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“Afghanistan is one huge enigma for most Americans. Douglas Wissing’s book helps us sort it out… This book is the place for most of us to learn about this woebegone, but resilient land, and America’s endless war.”— Lee H. Hamilton, former US Representative; former vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission and co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group
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“As with an album of close-up photographs, Douglas Wissing’s concise essays cast a sharp and revealing light on their subject. Here we confront in granular detail the waste and folly that is America’s war in Afghanistan. An empire in decline does not make for a pretty picture.”— Andrew J. Bacevich, author of America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History
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“When historians of the future try to explain how the United States could have accomplished so little in Afghanistan despite spending so much blood and treasure, this trenchant and honest book will be a crucial source. An important read for anyone who cares about American foreign policy in the 21st century.”— Alex Berenson, New York Times-bestselling author of The Ghost War and Twelve Days
About Douglas Wissing
Moving between radically disparate worlds is the modus operandi for journalist, author, and independent scholar Douglas Wissing. But the true work comes in the telling: in the weaving of a complex narrative steeped in the spirit of far-flung places; a story that radiates the intense experience of going there and listening.
His thought-provoking writing and meticulous research have resulted in seven books and landed his unique perspective in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, salon.com, and on BBC and NPR networks… READ MORE
About the Book
Hopeless but Optimistic provides both a deep inquiry into the 21st-century American way of war and an unforgettable glimpse into the rich culture of Afghanistan. It’s a picaresque book about the real stuff of life: the austere grandeur of Afghanistan and its remarkable people; the sometimes tragicomic ground reality of American men and women in a strange and dangerous place: warzone dining, defecation, and sex; the remarkable shopping opportunities for men whose job is to kill. READ MORE
News Flash
About Hopeless but Optimistic: “A scathing dispatch from an embedded journalist in Afghanistan…. Pungent, embittered, eye-opening observations of a conflict involving lessons still unlearned.”―Kirkus Reviews