No Worse Enemy Book Review

No Worse Enemy: The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan - Book review by Jacqueline L. Hazelton, Michigan War Studies Review

In No Worse Enemy, veteran journalist and filmmaker Ben Anderson provides a richly detailed, engagingly written ground-level view of successive allied efforts in one important corner of Afghanistan. He describes British and US troops fighting for hearts and minds in Helmand province, including the area famously known as "a bleeding ulcer." His you-are-there approach reveals the tragedy of troops fighting a war and an enemy they did not understand. He also studies the Afghans' experience with foreign troops. His sharp observation of heartbreaking foreign-Afghan interactions helps explain some of the dysfunctional aspects of the relationship.

No Worse Enemy is a non-expert's eyewitness, anecdotal, fast-moving tale of self-defeating choices, strategic contradictions, and simple human suffering. Anderson is better attuned than many of his journalist colleagues to the conflicting interests of the actors he observes. He is a guide for non-specialist readers seeking to understand a piece of the war being waged in the name of Western interests and values. Though he spent more time in the field with the troops than anywhere else, apparently unable to pull himself away, Anderson wisely keeps himself far from the center of the frame, focusing instead on his individual British, American, and Afghan subjects…

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