How do you wage war on an enemy you cannot see? How do you win over a population that plots behind your back? These are difficult questions to answer, yet these challenges faced every strategist and every soldier that ever set foot in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dexter Wilkins, a journalist who spent extensive time in both countries during their most volatile points, collected all his thoughts on the war and his experiences and wrote The Forever War. In it, Wilkins details all of his encounters with the people of these two broken countries. “There were hospitals in Afghanistan filled with patients, burned and twisted; they just didn’t have any medicine or any doctors. There were schools, plenty of them, at least in the cities, only they were empty” (p. 21). Wilkins does a great job giving the reader a mental image of how the constant fighting takes its toll on the people.
Throughout the book, Wilkins has a chance to meet with many of the people who live in these conditions. He is able to shoe the reader, not just his own opinion, but the story from the very people who live it every day. Wilkins sits down to talk with warlords, soldiers, fighting for both sides, government officials, again from both sides, and people off the streets. The most interesting part about hearing the opinions of the civilians in countries like Iraq is hearing what they think of the war. “’I take their money, but I hate them,’ Alawi said. ‘I am cooperating with the Americans for the sake of my country. The Americans are occupiers. We are trying to evict them.’” (p. 125). For the longest time, the story here in the states was that the U.S. was making progress and that the Iraqi people were beginning to like the Americans. Wilkins shows repeatedly that this is not true. The Iraqi people see the Americans as occupiers and only want them gone.
The most interesting aspect of the war that Wilkins describes is the unknown. The fact is, American soldiers are fighting an enemy they cannot see, an enemy that blends in with the population, because it is the population. At one point in the book, Wilkins is attached to a squad of Marines doing recon in the city of Mosul. The Marines were tasked with finding members of Sadam’s old Republican Guard and handing them over to the Iraqi people for trial. The search goes on for hours and, eventually, Wilkins breaks off from the squad to interview some of the locals. He arrives at a group of men standing on a street corner, conversing about the day so far. Wilkins asks them if they know the location of any members of the Republican Guard, they respond simply, “We are the Republican Guard. All three of us. When we heard the Americans were coming, we took off our uniforms. We are not cowards, but we will not fight today” (Wilkins, p. 105). The soldiers cannot tell a civilian from an insurgent because they look exactly the same. You only see the difference when one points a RPG at you.
At different intervals in the book, Wilkins accounts the time he spent with multiple units of American soldiers he was attached to. The soldiers, ironically, have the same mistrusting attitude toward the Iraqis that the Iraqis have towards the soldiers. “As we drove on, I asked Kaifesh whether he had considered the possibility that he was giving money to the same people who were mounting attacks against him and his men. Or at least the people who knew the people that were. ‘No question,’ Kaifesh said. ‘We are giving money to people who do bad things.’” (p. 127-128). Wilkins is able to show how much of a struggle it is for these soldiers to go about their daily tasks. Besides the danger posed by the enemy themselves, it is frustrating to know that the funding an officer just gave for that new school was used to buy RPG launchers used on his men.
What I like the most about this book is not only does the author spend time with military units in both sides, but Wilkins also spends a portion of the book interviewing civilians. The war is not just being fought by armed soldiers holding firefights in the streets, but also by the people who live on those streets. The building that Marine just took cover in is somebody’s home. The rooftop the insurgent is shooting from is probably some Iraqi’s house (if not his own). The problem with fighting a war like this is that civilians will be caught in the crossfire. At one point, Wilkins is driving through a town that was just the target of a massive American bombing run. The place is deserted at first, but then Iraqi civilians start coming out if these destroyed buildings. They run up to his Jeep and beg for help and tell about their family member that lays dead only a few feet away. Yes, the American bombing run was successful, but at the cost of some many lives.
After I read this book, the thing that struck me most was the title. It truly got to me after I read the last chapter, put down the book, and read the title again. It hit me like a ton of bricks how much the title fit the book. Reading the book and seeing the struggle each person, civilian and soldier alike, face is disheartening. The book does a fantastic job of humanizing every party involved. The Americans are not unstop-able super-soldiers, but a very human group of soldiers, frustrated while trying to complete their mission. The Iraqis are not evil super villains trying to destroy the world, but freedom fighters, trying to escape an occupation they do not want. The book, overall, is depressing towards the end because you, the reader, begin to see the same hopelessness so many people fighting the war feel. It truly feels like a forever war.