David Kilcullens Out of the Mountains-A Disappointing Book

Book Review

I have not been a fan of General Petraeus after what I saw of his operations in Afghanistan , nor of his predecessor General Mc Chrystal , so reading David Kilcullen was not a priority.

Nevertheless I was attracted to the imaginatively chosen title of this book “ Out of the Mountains” and a nostalgic reminder of the days of Che Guevera when Urban Guerrilla was a much hated or much romantic word.

The book turned out to be a big disappointment.

Firstly I contest the title and its logic.The US did not head into the mountains in 2001 and thereafter and most US casualties in Afghanistan did not occur in the mountains but in the plains and desert of Helmand and Kandahar.

Kilcullen states on page. 7 that Taliban main force was in Eastern Afghanistan.This is a factually incorrect statement.Main Taliban force that inflicted over 60 % casualties on the US forces is based in South west Afghanistan and not eastern Afghanistan.

On page 25 he makes a fleeting or passing reference to Obama Doctrine i.e use of drones in Afghanistan but simply leaves this great faux pas of US policy without any discussion or analysis.

The word “ Drone” an important albeit much misused and ineffective US arsenal tool is not mentioned in the whole book at all.

On page 25 Kilcullen mentions importance of acting against “non state actors” but does not explain that most non state actors encountered by the USA in Afghanistan are Pakistani proxies.

US action in Afghanistan is concentrated on non state actors as the USA has failed to devise any clear strategy about dealing with sponsors of non state actors in Afghanistan , ie Pakistani state thus it keeps on beating the tail of the snake ie the Taliban proxies.

While Kilcullen mentions Pakistani advisors , in the entire narrative he thinks that Pakistani factor is not as decisive as Talibans inner dynamics which remains a weak assertion as it has no connection with hard facts of the situation.

The repeated references to the war being mainly waged in the mountains like again on page.27 are factually incorrect but Kilcullen repeats them again and again.

The authors treatment of Karachi is sketchy and incomplete.He altogether misses out MQM, Liari Gangs , Kathor gangs and the meddling of the Pakistani state as a result of which Pakistani military intelligence midwife MQM and many other organizations that destroyed Karachis peace.

Kilcullen concentrates on clichés like massive population growth but misses out more important reasons why Karachi for example became extremised and destabilized ie meddling of state intelligence agencies.

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This is a very rare and welcome addition to a very unknown part of history.

John P. Dunn as described in his Amazon Books biography “is an Assistant Professor of History at Valdosta State University, Georgia, USA. He studies military affairs in nineteenth century Egypt, Poland and China. His work has appeared in The Journal of Military History, War in History, and The Journal of Slavic Military Affairs.”