-odd chapters are like graphic flash-cards conveying the confusing mix of violence and corruption, along with bursts of decency and courage, that define this endless war. And alas! No exit is yet in sight. I particularly appreciated its account of day-to-day frustrations of US personnel who have scant contact with the ordinary Afghans they are pledged to protect. They remain locked in a bottle filled with venomous scorpions."—Karl E. Meyer, former New York Times and Washington Post editorial board member, and co-author of Tournament of Sha

"Afghanistan is one huge enigma for most Americans. Wissing's book helps us sort it out. He has repeatedly been in Afghanistan, observed everything, and reports it all in this remarkable volume. This book is the place for most of us to learn about this woebegone, but resilient land, and America's endless war."—Lee H. Hamilton, former US Representative; former vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission and co-chairman of the Iraq St

"If I could recommend one book about Afghanistan to the next president, it'd be this one. If s/he can't learn the lessons of the failed war in Iraq from the ground truth, maybe s/he can learn them from Wissing's brilliant, funny, sad, irreverent, serious, deeply reported, hopeless—but always optimistic—book. Required reading."—Peter Van Buren, former US State Department foreign service officer and author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose th

"Hopeless but Optimistic provides a fascinating ground level account of the effect of absurd and inappropriate Washington strategies on Afghans and on American soldiers. Its short hard-hitting chapters illustrate with pithy anecdotes how 'hearts and minds' and other senseless silver-bullet approaches to the war only benefitted well-connected Beltway contractors and Afghan drug traffickers and warlords, and failed to help Afghan farmers and American soldiers. Americans prefer to forget Afghanistan, but that would be a shame because this lost trillion dollar war illustrates the hubris of policies sold by both the Bush and Obama administrations. This book vividly illustrates the cost of this hubris beyond the trillion dollars wasted and the official casualties numbers."—Abdulkader Sinno, author of Organizations at War in Afghanistan & Beyond and editor of Muslims in Western Politics

From the Publisher

It's that kind of book. It reminds us of Peter Van Buren's We Meant Well book on Iraq.

Diplopundit

One of the state's most intrepid combat reporters, Wissing went to Afghanistan for a third time in 2013, expecting to watch the war wind down. Instead, he found a place still rife with conflict. . . . [Wissing] gives readers a view of both the perils and the many examples of money being wasted in a country where even something as seemingly benign as digging wells has devastating consequences.

Indianapolis Monthly

This is not a book that directly engages the theories and conceptions of twenty-first-century US military intervention, in its full-spectrum approach from counterinsurgency to development, in numerous working papers, articles, and monographs. It does not invoke 'hard power,' 'soft power,' or 'smart power.' But in this case, that is an asset. Sometimes the most effective response to all the proposals of what could or should be is the observation of what is.

H-Diplo

On page after page, as Wissing travels around the country, we are told how U.S. operatives continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over, leaving a trail of unfinished/sabotaged projects that have no value to the people of Afghanistan.

OpEd News

Wissing's moving and exceptionally well-written account makes sad reading . . . The book becomes a heart-breaking travelogue, accompanied by Wissing's own photos. . . . [but] however corrupt and misguided the war, however much damage it has done, Wissing says, 'I met American after American determined to make the world a better place.'

Bloom Magazine

2016-05-10
A scathing dispatch from an embedded journalist in Afghanistan.Demoralization, staggering waste, and corruption: this is the norm in Afghanistan as U.S. troops move into full retrograde (meaning retreat) and other foreign entities like NATO jump ship out of a keen sense of their own futile mission. In this episodic chronicle spanning some months in 2013, when he embedded a third time with U.S. troops there, journalist Wissing (IN Writing: Uncovering the Unexpected Hoosier State, 2016, etc.) describes how the counterinsurgency was almost too painful to talk about among an occupying army that saw its efficacy draining by the minute. From the trillions of U.S. dollars spent in Afghanistan winning the hearts and minds, the author rightly wonders about what has been gained. Journeying from the capital's "Kabubble," a sleek, ersatz boomtown, to the many half-finished construction projects ("megalomaniac wet dreams") begun with the fuel of dollars in the days of post-invasion to the numerous hermetically sealed, security-tight army bases set in the middle of dusty, mountainous desert terrain of the southern provinces neighboring Pakistan, the big question remains: what are the Afghans going to do when the Americans leave? Due to the author's previous critical writing about America's "endless war" in Afghanistan, Wissing was barely tolerated by military officials, and he was even kept away from speaking with the fresh Marines, who were still excited about the prospect of reconciling their sense of duty there. However, as the U.S. government decreased the number of troops, the highly paid contractors increased, and no one knew the official count. In his short, punchy, poignant chapters, the author looks at the on-the-ground conditions for the hapless soldiers in terms of food, elimination, sex, PTSD, and the treatment of brain injury, among other topics. He concludes, as have many veterans there working for agricultural development and other aid projects, that in the end, "the Afghan way is the best way." Pungent, embittered, eye-opening observations of a conflict involving lessons still unlearned.

Kirkus Reviews