To Afghanistan and Back: A Graphic Travelougue

by Ted Rall, Bill Maher (Introduction)

Introduction by Bill Maher. When U.S. bombs started raining on the Taliban, Rall jumped on a plane straight to the war zone to get the real story for himself. Featuring his Village Voice articles and a graphic novel.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Travel, Nonfiction, Politics, History, War

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Ted Rall is a prominent left-leaning American political columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. He draws cartoons for the news site WhoWhatWhy.org and the email newsletter Counterpoint, and writes for The Wall Street Journal opinion pages.

His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions.

The cartoons appear in approximately 100 newspapers around the United States. He is a former President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and twice the winner of the RFK Journalism Award.

He is the author of 20 books.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Being to the left of Bill Maher is not a compliment.
Being snide, supercilious, and confidently ignorant is not a good journalistic attitude.
This is not a good book.

Just a few of the numerous flaws:
i.e. constantly referring to members of the US government as 'Bushies' is childish.
i.e. constantly retelling the same three anecdotes in different chapters is boorish.
i.e. bitching about using a Chinese-made benzene lamp without bothering to note that it is poisonous and bad for the environment like a good lefty should (Ted sold out to never never criticize China long ago), and also while making it sound kind of normal instead of a product completely illegal in the US.
i.e. constantly repeating insidious canards about how low wages are in the country while being one of the people pumping inflationary dollars into the black and grey markets.
i.e. complaining about the military refusing to medivac journalists and implying it's a political thing when in fact it's a safety thing. The military didn't medivac ANYONE who went traipsing about in a war zone voluntarily, because it was a WARZONE. You CHOSE to go there. You were WARNED not to. NOW you're bitching that you and your buddies can't get expensive and dangerous help after ignoring all logic and advice? FOAD.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another graphic from another war zone. Rall, the cartoonist and writer, has long been involved and interested in the “stan” region. In 2001, he traveled to Taloqan, Afghanistan as the so-called Northern Alliance advanced against the Taliban with U.S. support. In graphic form and in essays, he recounts the boredom, fear, violence, and confusion of life on the ground. While the personal story provides immediacy and a glimpse of a small piece, the essays and articles give a wider look at the whole—brief history, politics, and war. I recommend this, but I do have one big complaint. Rall repeatedly uses “anarchy” to describe the violent lawlessness of the area. He specifically says that being able to pay someone to have another person killed would answer the prayers of any anarchist kid back in New York. Such willful ignorance can only be read as insult. Cheap shot, not only because of its inaccuracy, but because many people who read his book may not know how it is inaccurate. Does Ted Rall hate anarchists this much? Whatever, I didn’t want to mention it because it isn’t as important as the info inside the book, but I thought you should be warned.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects the works of Ted Rall, an awardwinning journalist and comic artist, surrounding his assignment to Afghanistan shortly after 9/11. The book is split into three parts.

The first part felt like op-ed pieces covering the politics and drama regarding the middle east shortly after 9/11. This part I found difficult to get through, partially because all of the information was so current and is now so dated. I haven't followed these issues too closely, so I often had a hard time remembering what ended up being proved true and false, and what all happened after these events.

The second part is a short sequential art format novella about Rall's time in Afghanistan. I learned a lot about what it's like over there, at least for amerikan journalists.

The essays in the third part were much more accessible after the context of the story in the second part. Much of the content was rehashed from the GN.

I read this as a travelogue, not because I was looking for some nonfiction on Afghan politics. But I'm glad I read the prose parts as well. It gave me a more thorough context for news stories about Afghanistan. And yes, it's a downer.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ted Rall shares his thoughts and experiences of going to Afghanistan as a war reporter.

This book isn't really sure what to be. It's not a graphic novel, not a diary, not a journalistic report, not an insight into the culture, politics or whatever else. It reads like a rant, with a few crappy comics in between, that didn't add much to the story.
In his epilogue Rall reflects that journalism is so often one-sided, and not an accurate report of what is actually going on. I think the same goes for this book. Rall describes in length he miserable he is feeling, in this warzone where he wanted to go himself, how they are trying to make him pay ridiculous amounts of money, the living conditions are bad, how it is dangerous, etc. etc. This clearly colours this entire book. It is someone annoyed, hangry and scared, complaining away to someone who isn't there. And now we have to endure it.
I wish he had taken his mothers' advice; if you're not sure, go for silence.

[Axel Barceló · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than the geopolitical analysis, what is of most value in the book is the ethnological first person view of how and ultimately why there is such a thing as war journalist envoys. Very eye opening

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book by Ted Rall, comics artist (“Tom Tomorrow”) and journalist (The Village Voice) records his experiences in Afghanistan during the U.S. bombing aimed to overthrow the Taliban. (He left for Afghanistan pretty much as soon as the air war started.) As Rall has frequently visited and commented on Central Asia, the book is not as odd as it sounds. It includes columns he wrote for The Village Voice, photographs, and a graphic novel. The organization of the book suffers, as the editor did not blend well the columns and the graphic novel and thus they are often redundant. Nonetheless the book does provide some interesting vignettes about war journalism as seen by someone who really is not one, such as the struggles to find food, shelter, electricity for equipment, transportation, and translation services while at the same time trying not to get one’s throat slit by the facilitators of those things, as well as odd insights into the nature of the Afghan conflict and the Mad-Max-life style that has developed in the perpetually war-torn Afghanistan (people physically switching sides, sometimes daily, and mentally flipping between embracing the fundamentalism of the Taliban and the “modern” shaved faces, pop music, and porn on DVD life that appeared overnight in Northern Alliance areas). Rall posits the war was actually more about a Central Asia oil pipeline than overthrowing the Taliban and hunting Osama bin Laden, a thesis that has been presented far better elsewhere, but does not really make his case as he does not provide enough background. Nonetheless, the book like Joe Sacco's comics-style accounts of life in Palestine and Bosnia, is worth reading as it puts humanity, with both its good and bad aspects, back into a story that has for the most part been told through geopolitics and/or ideology.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alleged "cartoonist" and pundit Ted Rall ventured into Afghanistan in November and December 2001 to see the new war, and writes and draws about it in this book. On the plus side, Rall is a decent essayist who skepticism about the war turned out to be entirely correct. On the downside, his artistic style is one step above crayon scribbling, and the story is not that interesting. Being an independent journalist in Central Asia means a lot of getting ripped off by the locals, hoping you don't get killed by the locals, and cursing at the rich bastards with the networks. Rall froze in the Northen Alliance city of Taloqan, observed the battle for Kunduz from a distance, and noted both the basic decency of Afghanistani in helping each other in trying times, and the treachery of the fighters (literally identical across the Northern Alliance and the Taliban) and the roving nighttime rape-and-murder gangs of soldiers/bandits. Rall's point of view is, as usual, planetary in how self-centered it is. He's right, and you're wrong for not being as cynical about the war as he is.

If you're looking for a book in this view, get Matt Bors' War is Boring instead, which is better by every conceivable measure.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Rall to be a rather acerbic observer of what was happening on the ground at the beginning of the Afghanistan invasion. Given what was happening, his restraint was remarkable. I'd be a liar if I called this an easy read. It's easy in terms of format; it's difficult in terms of subject matter and cognitive process. You can't dismiss Rall as a liberal, because he's simply not; you can't dismiss him as a Conservative (note the capital C) because he's not a flag-waving rubber stamp for America's actions. Ted Rall is dangerous to your complacency; therefore, you should read him. Immediately.

[Davida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read in 2024

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

As another reviewer pointed out the organization of this book wasn't well thought out. As the columns Rall wrote and the graphic novel weren't well blended, thus there is a lot of redundancy, which put me off. This book is dated (back in the early 2000s) but it is interesting to compare Rall's thoughts about the War on Terrorism back then to the present day and how we haven't learned from our mistakes.
I appreciated his frank discussion and getting his "journalist's perspective." I also learned quite a few things about Afghan culture.

[Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite engrossing, easily read in a day.

A bit dated, of course, since it dates from the 00 era. So funny, for example, to read his frustration with GWBush and now we have the Trumpster.

[Rachel]

DNF, this isn't really what I thought it would be.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Rall may be skeptical about finding The Truth, he does occasionally fall prey to overgeneralizing about the politics of Afghanistan. For example, early in the book he argues that clumsy American attempts to suck all the oil out of the Central Asian region without paying off the locals was, along with US policy on Israel, the main reason for the 9-11 attacks. There is quite a lot of information that has come to light since then that leads me to view this argument as a gross oversimplification in general; and one which exaggerates all out of proportion the role of Central Asian politics in that event. Of course, Rall is writing during the immediate aftermath of 911 and from within Afghanistan at the beginning of a war and occupation that hasn't ended 12 years later.

The graphic novel travelogue sequences are especially good; as is anything written from that immediate day-to-day perspective in this book. These particular sequences and essays are golden.

[ComicNerdSam · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative and scathing look at the people of Afghanistan, and the American politics that's lead to the bombing of those people. I liked this, but it's kind of repetitive in the way that the comic section is sort of a rehash-with-cartoons of the text Ralls put out while he was still in the country.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an excellent journalistic memoir of the Afghanistan war, from Rall's time there in 2001. Written so early on, and published so quickly, it's not as polished as it could be, but it trades that for a tangible reading experience of what it was like to be there, both as a visiting journalist and as an Afghan. Rall also does a good job of explaining the politics of central Asia, and how US decisions have impacted the country, and Muslim world. Even if you don't agree with him on everything, it's hard not to give him credit for this effort.

[Maddsurgeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frightening and infuriating, but a good read. Cartoonist Ted Rall goes behind the lines to see what the war in Afghanistan if you're not (as was, say, the television news) in bed with the Northern Alliance. Distressing and terrifying even in its moments of biting criticism and gallows humor, this one is a must-read for anyone who's sick of the media glossing American imperialism even after the effects of it blew up in our face.

[Adrian Nieto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro que mezcla articulos del autor en previos periodicos (yo lo conozco por su trabajo freelance en MAD), acerca de su viaje como reportero durante la guerra de Afghanistan. Ted cuenta su version de la historia, como la ve. Desde sus problemas para conseguir casa, agua potable, electricidad, hasta la vida diaria que lleva la gente afgani. Un libro recomendable, mas para leer una tarde como curiosidad, un tema serio, tratado de manera casual.

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What was most interesting to find was that this story from 2002 accurately predicted what would happen in Afghanistan. It must have seemed then, that the U.S. would have left that place long ago, and the U.S. part in the war there would not have dragged on for twenty years. If anyone had taken this book seriously then, we'd have abandoned that hell in 2003. No one won. No one could win. But the Afghanis lost. And they died in huge numbers. Afghanistan lies in post-apocalyptic ruins.

[Charlie Trotter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of people chafe on Ted Rall's editorial cartoon commentary. At times, in his daily comics, he is as rough as a cob. However, his comic account of his time in Afghanistan, is compelling. I recommend checking it out from your library.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rall is an incredible satirist and his experience in the Middle East is growing year-to-year. It's hard to imagine that a political cartoonist would go to these lengths to give himself perspective. Great read!

[CB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should be essential reading for any student graduating from high school in the United States. I am much more likely to trust what someone who has traveled all over Central Asia (before and after 9/11) has to say about Afghanistan than what the news channels or the government say.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Behind the scenes look at the war on the poorest country on earth by the richest from an un-embedded journalist's perspective. Some enlightening tidbits in here. For example, I had no idea about the rate of defection from Taliban to Northern Alliance and back again.

[Joseph Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat perspective of a journalist's view in covering the war in Afghanistan. Rall attempts to clear away all of the spin and show the issues for what they are, also injecting a parallel story of the struggle to report and survive as a reporter in Afghanistan.

[refuzd · Rating 4 out of 5]

disturbing stuff..

[Joette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, usual for me and graphic novels

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book, straightforward and grim, marred only by some unfortunate typos.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books about the early days of the war in Afghanistan. Really funny as well.

[SB · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great mix of text & graphics keep things interesting! Expresses a unique perspective which is refreshing.

[Bryanzk · Rating 5 out of 5]

we need truth

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

958.104 Prose and graphic art about journalists in Afghanistan during the war.