Consequence feeling connected to what youre doing is that motivated factor if you are in a nonprofit it can be pretty tiring because youre up close with the ugly it is the private on the battlefield it is difficult doesnt see big progreso as a consequence they can give very disheartened very quickly so give them the big picture was important to them if theyre doing something they are tired and cold and scared theyre not causally reinforced this is your contribution and you were making a difference it can undercut them then you want them and the matter how difficult sea or making decisions. The opportunities are remarkable having the chance to talk to the head of h. R. Eight and i said how was recruiting . He said we dont have a problem with that but we have these technology for wizards a you can work here on the coolest stuff that nobody else has but with the advances of medicine it has been driven off the battlefield. Those of the big advances. Looking at the organizational models i will tell you having gone this to understand how far you are about what the world is facing translates directly to the technological revolution and with which the markets are changing the world is flat but it will be smaller if you look at the opportunities to stay ahead of the game you brought some lessons back that directly translate to the business world. Before the book wasnt sure how it would go. But to go through the book to understand how with directly translates regardless of the size sundew better than others and some are more adept but i will close with a quotation from your book to record a fundamental regrading of the rules in order to win we would have to set aside many of the lessons of procedure to optimize efficiencies have taught. You took some bold steps general with your team of teams to make the changes that the most important time of our lives on the battlefield to help us win over there to keep them safe for families and friends in the ability to do business. Thank you so much for your service and putting pen to paper for the book and congratulations and we wish you the best and spending some time for conversation thank you for all that and more. [applause] the idea is to take the programming from American History television and booktv out to produce peace is better more visual to provide a window into the citys the viewers would not normally go to with rich history and a rich literary scene as well. People like the big city like new york and los angeles and chicago but what about the history of them . We have been to over 75 cities. Most is the event coverage but these are not type of that their shorter and take you to a home or a historic site. The key entry into the city is the cable operator who contacts the city. Were really looking for your review worse to identify with these people that we are talking about. Is an experience where we take people on the road to learn about not the local history airshed the but also this is in our backyard. We wanted viewers to get a sense that i remember that place just from watching one of our pieces. Sees them believe is what we do on the road we have to communicate the message about this network in order to do this job. we wanted it to do was build relationships with the city and Cable Partners for some great programming for American History tv and booktv to see where were going next. Or guest tonight is elliot ackerman. Hes a decorated decorated veteran of United States marine corps and a writer whose work has been published in the new yorker along with the accomplishments the atlantic the times and the new republic among others. Mr. Ackerman was introduced to the daily beast and a member of the council of foreign relations. He served as a white house fellow in the abundant prior to that he spent eight years as an infantry and special operations officer. He served multiple tours of duty in the middle east and southwest asia and the Marine Corps SpecialOperations Team leader operated as a primary combat advisor to 710 Afghan Commando battalion responsible for capture operations and senior taliban leadership. Also let a 75 man platoon that aided in relief operations postkatrina new orleans. Elliott ackerman earned a silver star and a purple heart for his role leading a rifle you in the battle of fallujah and a bronze star for valor were leading Marine Corps SpecialOperations Team in afghanistan in 2008. He has earned a Masters International affairs from the school of law and diplomacy at tufts where he studied literature and history as well and graduated summa can lobby summa cum laude. Elliott has completed many of the u. S. Militarys most challenging special Operations Training courses and completed his officer training is the number one Second Lieutenant frank out of 200 marine corps officers. He is the recipient of other Major General edward d. Wheeler a word for excellence and green and blue is his debut novel and we are pleased to have him here to discuss with you. If you would come forward please. Solause] [applause] thanks for hosting and supporting this event. I will read from the opening many would call me a dishonest man but delays have faith in myself there is an honesty in that. We are from a village that no longer exist and our family is not large this is after the russian of of them i have only dim memories my father sitting in a wood pile and cleaning it. The smell of gun battle. My mothers secret to the one she shared with me once a month she was counting on my fathers earnings and but with cooking oils and spices and fabric to repair the close my mother always interested me and before we left the korean she had stolen from my father among the crowd did i would slip away from my brothers and i. When we returned home i had her hiding spot. The mud wall house was small for arabia of courtyard in between them. Of the cradle was im sure my mother would never get rid of it it was the one thing that was truly hers. At night she would sneak into our room gliding across the carpet. When brown and the other green and miracle of earth shifted around the room. Carefully she would lean over the cradle as she had done before taking us to nurse. She would run her fingers between the blanket that once swallowed my brother and me and finding the pack i left her she went to the courtyard and i would fall back asleep this dollar for tobacco pass my door. The secret made me feel close to my mother. In the year since i wondered why she entrusted me with it. At times i thought it was because i was her favorite. This isnt wise. The truth is she sheet recognizers may, her own ability. So thats the opening novel and its the voice of disease. When i served in afghanistan i served exclusively as an adviser to afghan troops around the country and as in the eyes are we did the same thing fighting men have always done. We went on patrol together. We werent friends together but when the war was over my war buddies werent a bunch of americans, they were a bunch of afghans and upon returning home i knew i would never see them again. They werent a bunch of guys that could call Long Distance find them on facebook or get quarter beers at the local vfw. They were trapped in afghanistan i began really writing the book in an effort to try to render their world and really as the last contact their friendship knowing i would never see them again. Its difficult to say where the novel begins because i think the process of writing there so much group thing in the dark as you begin the story. The opening often becomes the middle and your middle becomes the end and year ending becomes your beginning but for me there was one and go from my experience that i always felt was right so i would like to share that with you. There was a fellow in southeastern afghanistan who was the commander so i was on a remote firebase wired in with concertina and about once every two weeks we would have what we routinely called operational planning and what the operational planning meeting consisted of was i would go from my wooden hut basically to walk across the base over to his hooch and open the door and issac had this lumpy sofa which was actually a loveseat. I would plop down on it in front of us was a cheap wooden table and he would put down a pot of chai and wed have a pack of smokes. The two of us would recline on the sofa and look at the far walk and hanging on for two things, a map and a calendar. Esok would stand up have a cigarette and approach the map and he knew that part of afghanistan better than anyone. So the next couple weeks are filled upward he think we should go . He would look at the map and the border and often point to one of the villages on the border and say you know mr. Elliott we could go to mangrove today. I said all right esok that sounds good. They would block out seven days 10 days on the calendar and load up the truck about 120 Afghan Soldiers and we would drive up a 50 50 chance to get into a gunfight up there and they would take a day to set up the truck. The terrain is pretty rugged up there and inevitably a couple of weeks would pass. I would be wandering out of my hooch across the firebase and esok for their brochure planning meeting. He would swing open the door and i would plop down on the loveseat. Esok would come over with the chai and a smoke the two of us staring at the map again so well in operation and maggert today what is next on the agenda and he would have a cigarette and look at the map and he would say you know mr. Elliott is good hunting and robert carrere. We would get in the truck and go on out. The whole time i worked with esok the conversation was never you know mr. Elliott if we go and do one last operation and shut the door to the border blocking off the Pakistani Taliban the war will likely be one and i can go back to my field to you can write that novel youve been talking about. It wasnt that type of award. So what type of the war was that . In the book as much as its a book about character and about a disease and his brother ali its also my ambition for the book was to try to render the afghan war to show some of the paradigms i stopped playing out again and again from valley to valley and province to province to try to tell a story that was accessible to people who had spent time in afghanistan and back allow the mentor pointed to a conflict that is often incredibly complex and difficult to understand. So in the segment that i read is the opening with this he is talking about his family and his parents and what happened shortly after that passage his parents were killed in the time after the soviet occupation. After they are killed his older brother ali takes them to a city the nearest largest city to their city and they basically survive for winters working as delivery boy send them on that fourth winter disease over brother ali is horribly maimed in a bombing and finds himself in a hospital with disease wandering the corridors of the hospital with no idea how he would support his brother. He is recruited by lashkar and goes to fight hoping the soldier will keep his brother cared for in the hospital. As aziz goes off to fight and also to get revenge for what happened to his brother he gets stuck and an increase of leg complex for one that he potentially realizes being fought from every and the commander he works for had a vision of building an outpost in a village called cobalt couple andy sent to act as an informant and how to build this outpost. When esis goes to live in this village he finds himself with an old mujahideen fighter. He is someone who lost a great deal in the war and what im going to read right now is a little bit of that story. When my brother died he said it was not in the war we thought we fought. We were mujahideen treated as heroes in this village. Our battlefield achievements earning us honor, honor we became greedy for. This led to larger and more daring attacks. When the fighting slowed we would grow impatient for it traded the russian state on the basis and it was difficult to strike at them. An informant of hours a man who like her father ran a Trucking Company told us how one a few nights a russian convoy with Pastor Village along the north road. Eager as we were my brother and i asked some questions. The operation would be simple. After curfew we would bury a mine in the road and in the morning if the russians didnt show up remove it very at sundays later and the darkness my brother and i chipped the ditch out of the frozen earth to put the mine in. We carefully repacked the crumbled soil and went home giving the matter a little thought. We planted a tree and casually wondered if it would grow. We slept soundly and early the following morning before the sun rose we returned to recover the mine. As we walked through the clear cold air is now on the distant hilltop flowed with firelight. The mine had struck and we approach the road on great enthusiasm. Still her situation was uncertain. Who knew if the russians sent anyone to aid their convoy . Who knew we would become survivors. These were uncertainties we were prepared for and we were prepared for we found. As we crested the last ridge we saw only the beginning of our terrible mistake. Tilted against his side was the truck but it wasnt russian. It was civilian and full of lumber that now burned in the fire sparkling in the snow. We kept our distance will but word close enough to field of fire interfaces. We could see the cab and the steel starting to rest. Behind the shattered windshield flames came out with an upright silhouette. Do this absence feeling strangely alive. I cant say how long we walked. When we left the sun still hadnt risen but the silhouette had remain. On her journey home we said nothing and try to hide in our silence. Is that the attack spread through the families of kabul. A dead driver had been an employee. Several days later my father and our village were called to settle the matter. The collaborations were short lasting but two days and my father returned. This bengalis on both sides said that our fathers were responsible for her actions that he must replace the truck and recoup the damaged cargo. Our informant made out very well the first truck force us to sell our home and the second whiteout my fathers account eliminating him as a. His story of the mujahideen was very similar to think the story of many afghans and americans in afghanistan so much as oftentimes those war was being fought for a myriad of reasons none of which hadnt object it. As we sit here the years going on for 35 years in the case of the afghans we have to ask these questions why these wars have lasted so long. In this book what i aim to set out to show through the economies that exist and i dont mean necessarily financial economies but the incentive structures that exist. Many of the people who become influential and important work commanders and such have been elevated by the war itself and what happens when theyre at their station for so long that the war gets a status and potentially they no longer have at the end of the war because the economy has perpetuated very at thats what i was certain he turned to get out in the writing of the story and the theme. The book is all told from the perspective of aziz in the voice of afghan and it actually wasnt my original intent in writing the book to write it and afghan voice. In the early drafts of the novel had a construct where aziz walk onto a fire base and was telling his story to the american character who never made it into the book. His american character was an Intelligence Officer and a construct of the book kind of had eight, roddy and build so much so that it was at the heart of darkness of marlowe sitting in the congo. The kit that would amend the cadence of the story was when i became the may with working in the intelligence field in afghanistan were i would be sitting on a fire base and i could almost set my watch to it. If i were to sit down to do anything and afghan would show up at the door so a stack of pancakes and frenemy back to take a bite in afghan would show up but the rhythm of those discussions were i would be sitting across the desk from an afghan who claimed to have information that was essential to me. That type of backandforth came almost like a song i could hear it even after came home. I initially wanted to structure the novel that way but as i was writing it the framework was not holding up. I had to ask why do i feel aziz for aziz to be telling his story why shouldnt aziz speak directly to the reader and after wrestling with the question i felt it was a crutch for me to be able to try to tell the story and the novel was honest to try to render the war aside top the afghans thought i should allow aziz to speak directly to the reader in the end product is what you have in front of you. Another thing that struck me leaving afghanistan is we think about these wars and how long we have gone on and that something was tried to get out in the book if you think about it, in afghanistan right now there has been nearly 35 years of war and the average life for an afghan is late 50s early 60s if you live outside of kabul provinces. The afghans relationships are the late teens early 20s so in another 10 years by and large order of the largest segments of the afghan population has died off. I would be the only segment that could remember afghanistan at peace. What happens when nobody can remember afghanistan at peace . How you arrived at that . In the act of arriving there really becomes one of sheer imagination. By that criteria we have to reflect on her own experience as americans and as they progressed much further the remembering of that piece will become more and more distant. At a certain point in the book a similar point up to aziz and he tells aziz that the future is in remembering. Thats something i definitely saw from the afghans that were my age. They had no memory of peace and its bright thing that we might soon have a memory of our country at peace. So at that point i would like to read one final segment and then we can have a conversation. So this is when aziz first arrives in kabul when he serves as an informant these are his reflections on the village of also on the night was cold and all through it i got up stepped and said dried branches into the mouth of the stove. Once the last scrap burned at show woke me. I walked into the compound courtyard. At the as the early light came i saw his home was nothing more than the mudroom we slept in and the four walls and a courtyard. It did shrink beneath one of the walls and out the back. Dishes were stacked alongside it. Pass the compound where the mountains. It would seem these never ended. There were not enough protections from the floor but they were enough to observe the tradition. And as isolated at the village was progress had arrived. Motorbikes, cell phones and a few homemade satellite dishes perched on the rooftop all standing as messengers from other more modern worlds but it was a false progress. It measured not move or forward but the distance we would soon travel backward with the war. Thank you. [applause] you say that where close to a point where the afghans would not know peace because there arent enough of them around to have experienced this because the russians and the war that has gone on for 35 years so my question is number one, do the afghans deserve to live in peace and number two, i mean my wife is telling me what to say. [laughter] and number two, if the answer is yes, and assuming that in 35 years they have always been put upon by other peoples and assuming that this will continue what role for the United States have to play in trying to bring about that piece and how would you approach it . First of all i think everyone deserves to live in peace. In terms of what role the u. S. Will play in afghanistan i think the fate of the Afghan People and the American People have been linked together based off of our involvement in the country for the last 14 years and i dont suppose to know exactly what a quick twominute policy prescription would be to cure the Afghan People of all of their woes but a complete u. S. Disengagement from afghanistan would have serious implications not only for the afghans but for the americans in the longterm. We saw what happened in 1989 and 2011 disengaging completely from iraq so we have models from other wars. In a way it doesnt necessarily involve needing large numbers of troops to fight bird involves remaining militarily and gauged. I think as long as that type of engagement continues im actually optimistic about the future of the adamant of afghanistan. The people ive talked to are optimistic but only time will tell. Would about the status of forces agreement . It has the flexibility to increase and decrease depending upon the situation on the ground. I think sopa would be appropriate in afghanistan. We have had sofas in those countries for years and years that have done well. What you said about make in a novel out of it. I wish i could give you a very precise answer that shows me as a master craftsman. Often the story will pop into my head will be a first line. I find myself approaching each project differently. Oftentimes the first line is nothing or short story or an entire novel. In the case of this book the first line of the book was one from this american. He had the first line of the book and i very quickly realized the book was about aziz so a lot of groping in the dark for me. Did you have to rewrite a great deal . I did, rewriting is rewriting. Speaking from what you experience from the Afghan People at the good speak from their perspective what would be the one thing the one dynamic about her involvement there that they would want us to know that they feel has not gone across to the American Public . First of all i dont claim to speak for the Afghan People. I would never be so presumptuous. I just wanted to tell the story that i thought might resonate with some of my afghan friends and try to tell the war a little bit more from their perspective rather than the u. S. Centric narrative. That being said one of the things that the novel engages with is one of relook citizen. There are a lot of issues that we see in the u. S. , the corruption for insider tax which is the novels name greenonblue. Green is shorthand for friendly troops so those types of actions on face value in the media are morally reprehensible to us as americans. Why would someone do that . With drive someone to do that . What is the system they are operating and it tries them the ambition of the novelists take a green and blue attack and peel it all the way back. Not a spoiler alert at by the time the greenonblue takes place as a reader you might not agree with the action but at least you were able to see all of the decisions that lead up to it and tour reduction of opportunities for what they have to do. If there is at least that understanding i hope theres a bridge. You dont have to agree with that but oftentimes its productive and how we deal with some of these issues like corruption. How do you think the afghans feel about the americans being there . Its difficult to say because theyre such a large swath. I dont think the Afghan Taliban likes us all too much. Again i think its very difficult to generalize about how all afghans feel about the u. S. Some have welcomed an opportunity particular people in kabul. Again the afghan response to the u. S. Invasion is mixed. Some people have liked to and supported the americans and some people have not. When we look back at the russian experience in afghanistan its almost portrayed that all the afghans rose up against the soviets and they didnt. A huge segment supported the soviets in the soviets were credibly progressive on education. They also a million afghans so its just very complex and i think the response to the americanled invasion is as complex as all of afghanistan is. When youre talking about moral things that need to happen and decisions of governance and that kind of thing, cultural things when we were in europe after the Second World War there were similarities of past history. Most americans work coming out out there was a basis. In afghanistan there really isnt the same kind of depth of vases. Its further apart. We were in europe for a very long time. What kind of projection tv and for how long we need to be in afghanistan and . You mean culturally. The difference in what was in europe. We have similarities there. I dont think the u. S. Should try to create an Afghan Society that looks like a little america. Thats not going to work. But i think there are obviously similarities between afghans americans and i think what often gets underplayed are those similarities and we often get those similarities short shrift and spend our time trying to address the differences instead of spending time cultivating the soil marries similarities. For me as someone who has served as a marine soldier what have you there are a lot of strong rarities and being a soldier no matter where you are and that was the prism through which we were all soldiers in the same unit and is difficult to these large barriers between you when youre in a firefight huddled behind the same pile of dirt. You see some of the similarities. Theres a wonderful possibility for doing things that shouldnt happen, taking money to have something happen and so forth and so on. Ood for and tell i saw it. The only semi deployed as a child. I saw a lot of hard things and i recognize there are tough things to see. But they never struck me the same way and tell i concede my own child in the. Many times or perpetuates. If i have a daughter i could imagine then what it would be like. You can feel that in the pit of your stomach is said of an american soldier and an afghan soldier if i lost a young Family Member i would probably be up in the mountains fighting until they kill me and in many respects and has been perpetuated but talk about corruption, it is easy to sit back as americans to talk about the corrupt afghans but i have a young family. My daughter is for the half and my son is three. I was sitting in afghanistan with all of that uncertainty to raise three own family in kabul or can the horror i would not want h i the kid is difficult to say what did is right and wrong with that level of corruption but many people are operating in this cinnamic unfamiliar to us that make address those problems of corruption more than two excoriate those for being corrupt. That is my opinion i read it i wrote a book on the green on blue attacks my feeling is working. In iraq and afghanistan why did you choose to write or set your novel in afghanistan and not to iraq . I have been riding on the iraq war. It was indeliberate i was very interested with the theme that had come up and this was coming at me and i feel as though it takes over suave was not shunning one it just got my attention with the loudest amount of volume. Will you write about iraq . Day you have any good ideas . [laughter] have you ever personally died j green on blue attack or felt your life was in danger . I never personally did anywhere that i worked but it was something that you knew was out there because you knew it was happening one thing you could always tell some would wear a small pistol of their hip in the small of their back. But at the end of the day or a handful of american and surrounded by afghans and there is so lovell of fatalism. Telling about it in consultation of your role as an advisor that you thought that afghan commander would say we could go here or here to secure this border with your role suggests that yourself . Sure but as much as i tell the story i did not have it either this was elevated by the war devilish said that i worked with him that made him a pretty sick of his individual in that community at the same time for me as a remote part of afghanistan to be faulted missions that wooded vance my career and what i was drawn to. As much as eyeleted that to examine why he would never speak to the strategic terms i felt we had more it common with him then general eisenhower. Why is though more built that way . Why is the construct like that . If not to personal could you describe your thinking to what led you to college and marines and how that transitioned . I did r. O. T. C. At Tufts University and had a sense the florida and 11 that i wanted a job coming out of school, wanted a lot of responsibility and the third point also was the kid did never stopped playing with his g. I. Joes. But i consider myself fortunate to this was the excellent universities to always have this sense that as a 23 yearold the idea there may be a war and it could happen i felt there is the platoon of 45 marines out there and should be someone that hasnt or the fortunate ones because over the course of time that will impact these guys so i had a sense to be present for those decisions the way the offense turned out that is how my experience seibald. I have two questions. As a bar as is you know, of any of your friends read the book . The wan said there theyre not space served with but it right see everything a