Review: A picture of the American mind more than of the Afghan
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 7, 2014
I tried to make allowances for the fact some information could not be published due to classification guidance.  It didn't help a whole lot.I found interesting first-person anecdotes and bits of humanity amongst the assumptions that Americans are always right, that uneducated means stupid, that inbreeding always causes a lack of acumen, and that tribal culture is not as valuable as American.  What I failed to find was an understanding of a tribal lifestyle, or any attempt to understand a culture where liberty is not celebrated with the same enthusiasm Americans find.  I cannot understand the choice to eschew liberty for ease, or clan, or family, or whatever, but I can understand there are those who do.  Dunham appears not to realize there are other priorities among other people and cultures.  American expansionism was very much in evidence.I was flabbergasted at Dunham's assumption she could spot bad training, as opposed to individual attempts, even though I understand some of the context may have been omitted "for security".  I was also underwhelmed at the inability of Dunham, and perhaps her compatriots, to see Afghans as individuals, rather than as a set of behaviors.  I would expect more of an American counterintelligence specialist.