AOW #4: IRB Post #1

Dexter Filkins lives in New York, but has worked overseas as as a foreign journalist covering wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the New York Times in 2001. Before this project, he worked as the chief of the Los Angeles Times’ New Delhi bureau, and for The Miami Herald. Filkins’ awards include a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the George Polk Award, and two Overseas Press Club awards. 

This book was published in 2008, a context that would have helped sell this book. In America, the 2008 presidential elections were underway and one of the key issues being considered for both the Democratic and Republican runners was their stance on the war in Iraq.

In this section, Filkins describes his experiences in Afghanistan. He converges many short stories of horrifying every-day events that he witnessed himself or that he gathered from his interviews. The story starts off with a detailed scene full of war action when he was with American marines, trying to advance in an Iraqi city. This was a clever introduction chapter because his audience, American citizens, would most likely be interested in the American side of the war – this is shown because he clearly pits the Iraqi soldiers as the ‘bad guys.’ In retrospect, this is understandable because, being a true, primary account, he did feel as if the Iraqi soldiers were the bad guys; they were firing at him too. Still, by addressing the part of the war that Americans are most likely to recognize and be interested in (especially for those interested in action-packed war), he is effectively achieving one purpose: pulling his audience into the story. A notable rhetorical element Filkins writes with is the syntax, especially the bluntness of certain sentences. For example, the detailed, fast-paced, anxious first chapter about the marine advance in an Iraqi town spanned of 9 pages long. Yet, Filkins concludes the experience with, “We’ve advanced about two hundred yards.” Not only does this symbolize his idea that the war is more complex than it seems (another purpose), but it also stresses the fact that the war is very real, dangerous, and hard for soldiers. The rest of the section is about his travels in Afghanistan, where he met with refugees, orphan children, and members of the Taliban – some who tried to kill him, and others who invited him to press conferences. Diction was another pivitol rhetorical element used; the words Filkins used to describe the setting, actions, and people mirrored the tone of the scene and how it made him feel. During one interview, the Afghani refugee was described with lifeless, piteous adjectives and his actions were described with verbs of the same tone, which emphasized the devastation Afghanistan has suffered over the years of fighting.

The overall purpose for this part of the story was to show the other side of the war, to portray the lives of the soldiers, refugees, and leaders of America’s opponents. Filkins highlights that many of the people mixed up in these towns have turned to fighting as a last resort because they are are uneducated and do not know any other way to survive, or they have been forced to do so by the Taliban or warlords. He is successful in this purpose. Filkins show that despite which side Afghanis choose, everyone suffers tremendously.