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Winning Paktika Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan Robert S Anders 9781481710022 Books

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Winning Paktika Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan Robert S Anders 9781481710022 Books

I must admit to being deeply impressed with Robert Anders' account of his time as a platoon leader in Company B, 2d Battalion, 27th Infantry in Afghanistan during the 2004 - 2005 timeframe. His detailed memories begin prior to deployment to OrgunE where 2-27th IN replaced elements of 10th Mountain Division in April 2004. His account includes a foreward, twelve chapters in the main body (one devoted to each month of his deployment) and an epilogue - topping out at 501 pages all told. In addition to considerable literary skill, Robert Anders possesses an exceptionally keen eye for personalities, irony, and events. For those seeking a thrill a minute account like Jake Tappers' "The Outpost" - this book is not for you. Relatively speaking, the Taliban was keeping a somewhat low profile, in comparison to several yeras later, when Anders served in Afghanistan. This book does offer valuable insights into the myriad of difficult decisions, leadership challenges, and cultural obstacles that the author navigated during his deployment. In my humble opinion, it offers as much to prospective infantry officers as Charles B. MacDonald's WW2 account "Company Commander" or James R. McDonough's tale of Vietnam entitled "Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat." This is truly a once in a lifetime book that considerably raises the bar for future personal memoirs by U.S. servicemembers who have served in Afghanistan.


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Winning Paktika Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan Robert S Anders 9781481710022 Books Reviews

A clear and insightful view of a military campaign unlike any I have ever heard or read about. From someone with a close friend who served in Paktika, this book goes into detail which casual conversation cannot convey. Even if you think you knew what the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan was like, this book will show you that you probably didn't. Equal parts heart and strength, I cannot recommend this book enough!
Winning Paktika Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan by former Army officer Robert S. Anders is not just another war memoir. It is an uncommon first-person account of the full spectrum of military leadership and execution during counterinsurgency operations. It is a thoroughly honest narrative, riveting but not sensational, and one that describes a unique perspective from the nation’s recent war in Afghanistan. Winning Paktika reads like the personal reflections of a young man trying to balance the demands of a challenging mission with the love and admiration he clearly feels toward the soldiers he is leading, those who will do the heavy lifting to accomplish their combined goals.

“We can win the war without killing a single person,” Anders writes to begin his prologue. The quote is attributed to Lieutenant Colonel Piatt, the battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, with whom Anders and his platoon are about to deploy. Anders describes his surprise at his commander’s “novel” notion, but the simple quote expresses the central tension of this powerful book.

This tension is alive from the beginning of the book, expressed clearly within the title Anders chooses to accompany his story. Infantrymen, like those of the Wolfhound Battalion, are trained to win through direct, decisive, and violent engagement with the enemy, but in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, treacherous terrain on the Pakistani border, the war would be much more about relationships, diminishing local support for the enemy, and building communities around hope and progress. Winning by countering the insurgents required tactical skill, to be sure, but it also required tactical-level soldiers and leaders to show extraordinary strategic and political ingenuity in their daily, local interactions. If they could do this, then perhaps their commander was correct and they truly could emerge victorious.

The tension carries throughout the book, beginning as Anders’ platoon prepares to deploy in 2004 during the earliest stages of the establishment of the new Afghan Government and the beginning of the counterinsurgency campaign in the same country. Anders describes the emotions and thoughts he experiences as a young man saying goodbye to his family and to the families of his men, as well as the pride he felt when he realized that they were all preparing to deploy and do what their country asked of them. In this tension, they were somewhere between the training they knew and the missions they did not, allowing necessity and reality to overcome the thoughts, feelings, fears, and pride that they would leave behind when they set off.

When the author and his men gain their feet in Afghanistan, they find themselves in the middle of a mission close to what their commander had expressed to them in the opening quote of the book. They had challenging tactical missions like those they had trained for, but there was also so much more to winning their fight. To do so, he and his men would have to exhibit both toughness and compassion in order to win, two characteristics that he describes as deeply ingrained within the culture and history of the Wolfhound Battalion.

“It didn’t take long for me to realize that, while I was the ranking officer at the Sand Castle, I was acting ostensibly as the US Ambassador to Sharana and the Paktika Provincial Headquarters,” Anders writes early in the deployment story. In both of these positions he would have to engage effectively with both his military counterparts, and his political counterpart, namely Provincial Governor Mangel, in order to defeat the enemy where possible and necessary and also to help legitimize the new government by ensuring stability and security in the troubled region. The tasks that these dual missions required were largely carried out at the platoon level all across the country, and as incredible as it may seem, were very often deftly handled by young soldiers and leaders like Anders and his men.

Just as important as his accounts of his tactical and political missions, though, are the stories that Anders relates about his men and his leadership. He tells personal stories about the longing he felt for those back home; he tells of the fear that effected everyone whether they mentioned it or not; he describes exchanges with his men about their lives, their comical choices in music, their personal, embarrassing moments, and the other things that all soldiers tend to discuss when deployed together anywhere, and for any length of time; and he recounts his time with his unit’s Afghan interpreter, Whakil, who was clearly an important aspect of both of their missions. In continuing the honesty of his approach, Anders also expresses frustration with his command’s decisions, a characteristic that is not uncommon for leaders at any level of military organizations, but he is quick to reiterate his honest admiration and respect for his leaders, especially Lieutenant Colonel Piatt.

Anders chooses to tell his story through a series of events, probably not unlike the detailed personal notes he drew from in writing this book, allowing the reader to appreciate his personal reflections and subsequent growth as a person and as a leader during the time of the deployment. Similarly, he chooses to include dialog pulled from conversations with his men, their families, their leaders, the Afghan people they interact with regularly, and at times in his own head. The result of both stylistic choices allow for an authentic, gritty, and personal account of the war as it played out and not necessarily as it might have been remembered later through nostalgia, frustration, or otherwise.

Anders’ story in Winning Paktika is one of a platoon leader who is smart, talented, energetic, and compassionate, and one who is also humble enough to reflect on the ways that he can improve himself and his platoon’s chances of victory and survival. In the counterinsurgencies led on today’s battlefields, one cannot help but think that Anders is precisely the kind of leader who should be leading the nation’s soldiers in this confusing and complex military, political, and cultural terrain. His story will allow readers to begin to understand what is at stake, and how people like Anders and his men worked tirelessly through combat and relationships to win in the Paktika Province.
Robert Anders has crafted a captivating, detailed account of his infantry platoon’s operations in Afghanistan. This is not a traditional tale of Army combat. Anders thoroughly develops the major players in Paktika province and brings the reader along on his yearlong journey to figure out how to win the “hearts and minds” of the local population, something that was not taught in his traditional infantry training.

Each entry is a short chapter that stands on its own, yet fits into the bigger picture. There are interesting bits of history, humor, and nature that give the story added depth. It is written without overuse of Army acronyms and slang which means you don’t have to be a former soldier to understand what is happening. I couldn’t put it down.
Having been to Afghanistan as an enlisted Specialist I found Anders' book to be an amazing perpective from an officer who has a clear grasp of what was necessary for progress in what looked at times to be such a regressive country. What 2-27 did in it's 12 months in Paktika province seems to be vastly different than what most other units have done in either war. The Wolfhounds lived up to their legacy while deployed in support of OEF and Rob Anders paints a beautiful picture of not only what his platoon did, but of what every platoon thoughout 2-27 did. While his experience was not devoid of action, Anders' understood the need for restraint and the need for strong relationships in his harrowing attempts at Winning Paktika.
I must admit to being deeply impressed with Robert Anders' account of his time as a platoon leader in Company B, 2d Battalion, 27th Infantry in Afghanistan during the 2004 - 2005 timeframe. His detailed memories begin prior to deployment to OrgunE where 2-27th IN replaced elements of 10th Mountain Division in April 2004. His account includes a foreward, twelve chapters in the main body (one devoted to each month of his deployment) and an epilogue - topping out at 501 pages all told. In addition to considerable literary skill, Robert Anders possesses an exceptionally keen eye for personalities, irony, and events. For those seeking a thrill a minute account like Jake Tappers' "The Outpost" - this book is not for you. Relatively speaking, the Taliban was keeping a somewhat low profile, in comparison to several yeras later, when Anders served in Afghanistan. This book does offer valuable insights into the myriad of difficult decisions, leadership challenges, and cultural obstacles that the author navigated during his deployment. In my humble opinion, it offers as much to prospective infantry officers as Charles B. MacDonald's WW2 account "Company Commander" or James R. McDonough's tale of Vietnam entitled "Platoon Leader A Memoir of Command in Combat." This is truly a once in a lifetime book that considerably raises the bar for future personal memoirs by U.S. servicemembers who have served in Afghanistan.