Review: Not Junger's War, but certainly not peace
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 1, 2011
I think that in this Kindle Single, Lost in Kandahar by Alex Berenson, I gleaned enough from it to make it worth reading.  As the soldiers point out, there was not that much action when Berenson was embedded with troops in Afghanistan, and that if he had been there a couple of months earlier, he might have seen more.  Before I read this, I had no idea what the Kandahar Air Field is like and how many people occupy it.  The little part on military organization was helpful to me since it's information I've heard before, but didn't remember.Berenson's comments that he came away with about the Afghan soldiers was quite interesting in light of what we hear on the news.  I tend to believe the ones who are there rather than what I read or hear in news reports.  Those who reviewed this Single who have been deployed to the area seem to feel that it's a fairly accurate picture. I'll take their word for it.The IED incident was very informative and enforced how very dangerous it is to travel through this country on foot or in vehicles for our military and all military personnel who serve there. Unless we've been there and have served first-hand, we have no idea what it's like.I agree with the decision made in the case of the young girl who came to the base for help in facing an arranged marriage at such a young age.  I think the military's decision not to get involved in a family's dispute and cultural matter was the right thing to do, because we are not there for that purpose.  It shouldn't be our job to impose our morals and our cultural values on a country that we are occupying.  As we are told in the tale of this girl, they never even found out her name.  They did the best they could, but not every family problem can be solved by the U.S. military in Afghanistan or elsewhere.Although not the quality of the excellent book WAR by Sebastian Junger, or the details packed into TALIBAN by Ahmed Rashid, this Single gives just enough information to whet the appetite to read more about the war, our troops' time there and the ever fascinating country and people of Afghanistan.