Which we really appreciate. Please join us at the book signing and reception. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] book tv is on twitter and facebook, and we want to hear from you. Tweet us twitter. Com book tv or post a comment on our Facebook Page facebook. Com book tv. Elliott ackerman is next. An afghan boy who joins a us funded militia following the us militia invasion he is a contributor to the daily beast and serve as a white a white house fellow in the obama administration. He served multiple tours of duty in the middle east and southwest asia. He operated as the primary combat advisor to the battalion responsible for shropshire to capture operations against senior taliban commanders. He earned his silver star and purple heart for his rural leading a rifle platoon into the battle of falluja and a a bronze star in afghanistan in 2008. A masters degree in International Affairs where he studied literature and history and graduated sukkoth summa cum laude in 2,003. He has completed many of the military most challenging special Operations Training courses and completed training as the number one 2nd lieutenant ranked at the 200 officers, the recipient of an award for infantry excellence. This evening we are pleased to have him here to discuss. If discuss. If you would come forward please. [applause] [applause] thank you so much to hopkins for hosting that supporting this event. I am i am going to read from the opening of the novel. Many would call me a dishonest man, but ive always kept faith with myself. There is an honesty and that, i think. A village that no longer exist in a a family that is not large or prosperous. I have only been memories. A woodpile by the door, oil drags and the smell of gunmetal. The one that she shared with me, once a month she would count my fathers earnings. It soaked everything. My mother always interested me. Before we left she would press an extra coin in my hand this years stolen from my father. I was step away from my brothers watchful eye to buy her a pack of cigarettes when we returned home i would i would place the pack in her hiding spot. The house was small. The cradle was part of the room i shared. My mother would never get rid of the cradle, the one thing that was truly hers. One night after one night after returning from the bizarre she was sneak into our room, her small feat gliding across the carpet that lined the floor. Her hand holding a candle casting shadows on her young face, aging her, her eyes, one brown and the other green, a miracle from a miracle from birth shifting around the room. Carefully she would run her fingers between the blankets that once swallowed my brother and i and, finding the pack and left her, step out to the courtyard, and i would follow fall back asleep. This secret made me feel close to my mother. At times i thought it was because i was her favorite. This was a lie. The truth is, she recognized in me her own ability to deceive. That is the opening passage of the novel, the books protagonist. When i served in afghanistan i served exclusively as an advisor to afghan troops around the country. As an advisor, we went on patrol together, bled together, warned friends together, but when the war was over and upon returning home i knew i would never see them again. There they were not people i could call long distance, talk with on facebook or get beers with. With. They were trapped in afghanistans. I began writing this book in an effort to try to render there world as a a light last act of friendship. It is difficult to say where a novel begins because i think the process of writing, there is so much cloaking in the dark. Your middle becomes your end, your and becomes your beginning. For me there was one anecdote from my experience that was out of reach. I would like to share that with you. A fellow i advised in southeastern afghanistan, a commander on a very remote base wired in with mud walls about once every two weeks we would have what we call the operational planning. And what that consisted of was i would go from a plywood had to walk across. He set he had this lumpy sofa, actually a loveseat. He would sit down next to me a cheap, wooden table. Lay out a pack of smokes, and we would look at the firewall. To think saying amount and a calendar. He would stand up, approach the map. He knew that part of afghanistan better than anyone. Where you think we should go . He would look and. To one of the villages we can go here. Always very good hunting. He would look and point to always very good hunting. All right. That sounds good. Blackout seven days, ten days in the calendar, load up the traps and drive up. A 5050 chance we would get into a gunfight. Take a day to fix the trucks. The terrain was pretty rugged. Inevitably a couple of weeks went by and i would be wandering across the base where the operational planning meeting took place. Swing open his door, sit down in a loveseat. A pack of smokes, staring at the map again. So, its well, what do you think we should do next . What is next on the agenda . In other words, the words, the next village south and say, you know, always very good hunting. And so we would go there its. The whole time the conversation was never, you know, its yourself, we can do one last operation, shut the door to the border blocking off the pakistani taliban, the war will likely be one, i can go back to my field, you can get your masters. It just was not that type. So what type of war was it . And in the book, as much as it is a book about character , it is a book about the things that he has done and my ambition was to try to render the afghan war and micro, to show the paradigms that i saw playing out again and again. Try to tell a story that was accessible. And that would allow them to engage in a conflict that was often incredibly complex. So in this segment, the opening talking about his family and his parents. What happened shortly after, he and his parents were killed in a time the time after the soviet only get occupation. He and his older brother got taken. Horribly name. Wondering the whole the corner of the hospital. He goes to fight the border mountain. And as he goes off to fight and to get revenge for what happened to his brother he gets sucked into an increasingly complex war that eventually he realizes being fought. And the commander he works for has visions of building an outpost. And the section i would like to read next, aziz is sent back to act as an informant and gather information. And as he goes he finds himself in, fighter from the 80s. And someone who lost a great deal from the war and what i will read now is a little bit of that. When my brother died, died, he said, it was not in the war that we thought we fought. It was the mujahedin. Honor. Honor that we became greedy for. Larger and more daring. We would grow impatient. The russians stayed the russians stayed on their base, and it was difficult to strike. Ran a trucking company. He told us a russian convoy would pass our village. Eager as we were we asked a few questions. The operation will be simple. And if they did not show up some days later in the darkness we carefully repacked the soil and went home giving the matter little thought and planted a tree and casually wondered if it would grow. We we set we slept soundly. Recover. As we walked through the clear, cold air, a cloud with fire. It had struck and we approached the road riding on great gusts of enthusiasm still, our situation was uncertain. The convoy, who knew if we would come across the survivors. We were not prepared for the south. The beginning of a child mistakes. The great steel beast we get to the. By the shattered windshield. One who met death immediately. And through this absence it was strangely alive. I cannot say how long we watched. So what have been consumed. If we. We said nothing and tried to hide it with violence. News. News spread. The truck had been from our informant companys and the driver had been his employee. Several days later they were called to settle the matter. Deliberations were short. And that they were replaced by another to recruit the damage caused. In this our informant made out well. Forced us to sell our home. Very similar to the story. The war had gone on in this book aimed to set out and show commanders in such a forceful you know have and no longer have an incentive. The book is told from the perspective. It was not my original intent. The early draft had a construct. Walked onto a firebase and was telling the story to an american character. Sitting on the boat. To go visit. And the cadence of it was what i have become familiar with. I would inevitably be sitting on the base. If i were to sit down to do anything. Stack of pancakes. And then they would show up. Its only sitting across a desk claim to have information that type of back and forth came like a song i get here, the banter of the conversation. But as i was writing it, that framework was what was holding me up. Why do i steel for aziz to tell his story. Why should why should he not speak directly to the reader . And after wrestling with that question for a while i realized he should be able to tell the storys and that is my goal was honest, to defend the war i should try to allow them to speak directly to the reader. Thats what you have in front of you. You. Another thing that struck me is, we think about these wars and how long they have gone on. Trying to get out in the book. If you think about it, there has been nearly 35 years of war, the average Life Expectancy is late 50s, early 60s. You know, late teens, early 20s. So in another ten years by and large the large segment of the afghan population will be gone which will be the only segment of the population that can remember afghan at peace. The act of the act of arriving there because one of sheer imagination. But by that criteria we have to reflect on our own experiences. And for 15 years, progressed much further, the remembering of that peace will become more and more distant. In the book, similar. , reflecting on his days as a mujahedin, the future is in the remembrance. Remembrance. That is something that i definitely saw in and amongst my peers. They have no memory of afghanistan at peace. A thing that we might have no memory of our country at peace. So i would like to read one final segment and then have a conversation. So this is when he 1st arrived. An informant, his reflections on the village. The night was cold, and i thought i stepped lightly. Branches in the mouth and stowe. A chill set into my leg me. I walked into the compound and waited for dark. In the early lightning i thought tivo i saw how horrible it was. The muslim and the four walls of the courtyard which ran beneath one of the walls and out the back. Stacked alongside it. Stacked alongside it. This was the kitchen. The mountains. Seeing this never ended, not enough to protect the village from the war, but enough to preserve it. And even if isolated like the village was to stop the progress, motorbikes, cell phones, and a few home might homelike. All standing as messengers from a more modern world, but it was a false province. Measured measured not Movement Forward but the distance seemed to travel backwards. Thank you. [applause] [silence] [inaudible question] we are close to a. Where the afghans were not know peace because there are not enough of them around that experienced peace because of the russians and other wars. My question is, number one, do the afghans deserve to live in piece . Number two, i mean, my wife is telling me, like i said and number two, if the answer is yes then, and assuming that in 35 years they have been put upon by other peoples and assuming that this will continue, what role with the United States have to play in trying to bring about that peace and how would you approach it . First of all, i think everyone deserves to live in piece. That is my humble opinion. In terms of what role the us will play in afghanistan, the fate of the Afghan People and the American People have been based upon our involvement in that country. I dont suppose to no exactly what a quick description would be. We have models i think as long as that type of engagement continues, i am optimistic. I am optimistic that it we will hold. We have had interest in those countries for years and years. I wish you i wish i wish i can give you a precise answer. It could be a 1st line. Each project differently. As a short story. And in the case of this book, book, the 1st line of the book was one from this american Climate Change was originally in the fight. The 1st line of the book. And i quickly read. So it is a lot of probing in the dark. But i think did you have to rewrite a great deal . I did. I did. Speaking from your experience with the afghan he people, if you can speak from their perspective, perspective, what would be the one dynamic about our involvement, you may be feel had not gotten the cost of the American Public to mac. Well, 1st of all, i do i do not claim to speak for the Afghan People. I would not be so presumptuous. I wanted to tell a story that i thought might resonate. Try to tell the war from their perspective as opposed from a us narrative. That being said, one of the themes the novel engages was relativism. There are a lot of issues we see in the us with corruption or insider attacks, which is a novel thing. Shorthand. Green blue attack. So those type of actions, at face value we see them in the media, morally reprehensible. Why would someone do that . What drive someone to do that . What is the system that they are operating in, embezzling money, the only choice offering to them. And the ambition to take one of these attacks, feel it back. A a spoiler alert, but by the time that takes place you might not agree with the action, but at least you are able to see all the decisions that lead up to that in terms of the reduction of opportunities that they have. That understanding, i hope there is a little bit of a bridge that has been built. Often times we can be reductive. How you think the afghans feel . It is hard to say. There is such a large swath. The Afghan Taliban taliban like us much, much less. It is difficult to generalize about all how help all afghans feel about the american occupation. Some have welcomed certain opportunities, particularly people in kabul. Again, i think that the afghan response, some people liked it ands or supporting and some people are not. Its as much as we look back at the russian experience in afghanistan. They rose up against. They did not. A huge a huge some of the afghan population supported the soviets. They were helpful with womens rights and they also killed a million afghans. So it is complex. I think the response to the americanled invasion is complex as well. When we are talking about things that need to happen and decisions and that kind of thing, when we were in europe after the 2nd world war theyre were similarities a past history, most americans were coming out. There was a basis. In afghanistan they in afghanistan they really is not the same kind of depth the basis. It is further apart. Other than the europeans. We have learned that over a very long time. What kind of projection do you give to where in afghanistan. You mean culturally the difference . Difference in what was in europe, we have similarities i do not think that the us can tried to create an Afghan Society that looks like a little america. That is not going to work. But i think that there are obviously vast differences between afghans and americans and i think, though, we all know that. The vast similarities. And we often give those similarities short shrift and spend our time trying to address the differences instead of trying to cultivate the similarities. Cultivating similarities, the differences do not matter as much. So for me as someone who has served as a marine, soldier, what have you, there is a lot of similarity to be experienced as a soldier no matter where you are. That is the prison through which i became close. It is difficult difficult to have a large barriers between you when when you are in a firefight in hold down between the same cloud of dirt those become insignificant pretty quickly. [inaudible question] i never understood i never understood until i had a dollar. I had a dollar. And you know, i saw a lot of hard things. I recognize i recognize that there were tough things to see. But they never struck me the same way until i could see my own child in that. I bring that up because i i think many times work perpetuates not because of cause but loss. I could imagine what it would be like to lose her am a just mother just like any parent can. You can feel that in your stomach. I was an american soldier, an afghan soldier, even a taliban fighter and lost a young family member. I would be up in the mountains fighting. And in many respects these wars perpetuate. By the same token, issues of corruption, easy to sit back and talk about corrupt afghans. I had a young family. I was sitting in afghanistan with all of the uncertainty of exists trying to raise my young family and what that would mean for my daughter, what he would mean for her education. A midlevel functionary at the ministry of the interior and saw an opportunity to take a certain amount of money out of afghan somewhere safe. I think it is difficult to sit here and say what is right and wrong. The corruption and understand that many people are operating in a dynamic. And entrusting the dynamic might mean more to address the problems of corruption then sort of a straw you folks for being corrupt. Obviously i feel it is worthy to examine these issues. Iraq and afghanistan. Set your novel in afghanistan and not iraq. The short fiction. It was not deliberate. But i was interested. The themes that had come up. Its the stories. Coming at me. A lot of times i feel as though story i am writing, it would be the time. So per se this happens to be the one that got my attention. About iraq. Sure. Do you have any good ideas . Did you ever personally dollars an attack . Endangered, your fellow soldier. And never personally diced one, but as an advisor, yes, it was something that you knew was out there. You know, one thing that you could tell, some guys would where a small pistol on the small of their back. Back. That was a decision that everyone had to make. And you were aware of it. At the end of the day as well, handful of americans in pretty rough places, thrown out together. A level that comes into that line of work. You could just not see it. [inaudible question] consultation in your role as an advisor to the group. You felt that the afghan advisor might say we could go here or here and secure this border. What your role to suggest that your self . Sure, it would have been. As much as i tell the story, i did not have it either. Someone who had been elevated by the war. A very important, the militia that i worked with employed all of his extended family. A pretty significant individual. At the same time for me in a very a very remote and dangerous part of afghanistan the most far forward, something i, something i was drawn to. As much as i look at that and examine why he never spoken grand, strategic terms, i felt like we had more and, with a beak help you and what construct led to that. Describe a little bit about your thinking is a young adult, what led you to college, marines join how that all transitioned. It seems a little bit of an unusual task. Rotc. The program when i was 18. Ninetyeight. I wanted this job and i came out of school. It matters in terms of life. I want a lot of responsibility at a young age. I see myself as someone from a good family following parents always have the sense, wars are going to happen. As a 23 yearold kelowna came in this abstract idea though be a platoon of 45 marines. And should the lieutenant be someone who has not had these advantages . Have to make a few decisions. And the way the world turned out that is how my experience evolved. There a sponsor anybody else. [inaudible question] not my friends that i served with. I read by then. I mentioned, i dont suspect to be happy. Appreciate it. Translated in the posture. [inaudible question] how much of it they get right. Yes. [laughter] i think there is a lot of hollywood. Also military service, huge drudgery associated with it. Comments from time to time. Pretty amazing. I remember being in the province. Again with a group of afghan soldiers. Pretty small. Hours with the lead element that mountaintop. He can see the infrared. The school. But, you know, there were hours and hours and days and days i think that the television delete all the real work. Its really cool. The drug lords, mexico. The us. All the sentence. Interesting idea. It did not work too well. The approach. [inaudible question] some of the folks you to have using prostitutes, but you have not mentioned civilians. The hardest thing for me is civilian deaths occurring. Any comment on that . You know, both this and the iraqi war, interesting characters. The civilians frequently. As americans, us, as a country, i assure you, the atom bomb i do not think that that can be underestimated. It just does not get quite as much airtime. Any idea . And more . Nothing. No. That is war. It is difficult. Lets have less wars. Fighters. In afghanistan . I believe more fighters were killed. The story. Do you change your book so that it would be his story and not an american retelling . Do you have a history and involvement with the stories similar to what you are writing about . I am wondering how much of this book this book, connect to your own experience . Knowing these people and the situations and just going off of that coming up with their own stories . What i am writing sometimes, i feel like it is standing in a field of kneehigh dry grass. Two prints in my hand and trying to make a fire. Banging them together as hard as i can. Always a risk. Something that happened to me. Some of the experiences client striking them together. And when i get it right, sparks will fly. So everything is on fire