On Kindle. Now that I've been here in Afghanistan for the past 1 1/2 year and previous in Iraq in the 90s, Felkins recounts a collection of personal stories that elicit emotions disturbing. For those who deal daily with the people and do not live in the bubble of a green zone or embassy compound, I recommend this book for the specific reason of developing a story of your own. I recognize that I too encounter many of the same themes daily and wish to capture those in my mind and maybe on paper. How easy it is to feel trapped here and then travel back to the 'other world'...home.

There are not enough good things to say about this book, which I read in Kindle form. This series of essays not only treats all its characters with sensitivity and compassion, but serves as an exceedingly good introduction to the entire political situation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among the very best passages is a story of how a local meat merchant sets up shop at the edge of land mine fields, where he simply waits for goats and sheep to wander in and be blown to smithereens, thereby saving him much of the effort of butchery.

Utterly compelling reading; not to be missed.

This guy was in all of the worst places taliban controled Afghanistan, and the worst neighborhoods of Iraq over a number of years. The stories this guy tells are fascinating told in such detail. His experiences are probably without out parallel.

The level of introspection into each war and country is the best for almost any westerner.

This book is one of the best that Ive read on the subject.

A pulitzer winner and well deserved in my opinion. Such a good book. I would thank the author if I could.

Not a lighthearted book, it's obviously concerning one of America's military exercises, post 9/11. This lean yet beefy book can feel choppy, surreal and should shock most. I'm not going to over analyze the book and pretend to be some sort of authority, it's just another worthwhile take on America's re-distribution of military power in a post-cold war world. What's the saying ?, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.The book is important, but should only be taken in the context of course with other story books out there related to this stark history. A good comparison is the Movie: The Hurt Locker, the movie is a children's cartoon compared to this book. Let's boil it down to boys playing king of the hill in the school yard, accountability enough ?.

Not a lighthearted book, it's obviously concerning one of America's military exercises, post 9/11. This lean yet beefy book can feel choppy, surreal and should shock most. I'm not going to over analyze the book and pretend to be some sort of authority, it's just another worthwhile take on America's re-distribution of military power in a post cold war world. Most people can't think that far into the future, much less what they're going to have for lunch. What's the saying ?, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don't get it twisted, the book is important, but should only be taken in the context of course with other story books out there related to this stark history. Let's reduce it down to boys playing king of the hill in the school yard, accountability enough ?.

I bought this book wanting to get a deep look into an account of how the soldiers functioned in Iraq. An insight by a journalist should be a great place for that (I made that decision after reading Generation Kill).

This isn't the book that accounts firefight after firefight followed by ambush. This book is much better than that. It gives a deep look into the Iraqi people. A look I was not expecting but riveted me so much that I could not put this book down, EVER!

Dexter does a great job in drawing the reader in and not letting them go. This book is a must read!

We should be grateful for reporters like Dexter Filkins. In order to tell us what was happening in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he ventured into battle zones, waded into angry mobs, and met face to face with men who wanted to see Americans die. Frankly, he's fortunate to be alive.

It's gritty, first-hand reporting, and much of it is grim. In Afghanistan, he watches a beheading. In Iraq, soldiers in the battle for Falluja are gunned down and die in front of him. As important as the subject is, I'd actually suggest NOT trying to read too much of this book at once. It can be too depressing.

While many find these wars hard to fathom, Filkins' reporting leads to key insights. In Afghanistan, for instance, he notes that the loyalties of fighters could be quickly switched.

"Men fought, men switched sides, men lined up and fought again. War in Afghanistan often seemed like a game of pickup basketball, a contest among friends, a tournament where you never knew which team you'd be on when the next game got under way. Shirts today, skins tomorrow. ... War was serious in Afghanistan, but not that serious. It was part of everyday life. It was a job. Only the civilians seemed to lose."

On trying to find the truth in Iraq:

"It wasn't just that the Iraqis lied. Of course they lied. It was that they had more to consider than the Americans were ever will to give them credit for. The Iraqis had to live in their neighborhoods, after the American soldiers had gone home. The Iraqis had to survive. They had their children to consider. For the Iraqis, life among the American often meant living a double life, the one they thought the Americans wanted to see, and the real one they lived when the Americans went home."

"The Forever War" gives you an up-close look at the wars that I doubt you'll find matched in any other book. Still, this book doesn't quite reach five stars for me. As good as the stories are in the book, there isn't much of a continuing thread to tie them together. Many of the chapters could be read in any order. And there isn't much connecting the sections on Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps they should have been separate books.

I really enjoyed this book,the first i have read on the subject, and it gave me a much better idea of what is going on in those countries.
Its a very easy read, and i have a much greater respect for the troops and civilians their.
The only thing i couldnt really understand was why the author had to keep doing his daily runs, knowing what the results could have been, but i guess you really would have to be there to fully understand! :)) 5 stars

There are moments when reading a reporters war "diary" that you recognize the importance and longevity the book will have and that it is destined to be a classic. This was definitely the case with David Halberstam's "Making of a Quagmire" and Vietnam. And it is also the case with Dexter Filkins "The Forever War" and Iraq. Filkin's delivers an amazing bit of reportage that makes you ride a roller-coaster of emotions, most of them bad, but every so often even a positive one.

Filkins accomplishes something pretty difficult concerning the topic of Iraq -- "The Forever War" is essentially an apolitical book about the most political of subjects. Certainly, there will be people on both sides of the fence that find reason to criticize Filkins and find political motivation with this book. Having read quite a few books on Iraq and the war in Iraq, I believe this is the least political of any of them.

The most compelling and harrowing parts of the book are the combat scenes. These scenes capture the hell of war with a precision and realism that is frankly amazing for a book. There is one particular encounter I still can't get out of my mind. Filkin and his photographer are taken to a mosque by an American soldier to capture a picture of a dead insurgent. While I won't reveal, and certainly couldn't do justice to the scene, its graphic realism and tragic outcome are indescribably moving. Throughout this book, I was amazed that Filkins actually survived his time in Iraq and his close brushes with death.

Filkins captures the courage and bravery shown by our men and women, many not yet 20, with respect and admiration --making the reader appreciate how our country's precious youth and innocence are being lost every day. If you haven't read a book on Iraq, this would be a great start. If you have, this simply will add more depth and knowledge to your understanding of this complex and depressing uphill struggle we face. Regardless, this is a book that deserves to be read and should be on the reading list of anyone with an interest in Iraq, Afghanistan or the war on terror.

THE FOREVER WAR by Dexter Filkins is creative non-fiction at its finest. Filkins is a foreign war correspondent for the NY Times. He was embedded with the US Marine force that was engaged in the Battle of Fallujah in 2004. He was also free to roam wherever he chose across Iraq from 2002 - 2006. He traveled with a photographer and an Iraqi interpreter. The segments (chapters) in the book are sourced from his notes. This book is most like a blog, except it has been edited, i.e. Filkins chose what to put in and what to leave out. It is an up-close look at war written with grit and is not for the squeamish. It recounts war in all its brutality, ruthlessness, horror, and terror. Maybe, the story would have been better told as a novel. It reminds me of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. But Filkins left out what must be a big part of war--love and sex, except for the last line where he says the war cost him what he cared for most--a woman. I am guessing the woman is Ana Menendez, who was his wife. Menendez did write a novel about the same war (The Last War) and included some of the missing love and sex.

THE FOREVER WAR must be considered as anti-war, unless one thinks the complete destruction of towns, cities, families, and infrastructure, the carnage and killing is a necessary rite-of-passage for boys to become men. The locals, the people we are told we are fighting for, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, play both sides, and agree with whoever has a gun in their face at any particular time, and eventually--who pays the most, their loyalties literally turning on a dime. Did you know the head of a suicide bomber often remains intact? The blast force goes out, not up, obliterates the body, and blows the head off and up to land somewhere atop a rubble pile. Filkins recalls one head with the face showing surprise--eyes wide, eyebrows raised, and mouth open in an O. (Where is that picture?) Did you know the Sunni warrior prefers to behead his victim, whereas the Shia leaves the head on, but likes to drill holes in it?

In another chapter, maybe a segment that best represents what war and men are about, Filkins tells the story: After "winning" ground in Fallujah, his photographer wanted to get a snapshot of a dead insurgent. Apparently, the Jihadis never leave any bodies behind, just like American soldiers, and such a shot would be a real "get," prized by those who pay his salary. The marine sergeant gives permission, so off they go, escorted by a couple marine volunteers, toward a minaret where they remember a body. As they go up a narrow stairwell, the marines leading, gunfire erupts. The first Marine is shot dead. Filkins' description is graphic. Subsequently, air support is called in, the shrine is bombed, and the insurgent bodies atomized. The photographer never got his get.

The two journalists were upset--felt responsible for the death of the marine. The Sergeant shrugs, "It's a war. That's what happens in war." (pg.211) In Craig Mullaney's fine account of the same "War on Terror" (The Unforgiving Moment); when he loses one of his men in an ambush on patrol in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Mullaney is devastated. It affects him profoundly and sets him on a downward spiral. In Jon Krakauer book (Where Men Meet Glory) he tells the story of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, killed by friendly fire, also in Afghanistan, and the subsequent lies and cover-ups by those in the highest levels of the military and administration.

War is either/and: Men behaving badly, or where men meet glory. I guess it depends on how you frame it. The question is: Will it ever stop, or is war forever? The answer might well be in Chris Hedges' book: "War is Force that gives of meaning." I highly recommend this book--five stars.

This book was so well-done. Filkins presents the reader with a lucid and balanced look at the mess in the Middle East. No wonder he has received so many kudos.

This may just be THE definitive book on the wars in the Middle East.

The author, a foreign correspondent for the NY Times, has been in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 11 years and has a unique perspective.

The vignettes - not necessarily chronological - that comprise this book are written sparingly, never overwritten, and I loved that he kept his opinions out of the writing, unlike so many correspondents. This book is totally non-political and Filkins makes no attempt to explain the conflicts...but one finishes the book with a new understanding.

Perhaps the best account of war since Apocalypse Now. However, this one presents the reality and demystifies life in a warzone. The author provides the readers with powerful snapshots from different situation, presented in a non-cynical manner, yet leaving the reader with no illusion on how much we, with the military tools and capabilities, need to consider alternative options when enforcing our policies and promoting and protection our international interests (perceived or real).

This book humanizes the soldiers who often are in the unfortunate situation of having to risk and give their lives for causes that are only remotely relevant for them. It brings us the perspectives of the victims of wars, the ones caught in the middle, and those who try their best to survive the madness.

For those interested in this kind of topics, this book should be number one on your reading list.

The experience of reading this book is like driving by a horrific accident. You start out by seeing the flashing lights of EMS, the police cars...maybe a fire truck. As you get closer you can see the mangled vehicle itself and you know that there's no way anyone came out of that alive. You want to look away, but something inside draws you back to the scene of human suffering. Dexter Filkin's personal account of the Afgan and Iraq wars reminds me of this. Its pages are filled with stories of life in a world turned upside down...from the public executions of the Taliban to the experiences of a platoon making its way through Fallujah. Make no mistake: this is a very tough read. It shows war and chaos in its raw form, but it is told in such a way that you can't help but turn the next page. It also explains the complicated nature of both the war and the subsequent occupation in Iraq...one where there were two conversations: how the Iraqis talked with the Americans and how they talked between themselves.

This book does for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars what Ernie Pyle and Richard Tregaskis did for WWII. The author clearly empathizes with the American Marines he's embedded with, and his stories make a civilian like me appreciate what our military men and women sacrifice to protect this country. The chapters on the Fallujah battle are particularly intense. At the same time, he shows the ambivalence the people we "rescued" feel toward the US, and shows that the Iraqis and Afghans are human, not just secondary characters who are a backdrop for our wars. The last book about war that I enjoyed as much, and enjoy is probably not the best word, as much of this is very intense and disturbing, was Chicken Hawk, by Robert Mason.

The most amazing thing about this book is that the author lived to write it!

I really hadn't heard too much of Dexter Filkins, New York Times correspondent, previous to reading his book, "The Forever War." The book won a "New York Times Book Review" Best Book of the Year award for 2009 which seems to be like a sister calling another sister awesome and voting her prom queen but the writing merits any kind of awards and accolades people or organizations through at it. It's a must read to get the taste and grit of the wars we've been waging in Iraq and Afghanistan these past eight years.

Where journalist have gained no holds bar access to war, not allowed during the Gulf War, we can gain these prose pictures of what war is really like at least from the eyes and mind of Filkins and other like journalist risking kidnapping, beheading, and the dissolution of their families and lives back in the states. As a sign of the times, we each of us in our own way have been effected by 9/11 and the way the war has proceeded thereafter. Filkins sees it first hand in Kabul and Fallujah and leaves the meaty taste of fear and death in our collective conscious through his unique approach to recounting it all. You get this weaving in and out of scenes across the war on terrorism in a near fevered pitch dream sequence, giving you a greater sense of being there along with Filkins without having all the bullets and mortars whizzing by your noggin.

Filkins holds onto the any kind of semblance of a normal life in the war zone of Iraq by keeping up a daily jogging routine despite further risking his life to the whims of suicide bombers and itchy trigger marines and Iraqi's. The Iraqi's are shocked by his naked legs and wish they were covered in the worst possible cultural clash way. To Filkin's credit he tries to wear the soccer sweat pants they give him but it becomes like working out in a sauna with a plastic sweat suit uncomfortable and heat stroke inducing. I think to other cultures the fact that Americans or westerners try is something.

What I like so much about Filkins' war reporting is that he manages to see the war from all angles to include a windowed observation on Al Qaeda and insurgent clerics and operatives and does so without judging or taking sides. It is only through this level of subjectivity that we are able to gain a more measured feel of what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. There's a chapter title "Communiques" which is more of a quoting of facts and an exercise in listing than a written prose chapter and it is the perfect compliment to Filkins' sparse and observer writing. It list all of 103 insurgenet groups responsible for attacks on Americans from May to October 2005 in a time when there were about the same number of attacks per day on Americans. And it that unconventional telling of war, we get a sense of how the unconventional nature of the Iraqi resistance is so fractured and splintered like a many headed hydra. How does one develop strategy against that?

You are going to have to pick up this little read for yourself to get the full benefit from an engaging and frightening tale of the times. Times that many American youth are cutting their teeth against in the proving ground of Afghanistan's stark and beautiful elevations and tortured valleys. Read to the end as you'll not only get personal stories of how war has affected people and families. One of the more powerful tales is of the Texan from Pearland who loses his life in Fallujah helping to secure a war photo in the midst of the violence and chaos. Filkins follows the story not just with the young man dying in Iraq but goes all the way back to the states to meet the family and remaining survivors following the war loss full circle.

And he ends with this in the acknowledgements, "I fared better than many of the people I wrote about in this book; yet even so, over the course of the events depicted here, I lost the person I cared for the most. The war didn't get her, it got me." And so it coda's out a tale you won't want to miss and find it hard to look away from, a personal loss of what matters most. Filkins says that war flattens one's senses out in the aftermath so nothing seems so impactful as they were in the war zone. Gone is the thrilling highs and adrenaline rush and gone too but lingering is the fear of life and death. I suppose we are forever altered no matter your proximity to the war front by violence engaged upon by one society and culture to another. Forever changed. Forever war. --mmw

I respect the U.S. military and all they represent, but this book gave me a good idea of why our troops in Iraq have so little hope of success. With little understanding of an ancient people, we come in with our tanks and our guns and offer fuel to the fundamentalists' fire. At one points Mr. Filkins describes this shiny new fire station that the Americans had built in Iraq. It probably cost millions. He talks about how the Iraqis working there seemed proud of their new trucks and uniforms. It must have taken quite a while to build. The insurgents blew it up in a matter of minutes. Millions of dollars reduced to a pile of rubble. The real losers in this story are the Iraqi people. It seems that there are plenty of people in Iraq that just want to work, have a place to live, send their children to school...etc. They live in a violent, terrifying place that most Americans could never even imagine. I can't see how there any way to adequately prepare our troops for what they will be facing in Iraq. Reading this book made me thank God that I live here. It was truly an eye-opening read.

This is Michael Herr's 'Dispatches' for the Iraq/Afghanistan era. You read it and wonder if Filkins intentionally patterned his book after this iconic (and I think somewhat better) one. His use of short, disconnected passages makes for a hallucinogenic reading experience that is certainly visceral if not completely satisfying. After reading this book, I believe that 1) it's amazing Filkins is still alive and 2) it was beyond foolish to take the kind of risks he and other reporters did, since they occasionally exposed not only themselves (their choice) but the military personnel around them to unnecessary danger. In one case, a marine was killed because Filkin's photographer "needed" a shot of an insurgent's corpse, and the soldier was good enough to play escort, putting himself at the head of the line. Thanks to Filkins, I now understand that we have to get entirely out of Iraq. Afghanistan, too. We're creating insurgents faster than we can kill them, creating exactly the "forever war" he describes. This insight, I think, is Filkins real contribution.

This is one of the toughest books I have ever read. It has nothing to do with the writing style but with the subject matter. I had to force myself to finish it so I can see how much this "Forever War" has affected the writer as it is a gritty but engrossing narration by one of the best journalists out there.

Dexter Filkins is a journalist in every sense of the word. He is not writing his opinions on the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, but he is narrating stories from both sides of the fences. He encounters so many close calls that it would be easy for him to become jaded, but he managed to keep the spirit of humanity alive in every word of this book.

What one might think this is a cut and dry book on war, that we Americans are the victors and the Iraqi people are the victims of Saddam are in for a surprise when they read this book. It is not a cut and dry book. It is a book full of stories of what it is like to be at war. It is a quagmire of confusing loyalties and miscommunications and sometimes, good intentions turned awry after awhile. There is nothing cut and dry about this book ... war is confusing and hard and Filkins carries the reader through every instances with crisp narration. What makes it so hard is that one senses the empathy Filkins has for every person he had talked with. Their stories are vivid on the pages and once the reader has read them, he/she will be haunted for a long time. The stories are not easily forgotten. They're not meant to be forgotten. They are meant to be shared to remind us that yes, indeed, war is hell.

This is a must-read for all history students, whatever your politics may be. This book is a collection of stories of our military men and women who are over there in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the stories of the Iraqis and of the Taliban. Ordinary men and women are caught up in the times ... and sometimes, their stories become extraordinary in Delkins' book.

10/16/09

One reporter's experience. One observer's, one man's. Snapshots and musings captured in exceptional prose. Brilliant in its pacing and, more often than not, utterly engrossing.

Unlike most other media about the Iraq War, this book doesn't give the history of the war or a partisan analysis of it. Instead, Mr. Filkins focuses on telling the stories of the people he met and his interactions with them, and he mostly refers to larger events when he needs to give context to these stories. The subjects of his reporting include US soldiers, insurgents, politicians, and civilians, and he focuses with great attention to detail on what all these people are like and what they went through. This book is very non-partisan and doesn't have much to say about the Bush administration or the start of the war. Potential readers should note that, like other war reporting, it describes a lot of bad events, such that people who don't like gloomy books might be hard pressed to continue reading after a certain point. While 300 of the 350 pages are on the Iraq war, the other 50 are about time he spent in Afghanistan and the US, including his time in New York during the 9/11 attacks.

There are some extraordinary insights into human nature that will make this book worth reading twenty years from now when most Americans will have forgotten that we were ever involved in Iraq. Deeply disturbing... and hard to write. More than any other book I have read it offers a glimmer of how some soldiers are returning home damaged by the experience. I suspect there will be others. It is not so much a history as it is a personal diary of how an American journalist experienced this war. This is the book I would want my teenage son to read before he casually drifts down to the recruitment office.

If you want to check more excellent titles these are must:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Secret Adversary: A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery!

This is a really really good book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get a better idea of what our guys went through in the war in Iraq. This is a ground level day by day account of what our troops went through and also a look at the other side; an exploration of Iraq citizens and customs.

The book was in great condition and the service was good. I was disappointed by the seller's lack of response to my email when I emailed him saying that although I ordered the book, I didn't need it for the class, so I wanted to return it. I contacted him as soon as I received the book but I never received a response.

If you want to know why the Mission was Not Accomplished in 2003, Dexter Filkins provides the clearest explanation I have seen. If you have had any ideas about how to solve the disaster in Iraq, Dexter Filkins will show you that they have probably already been tried and the result is a mess. The book doesn't pass judgement, and doesn't point fingers; pretty much everyone in the book is a victim and their circumstances are horrifying. The descriptions of the lives of individuals in Iraq, soldiers, politicians, journalists, insurgents, clerics, bureaucrats, fixers, parents, are vivid and painful. Nobody is going to win this war. Nobody wins any war.

Filkins's book is not so much an analysis of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (either militarily or the circumstances that brought them about) as it is one, stark, honest, and often horrific report after the other of what he encountered over the years in both countries. If the reporting of any war is straightforward and honest, as is the case with The Forever War, comments about how senseless it is for man to allow matters to reach the point of combat are unnecessary. As I read the book and realized how many years Filkins spent in these areas, often with his life in danger, I wondered what it was that drove him to return time after time...I still do.

I usually don't read non-fiction but I really wanted to know more about the war from a journalist's perspective. I really think that Dexter Filkins is an amazing journalist and the stories about his time in the Middle East are almost unbelievable! Usually I finish a fiction book in a few days and this book took me about 2 months. It wasn't a page turner but I did enjoy picking it up here and there to read another "story." I think that this book is worth the read as I don't think that there are many books out there with such a realistic, non-biased perspective of this war. I would highly recommend it.

This book blew me away! Filkins does a remarkable job portraying the truth of war and the situation in Iraq. From the moment I started reading, I couldn't let go. The excellent, sparse narration is like a formidable engine that keeps the reader going even after his eyes droop from fatigue well into the night. I must say I was favorably astonished at some of the things and applauded the author for his courage in showing us the truth as it is. Well done. I can't wait for the movie.

Many war correspondents swoop in, give us a few gory anecdotes that illustrate the futility of war, and leave full of self righteous anger. Filkins gives us a more complex rendering altogether. Through traveling with marines, speaking with insurgents, and interviewing countless Iraqi civilians who bear the brunt of the conflict, Filkins shows us how war brings out extremism and sociopathic apathy; courage and backstabbing cowardice. Filkins starts his coverage of Iraq war immediately after the invasion, when some Iraqis regaled him with stories of Saddam's injustice, through a gradual breakdown in order over the next couple of years, ending when he can no longer go out at night and finds it increasingly hard to talk to anyone. He captures broad truths about the Iraq war by describing the minutia, like leaving the chaos of Baghdad to enter the preternatural order of the well guarded Green Zone, entering a restaurant and having everyone inside go silent, and yes, dozens and dozens of explosions.

He fleshes out the Iraqi people, going beyond the stock pitiable victims and ruthless insurgents. He visits families who have lost members to suicide bombings--both perpetrators and victims--and talks to insurgents. He tours an art museum with Ahmad Chalabi, whom he considers slick and opportunistic individual. He also talks to young, adrenaline pumped Marines and weary commanders. A particularly poignant piece follows the deterioration of an idealistic colonel who builds schools and sets up elections into a hunted and calculating individual who has seen too many of his efforts--and men--bombed into rubble.

Though Filkins keeps his own emotions out of his work as much as possible, between the lines one can see his own change, and righteous anger at the backstabbing and sycophantic behavior of Iraqis devolves into numb horror as bodies pile up. There are vignettes that consist almost entirely of lists of organizations claiming credit for suicide bombings and body counts. In the immediacy of Baghdad at the height of the insurgency, what more is there to say?

This book is not about the many foreign policy mistakes our country has made. There's not a "message," just a photograph of a place and time ravaged by violence. If it's about anything, it's about the many profound ways war affects those who are caught in it.

The Forever War is nothing short of AMAZING. It's the most compelling and humanizing account of war I have ever come across. Filkins' humanity, empathy, and sense of the absurd bring our engagement overseas in sharp and appalling focus. I love the lack of politics here -- he's as baffled as any open-hearted person would be about motivations; neither Iraqis, nor Afghanis, nor U.S. Military presented as a type; just men and women making choices that luckily, you and I, never have to.

Buy this book immediately - buy it for your friends, doves and hawks, lefties and righties -- surely it's the rare piece of literature that has the power to change minds.

Filkins is unquestionably a brave man, and does a great job of recapping his field reporting in two long and ugly wars--Afghanistan and Iraq. But given all the gushing reviews of this book, I frankly expected more.

While 'The Forever War' is plenty gritty and atmospheric, it never truly approaches the level of artistry found in other, better-known masterpieces of the genre. Comparisons to classics of fiction (Hemingway) or non-fiction (Kapuscinski or Herr) are seriously overblown. Filkins does us all a huge favor by making these two messy conflicts tangible to millions of people who perhaps only know them through TV or YouTube. But his insights into the pysches of the men who are doing the fighting feel shallow, newspapery, and and his language isn't particularly transporting. For readers who have been monitoring the progress of these wars closely, or for those familiar with the broader sampling of war literature, 'The Forever War' will be informative but not revelatory. Its greatest strength lies in the author's detailed reporting. And that, strangely, also turns out to be its biggest weakness: it reads like a typical war correspondent's book--a tad disjointed, a bit too familiar, and sometimes self-absorbed.

Dexter Filkins, as his friends tell him in the book, has balls the size and density of cannonballs. You will not believe the things he does in order to get the stories he relates, all of which are fascinating. He doesn't sleep with anyone or bribe anyone or tell you what his producer found out for him - he simply and crazily goes right to where things are happening and talks to anyone there! Once you get used to that(you might not), you realize here is a man who is able to stay objective about some very emotional and controversial things. He has no agenda except to try to convey what he sees as accurately as possible in order to explain what is really going on and to correct our own misperceptions related to these conflicts. Especially insightful are his many interviews with Iraqis, most of which reveal their barely hidden contempt, if not hatred, for their military occupiers, though these same servicemen and women seem not to pick up on the fact they are being duped when the Iraqis tell them they are happy the Americans are there and wish they would stay longer. While it is obvious to me that nearly every aspect of what has transpired has been misguided, Mr. Filkins rarely passes judgment and pays one remarkable tribute after another to our military personnel who are amazingly brave and trying their best to make things work in an impossible situation.
I am a runner, and I was recently living in Zambia in an area where the wild animals freely roamed. I ran nearly every day in the safest areas but still was in danger at times. To read that Mr. Filkins ran EVERY day IN BAGHDAD makes my jaw do a four minute mile on its way to the floor. My hat goes off to you, sir - you are one of a kind and I am happy I read your book.

Filkins' book should be essential reading for those living-room warriors (or talking head warriors) who romanticize wars. It is also important reading for the rest of us because it reminds us of the human cost of war and the pain and suffering brought about by politicians' gran vision when they collide with the real world.

Anybody who has any interest in US foreign policy or the Middle East should read this book.

The Forever War is composed of relatively short vignettes that capture Filkins' first hand experience as a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan and Iraq. It humanizes what has happened and still happens in both countries. It is very well written and easy to read.

You make a collage by bring together bits of paper that are all a
little bit different, different shapes, different colors all when
brought into a single perspective produce an amazing result. This is
what Filkins does with his storytelling, insight, perspective and
unique observations. Each chapter is a stand alone piece of
journalism and each builds upon another to create an overall
understanding of what war, and especially what the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq have been like on the ground. This is no doubt a
book that is destined to be a classic. A Non-fiction counterpart to
Tim O'Brien's fabulous "The things they Carried" about Vietnam and
which has also been compared favorably to Michael Herr's great
Vietnam book "Dispatches". But my view is that Filkins has created a
unique document that is so well written that it is just a pleasure to
read even if the subject was not so damn compelling. To that point an
example: Filkins finds himself in the Kabul airport standing next to
a dozen women...."They were dressed in the mandatory head-to-toe
burqas, which rendered them invisible, except for the shoes that
peeked out from the bottoms of their suits. And what shoes they were:
stylish, expensive shoes, high heels, low heels and flats, of the
latest Italian styles. Possibly Ferragamos. The women were speaking
Arabic, with Saudi accents. "I could be shopping in Paris, but
instead, I am here, in this awful place," one of the women said to
another through the vent in her burqa. The other women nodded in
agreement. "Yes, my husband has to be the tough-guy warrior,
fighting for Islam," another huffed. "He thinks it brings him closer
to God. And so here I am." "We are stuck here," a third woman said,
"in this cursed place." All the burqas nodded." This is just one
page, one piece of the collage that makes for a masterpiece of
non-fiction journalism. If you read only one book on the Iraq war
this must have to be that book. (Also, recommended earlier was the
outstanding "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" by Rajiv
Chandrasekaran.)

At a time when the newspaper industry is in an unprecedented crisis and many wonder whether it will survive, Dexter Filkins provides a powerful argument for the immensely important service that brave newspaper correspondents perform for all of us.
Filkins survived four hair-raising years in Iraq from the 2003 invasion. This vivid collection of essays tells us exactly what happened as a result of Bush's historic miscalculation.
With Filkins, we are there with the U.S. Marines as they storm Falluja; we cower in the Green Zone and in the heavily-fortified New York Times Baghdad bureau; we venture into the madness of Ramadi, where snipers and other insurgents pin down U.S. troops in a fetid room. Filkins seems totally at home with U.S. troops and tries, despite his lack of Arabic, to get inside the heads of the Iraqis as well. He is honest about his reliance on translators who more than once save his life. One does get the feeling Filkins himself became addicted to the danger and adrenaline rush of covering the war and the insurgency and started to take foolish and unnecessary risks.
This book doesn't try to analyse the war or the geopolitical context; it doesn't provide a chronological account of developments. Filkins is like a human camera, recording, painting with words. His pictures say more about the chaos unleashed by the U.S. invasion, the collapse of civil society and the immense suffering of the Iraqi people as the law of the jungle takes over. Filkins is also a compassionate guide through this circle of hell; he feels for the young Americans dying for who knows what, as well as for the Iraqis whose lives are destroyed.
His portrait of Paul Bremer, who for a disaxtrous year ran the country, is devastating. Bremer shows up at a hospital and reels off a list of statistics demonstrating how much better life has become in Iraq. Meanwhile premature babies are dying because of lack of electricity. "I don't like seeing this at all," says Bremer, looking down at a tiny, shriveled body.
It's a suitable metaphor. We don't like seeing this either but we must. If you want to know the truth about what the United States did to Iraq, read this.

If you are looking for a narrative insight into what is driving the war, the people who are involved, what is going to happen to iraq and the middle east - this is not your book.

what this is, is a recollection of a talented writer of his near-misses and experiences in the heart of this conflict. you will gain an understanding of how iraqi and coalition forces are trying to change - and the challenges every day people are facing there. the commentary is even handed and without agenda and the stories are gripping.

I very much appreciated the insights shared by Mr. Filkins and found myself believing the stories and the conclusions the author drew.
Then I reached the chapter in which the military asked for Mr. Filkins aide in locating a reporter being held captive. It was at this point that I realized that for all his time in the field the author had an agenda, and his views were not that unprejudiced after all.
After that point the stories seemed to just run on and on with no particular meaning at all.
This was sad to me as I really wanted to believe I was reading a great book.

This is without a doubt one of the best books I have read lately. It is an incredibly timely piece, difficult, challenging, and utterly evocative of the chaotic and violent realm of war that so many of us have decided to push to the back of our collective minds.

Dexter Filkins, a New York Times correspondent, immerses himself in the turbulent world of pre-9/11 Afghanistan, the siege of Falluja, the murky and unpredictable politics of post-Saddam Iraq, and the troubling implications that these conflicts have for our country, our world, and our common humanity.

In many ways, the style of this book was reminiscent of Rory Stewart. Filkins chooses to present his experiences in a series of vignettes, ranging from interviews with family members of dead Iraqis to stories of political intrigue to encounters with insurgent groups. This is not what I had expected in opening this book, but I found it to be incredibly compelling. It also makes it somewhat easier to read and fully process the stories Filkins has to tell, giving the reader time to reflect on each chapter before moving to the next.

I would argue that this should be a mandatory read for the American people. It offers a very intelligent perspective on the consequences of the war, but doesn't pursue a specific ideological agenda, instead presenting the outcomes and situations for the reader to understand on his or her own. Reading The Forever War made me feel more informed about the real battle on the ground than months of watching network news has done. Filkins cuts through to the important truths of these wars, leaving behind blame and posturing. If more politicians, people, and leaders understood the nuance that Filkins presents, I believe that we would be able to create a more creative and intelligent response to the outstanding challenges that we face in our engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you have any interest in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, in our military engagements, in world affairs, or religious conflict, you should read this book. If you want to know more and better understand the complexity of the issues, you should read this book. If you want to count yourself an informed global citizen, you should read this book. Excellent, and highly recommended. Ages 16 and above due to violence and serious themes throughout.

A few quotes that I found especially poignant:

About war and violence in tribal Afghanistan:
"Other times I thought that something had broken fundamentally after so many years of war, that there had been some kind of primal dislocation between cause and effect, a numbness wholly understandable, necessary even, given the pain, but which had the effect of allowing the killing to go on and on." p. 20

On leadership, as learned in the streets of Iraq:
"It was an odd thing about leadership; people talked about it and CEOs wrote books about it. But there was nothing like facing death to feel it in the flesh. It was as if Omohundro wore a mask, and with that mask he gave everyone more courage than they knew they had. The trick was never showing fear." p. 191

On young soldiers and the act of war:
"There wasn't any point in sentimentalizing the kids; they were trained killers, after all. They could hit a guy at give hundered yards or cut his throat from ear-to-ear. And they didn't ask a lot of questions. They had faith, they did what they were told and they killed people. Sometimes I got frustrated with them; sometimes I wished they asked more questions. But things were complicated out there in Kezzletown and Punxsatawney; they were complicated in Falluja. Out there in Falluja, in the streets, I was happy they were in front of me." p. 199

On Iraq:
"It was in the Green Zone that I would think the war was lost. I didn't think about losing when I was outside - when I was in Iraq. There was too much reality pressing in, too many things changing, too much in play./ No; it was when I was waiting for the bus outside the Rashid Hotel, watching the overweight American contractors, making more money than they'd ever dreamed of, saunter into the restaurant for dinner at 5 p.m. It was when one of the American generals in charge of Baghdad, in his office in Camp Victory, pronounced the name of the Iraqi prime minister three different ways in hanf an hour...each time as if he were speaking of some sort of exotic plant." p. 231

On internal politics and Ahmad Chalabi:
"In the West, he was a famous man, and now a notorious one as well. He was a banker and a millionaire and a mathematics professor trained at MIT and the University of Chicago. He owned homes in London and Washington. But in Iraq, his roots had withered and died. And so now, in January 2005, Chalabi was reinventing himself as an authentic Iraqi. He was running for a seat in the new Iraqi parliament.
The convoy was low on fuel, and a gas station beckoned. Since the American invasion, Iraqis waited hours - even days - for gasoline at the pumps. Lack of refining capacity, smuggling, stealing, insurgent attacks: it was complicated. On the road south of Baghdad, the line was perhaps three hundred cars deep. The Chalabi convoy cut straight to the front of the line. No one protested. It was the guns. Chalabi's effrontery brought not even a peep." p. 255

A better tribute to those who have worked so hard to bring Iraq out of this chaos would be hard to find. What strikes me most about Filkins's book is how absolutely brave so many of the Iraqi's have been. Our lives are so sheltered, needless to say, compared to what those who have held their ground in Iraq have had to live with. That story comes through loud and clear in the book. Past that most important impression, Filkins is just a damn good writer. He shows us the war instead of telling us about it. His words are clear and acute and carry images that speak for themselves. One admires the author for that after only a few pages. After that, it is hard to stop reading. The story draws you in and will not let you go. His personal anabasis will no doubt rank among the great narratives among the many epics spawned by the region. At times his story evokes the image of Xenophon trying to escape from the same land, and yet Filkins stays immersed in the struggle, obviously compelled by the Iraqis and their story. He knows how to reveal a character through the smallest gestures and can evoke a palpable texture with economy. I find it hard to believe an author could hide himself behind his skills as a writer; writers cannot choose words and string them together without revealing something about themselves. One comes to admire Filkins for his fortitude and his humility. His honesty and compassion help us to see through to the truth better, I am convinced.

Dexter Filkins is just a great writer -- he takes you inside the story and lets you make of it what you will. He doesn't preach and he doesn't lecture -- and he doesn't have to, because he makes the characters in this book come alive, and their stories (of orphaned children, women brutally tortured and killed under the Taliban, schools abandoned and cities razed) speak to you so clearly that to comment on them would add nothing. That said, he manages to include a fair amount of the history of both iraq and Afghanistan so that you emerge with a clearer picture of the past in both countries, as well as some sense of what the future might hold. He also does a really good job of telling the story not only from an American viewpoint, but from a European viewpoint, and a Middle Eastern viewpoint. he never says who's a "good guy" and who's a "bad guy" and you find yourself developing a sympathy for the citizens of these nations who seem to only have bad choices and worse choices, never any particularly good ones. He also does a really good job of not inserting himself into the story, while still letting you know how the experience affected and changed him. I wish, alas, that the book were a BIT more analytical so that I could assign it to my classes, rather than just suggesting that they read it on their own. In fact, I think Dexter Filkins should write another book more in the vein of Kaplan's "Balkan Ghosts" in which he covers the same war, but with a bit more historical background. that would also be a classic.

And this is one of them. The one before this was Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. They tell us about a part of the world that most in America will never experience. Its surreal. When one of these books comes along I take as long as I can to finish it, wanting to treasure every page, every word. After a reading I have to sit back in my chair and try to take it all in, to try and comprehend it all - why is the world like this? Its a sad, very sad book, but its beautifully told and written. Dexter has done an incredible job in letting us know what life is like in Iraq. This should be mandatory reading for any politician, for anyone who votes, for anyone thinking of going to war. It should be read by all who just enjoy excellent writing on real world subjects.

The book started off well bringing the reader into the story with avid descriptions of a world unknown to most. At times the book can get a little bewildering with all the different names and places Filkins writes about, but all in all it's a great read.

I made it through 7 chapters before I put it down for good. I was skeptical from the beginning when I saw an Author from The New York Times writing a book on any war, but I thought I would give it a try. If I was a Marine in Iraq or Afghanistan and this guy showed up next to me in the heat of battle I would have highly upset. His theme -- Ignorant young soldiers in an unnecessary battle. At least Dexter Filkins got a life experience out of it while the brave soldiers saved his life.

One of the best war reporting books I've ever read. The type of story Dexter tells is truly passionate and prolific. He offers a narrative and behind the scenes look still not available in today's digitally soaked, opine world.

(I missed my subway stop several times on the way to work because I was so engrossed in this book.)

Fast paced and a great read. I was hooked from the opening chapter in Kabul, Afghanistan to the last word. Highly recommend this book.