# Book Recommendations - Canadian Experience in Afghanistan



## cupper

I'm planning a trip back to the homeland at Christmas, and wanted to add to my list of Canadian-centric reading materials.

I'm looking for recommendations for books written by or about Canadians about the Canadian military experience in Afghanistan from 2001 to present. Living south of the 49th, obviously books on the US experience in Afghanistan and Iraq are a dime a dozen, some good, some bad.

Over the past few years I've picked up several books on the subject, and was wondering if ayone could add to that list? I've gone through the literature topics and found a couple that list books for those heading over there to read for background, but I want to limit it to specific Canadian experiences.

Most of what I've read so far (that I can recall from over the years):

Outside the Wire by Kevin Patterson

Contact Charlie by Chris Wattie

15 Days by Christie Blatchford

Kandahar Tour by Lee Windsor

A Soldier First by Rick Hillier

There may be acouple of others that I can't recall as well. Feel free to make recommendations if you know any others that I can add to my list, or if there are ones that really should be avoided.


(Also, if anyone is looking for any suggestions on American-centric books on Afghanistan or Iraq let me know)


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## shiska

I recently finished reading "A Line in The Sand" by Capt Ray Wiss. Its a very well written, journal style book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone trying to get a better grasp on what Canadian soldiers are actually accomplishing. There is a strong focus on the effects our soldiers have had on the civilian population that is sometimes heartwarming, sometimes saddening and more often than not infuriating. Its harsh and honest and I loved it.

Might as well also recommend Capt Wiss' previous book "FOB Doc". I haven't read it but I hear its more of the same.


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## Kalatzi

I May be raining on youyr parade but

"A savage war" is coming out on the 24th

Check a review in the G&M

High on my list - Not liekley to be a happy read

see also "The unexpected war" -


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## Journeyman

Kalatzi said:
			
		

> I May be raining on youyr parade but
> 
> "A savage war" is coming out on the 24th
> 
> Check a review in the G&M


Couldn't find it through Google; dug my umbrella out for nothing


Edit: I stand corrected.


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## PMedMoe

Journeyman said:
			
		

> Couldn't find it through Google; dug my umbrella out for nothing



"*The* Savage War":  http://www.amazon.ca/Savage-War-Untold-Battles-Afghanistan/dp/1118115937


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## Old Sweat

You beat me to it, Moe.

Two others -

Fighting for Afghanistan by Sean Maloney

No Lack of Courage: Operation Medusa, Afghanistan by Colonel Bernd Horn


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## Infanteer

Depends what you're looking for.  Most of the stuff out there is war porn, so take it for what it's worth.  "It was hot, we got shot at, blahblahblah"

I've read a couple attempts at serious treatments of specific parts of the campaign, but I wasn't really impressed by them.

I'm still waiting for something impressive to come out.


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## RangerRay

Kalatzi said:
			
		

> I May be raining on youyr parade but
> 
> "A savage war" is coming out on the 24th
> 
> Check a review in the G&M
> 
> High on my list - Not liekley to be a happy read



If Lawrence Martin says it "sets the record straight", then it is most likely BS.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/lawrence-martin/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-war-in-afghanistan/article2194918/


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## dapaterson

What the Thunder Said by LCol John Conrad looks at CSS, primarily from his deployment as commander of the NSE, but also in the larger context of the CF.

I stand by my earlier comments, and recommend the book, but with caveats.


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## Larkvall

Clearing the Way - Combat Engineers in Kandahar
23 Field Squadron

edited by Major Mark Gasparotto


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## Jackson10

Two others I liked were "For Your Tomorrow", which was the life of Captain Jeff Francis, and "Sunray", which was about Captain Goddard.


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## Infanteer

dapaterson said:
			
		

> What the Thunder Said by LCol John Conrad looks at CSS, primarily from his deployment as commander of the NSE, but also in the larger context of the CF.



Actually, I forgot about that one.  That is one of the very few I actually enjoyed and dog-eared.  It does a real good job of showing the logistical aspects of the mission while also exposing one to the larger themes and issues in Canadian military logistics.


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## The Bread Guy

Here's a list with Amazon.ca links - I can keep adding as we get recommendations...

Alexander, Christopher.  The Long Way Back: Afghanistan's Quest for Peace
Blatchford, Christie.  Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army - Army.ca discussion
Brewster, Murray.  The Savage War: The Untold Battles of Afghanistan
Conrad, John.  What the Thunder Said: Reflections of a Canadian Officer in Kandahar
Flavelle, Terry.  The Patrol: Seven Days in the Life of a Canadian Soldier in Afghanistan - Army.ca discussion
Fortney, Valerie.  Sunray: The Death and Life of Captain Nichola Goddard
Gasparotto, Mark.  Clearing the Way:  Combat Engineers in Kandahar
Glavin, Terry.  Come From the Shadows:  The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan
Hillier, Rick.  A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War - Army.ca discussion
Horn, Bernd.  No Lack of Courage: Operation Medusa, Afghanistan
Maloney, Sean.  Fighting for Afghanistan: A Rogue Historian at War
Murray, Melanie.  For Your Tomorrow: The Way of an Unlikely Soldier - Army.ca discussion thread
Nivat, Anne.  Les brouillards de la guerre
Patterson, Kevin.  Outside the Wire: The War in Afghanistan in the Words of Its Participants
Wattie, Chris.  Contact Charlie: The Canadian Army, The Taliban and the Battle that Saved Afghanistan - Army.ca discussion
Windsor, Lee and Charters, David.  Kandahar Tour: The Turning Point In Canada's Afghan Mission
Wiss, Ray.  A Line in the Sand
Wiss, Ray.  FOB Doc
I'll also sticky this thread to make it easier to find.

_- edited to add links to Army.ca discussion threads for each book where there is one - _


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## cupper

Thanks All.

I'll look for those and any others you may ad over the next few months.

Infanteer: Don't mind reading War Porn. I try and balance it out with more analytical tomes and backgrounder stuff as well where possible.

One interesting thing I found reading the various books that were put out after Iraqi Freedom, particularly those written by or about individual players was that everyone had their own spin on how things went and why.


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## Old Sweat

Indeed, personal accounts are just that. It takes a longer view to try to figure out what happened. Unfortunately this often does not match all the perceptions, and away we go in a giant goat screw. Thus most historians leave themselves lots of wiggle room, which satisfies no one.


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## The Bread Guy

Yet another book coming out this week (added to list above):


> When he arrived home from a seven-month combat tour in Afghanistan in October 2008, Ryan Flavelle was overwhelmed by the kindness of Canadians. People lined up to shake the returning soldier’s hand, wanted to do him favours, and thank and praise him. “We were heroes,” he says. Yet he was angry. As he wrote in his diary: “They have no idea, they have no context. I hate them .... I had a hard time dealing with the fact that no one around me had any context of dealing with my experiences,” he says. So, Mr. Flavelle sat down and started writing about what he had been through. “We have an oral tradition in the military,” he says. “We always have and we always will. We propagate our stories by passing them on. “One of the benefits of that is that I and anyone who has been in [the armed forces] for any reasonable length of time become very good story tellers, because that’s what we do. We get together and tell stories. “So, I just started to write down some of my stories. I just wanted to navigate through the emotions that I was having which I didn’t understand.” The result is a book, _The Patrol: Seven Days in the Life of a Canadian Soldier in Afghanistan_, which will be released on Wednesday ....


National Post, 22 Oct 11


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## MarkOttawa

For an Afghan-centric view (also taking very tough shots at the NDP and our lefites) see Terry Glavin's _Come From the Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan_:
http://www.dmpibooks.com/book/douglas-mcintyre/come-from-the-shadows/review
http://www.amazon.ca/Come-Shadows-Terry-Glavin/dp/1553657829/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319384710&sr=1-1

Mr Glavin has a nice blog post on the book's reception here:
http://transmontanus.blogspot.com/2011/10/writing-book-is-horrible-exhausting.html

Mark 
Ottawa


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## The Bread Guy

MarkOttawa said:
			
		

> For an Afghan-centric view (also taking very tough shots at the NDP and our lefites) see Terry Glavin's _Come From the Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan_:
> http://www.dmpibooks.com/book/douglas-mcintyre/come-from-the-shadows/review
> http://www.amazon.ca/Come-Shadows-Terry-Glavin/dp/1553657829/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319384710&sr=1-1
> 
> Mr Glavin has a nice blog post on the book's reception here:
> http://transmontanus.blogspot.com/2011/10/writing-book-is-horrible-exhausting.html
> 
> Mark
> Ottawa


Added - thanks!


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## The Bread Guy

Depending on how good your French is....
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/103316.0.html

Added to the list above:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/102888/post-1082418.html#msg1082418


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## dapaterson

The MP for Ajax-Pickering, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, and former Canadian AMbassador to Afghanistan has written a tome, released a few days ago.  I have yet to read it, but thought I should post it here for future reference.

The Long Way Back: Afghanistan's Quest for Peace

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Way-Back-Afghanistans-Quest/dp/0062020374/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320893139&sr=8-2


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## The Bread Guy

dapaterson said:
			
		

> The MP for Ajax-Pickering, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, and former Canadian AMbassador to Afghanistan has written a tome, released a few days ago.  I have yet to read it, but thought I should post it here for future reference.
> 
> The Long Way Back: Afghanistan's Quest for Peace
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Long-Way-Back-Afghanistans-Quest/dp/0062020374/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320893139&sr=8-2



Thanks - I'll include that as well.

Looking for feedback - should this one, produced as part of the Canadian Forces Artist Program be included as well?


> To some, it’s the story of two Afghan girls fleeing from the Taliban in a high stakes journey that brings them to the brink of death. But for Sharon McKay, “Thunder over Kandahar” is a PG-13 primer on the Afghanistan War. “When I was growing up Vietnam was going on. No one would explain it to me,” says McKay, a writer who is based out of Burlington, Ont. “They didn’t know.” That childhood frustration helped inspire McKay to write children’s books that explain some of the world’s most vicious conflicts through the lens of adventure ....


Postmedia News, 9 Nov 11

Pro for inclusion:  it's a Canadian's experience in AFG, and could be considered Canadian literature about the war
Con against inclusion:  it's not about a Canadian _military_ experience


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## cupper

I don't see why not. Especially if it does provide background to why the conflict came about, and gives the reader an experience of what the Afghani people go through.


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## dimsum

cupper said:
			
		

> I don't see why not. Especially if it does provide background to why the conflict came about, and gives the reader an experience of what the *Afghani* people go through.



I'm saying this with the best intentions (so I don't sound too much like a jerk) but the population of Afghanistan are called Afghans.  Afghani is their currency.  Kinda like calling Canadians "Loonies"....actually after seeing some of the Occupy Victoria tents, that's not too far off the mark    :bowing:


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## The Bread Guy

cupper said:
			
		

> I don't see why not. Especially if it does provide background to why the conflict came about, and gives the reader an experience of what the Afghani people go through.


Good point - thanks for the input.

BTW, dimsum's right about the "Afghani-Afghan" thing.


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## cupper

Dimsum said:
			
		

> I'm saying this with the best intentions (so I don't sound too much like a jerk) but the population of Afghanistan are called Afghans.  Afghani is their currency.  Kinda like calling Canadians "Loonies"....actually after seeing some of the Occupy Victoria tents, that's not too far off the mark    :bowing:



 :rofl:

Thanks for the clarification on the Afghan vs Afghani issue. Good to know.


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