FOB MORALES-FRAZIER — … that Ralph Peters has never been to Afghanistan, or met any Afghans, or ever learned anything at all about Afghanistan. He might have, but that piece tells me he never has. That he brags about being a good intel analyst—with a syndicated column, no less, like ALL all-source guys—is even siller. Even if he had bothered to address his subject with the slightest shred of honesty, like a good intel analyst, he couldn’t write about Afghanistan like that. I daresay Kings of War is being far too kind toward him: he has graduated from mere “primordialist” or “racist” to “actual MegaDouche.”
As one example of what I mean, I spent the morning at the District Center in Tagab District of Kapisa Province (I’ll have a more substantive account of this, and probably my trip to Kapisa, with pictures, once I’m not on a lame connection). I met the sub-governor, the NDS chief, but most importantly I got to talk to a bunch of guys who weren’t allowed into the shura going on. They were wonderful! A lot could not understand why I had a beard if I was unmarried, and could not understand that I was unmarried at 27. “I’ve had five kids already,” one man in his thirties beamed at me. I congratulated him, and he asked me if I planned to get started soon.
“Uhh, yeah,” I said back and giggled a bit. They all laughed, too. As our conversation unfolded—and this goes for my meeting with the NDS chief as well—they have the same concerns: water, educaiton, and security. None of them have enough of it. Many think because we’re Americans, we have money and can just fund it; obviously, things are a lot more complicated than that (the Marine Embedded Training Team, or ETTs, who are impressively committed to their rather thankless mission, told a neat story I hope to get permission to relay here), both with money and with culture.
But “alien?” Far from it. Pashtuns are among the more democratic people I’ve studied, and also among the more individualist. They value dignity and honor, and the sancitity of their women, and revenging wrongs—such alien concepts that we have never make movies or written epic novels about these struggles.
That’s what I find so frustrating about people like Actual MegaDouche Ralph Peters. He’s from the Ripley school of “analysis.” I’m sure it’s very satisfying, but it’s also the thinking of a child. A damned racist asshole child, at that.
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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{ 9 comments }
I would also call anyone who threw acid on anyone else a alien MF. That being said Ralph Peters indeed a MegaDouch and also happens to write for the NY Post, a not particular credible source.
So Kyrgyzstan threatens to close the US base, there are rumors that the US might re-open a base in Uzbekistan, and still no mention on this blog? I remember when this website was about Central Asia, not just Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s a shame because everyone so many people and blogs talk about Afghanistan, so this website now seems to pretty much spend all its time rehashing other people’s opinions.
But previously this website carved out a good niche for itself as a source for Soviet Central Asian new and politics, which was really interesting because there’s a dearth of information out there on that region.
Was wondering how long it would take before you clubbed someone over the head because he “has not been to Afghanistan.” Do we really need to go back through old Registan posts to find your justifications for blogging about Afghanistan long before you had been there? Reverend “Never been to Afghanistan” Doctor is here to keep you honest.
Still, I will skip the Peters article and trust your call that he’s a douche.
You’re in my old neck of the woods! That district center was still under construction when I was there. When I first got there construction was halted because the area was under Taliban control and nobody would work on it because they were afraid. The ANP I was working with (as the ANP version of an ETT) were working out of the khalat next to the T-55 hulk near the district center.
I worked out of there for 5 days in August of ’07 when Firebase Kutschbach was just beginning to be laid out. Do they still have the Police Chief with fur growing on the palm of his hand from the skin graft they did when we medevac’d him after he was wounded while he was with us?
Email me at the addy on the comment form, please. I’d love for you to say hi to someone for me; I think he’s still the chief in Nijrab, just north of Tag Ab.
Wow… this is like an electronic old home week.
Brian, I’m working on it. I’ve had an extremely busy couple of days with work and home issues.
Here’s an issue for me: There’s not as much interesting for me to say about Central Asia because I’ve got lots to take care of in my offline life, and because there is far less reportage from there nowadays. As much as I would like to be blogging all the time, work and home are more rewarding. And, less fodder–>less blogging.
You are more than welcome to post here Brian. You have a contributor account.
Yeah, so I’m in Afghanistan right now? I see the news, and I have my thoughts on Manas (especially considering how I was there like two weeks ago), but I’ve been kinda busy just trying to track things here. Peters made for a nice segue into some threads I’m developing about this place… little more than a trope on my part (and making fun of him is an old past time of mine).
I think Dan Nexon covered the issue quite well. This is not something that having insider knowledge of Central Asian politics will tell you too much about, I don’t think. And since we’re all busy with work and deployments, MAYBE step up and fill in the gap if you don’t like it. We can’t all be paid bloggers or IR professors with more free time than work.
And, “Reverend Doctor” (if that is indeed your REAL name), a closer reading will reveal that “visiting Afghanistan” is listed as only one of many ways to speak intelligently about Afghanistan (the others include knowing any, or reading anything about the place). So please don’t accuse me of something I haven’t done, kthx.
My point is, are all of your media critiques now going to start “X has CLEARLY never been to Afghanistan, or met any Afghans, or ever learned anything at all about Afghanistan”? Cuz that’s high douchiness kdude?
What makes your writing so good is that you haven’t engaged in that–you go at bad writing based on the ideas, not based on a required bibliography or a short business trip.
That’s fair. I should have rephrased “ever learned anything about afghanistan” to “ever read anything about Afghanistan one doesn’t find on the WSJ op-ed page.”
That is a valid critique.
Thanks Nathan. Yes, i should put my money where my mouth is and contribute as well. I doubt I’ll find time to, though, as I’m working 2 jobs and taking a (Russian) class in the evenings at the moment. Turns out it’s much less time consuming to criticize
.
Although I do agree that Ralph Peters is a douchebag in that article.