A new memoir from a decorated Marine Raider captures the horrors of the Afghanistan withdrawal
Elliot Ackerman - Yesterday 10:14 AM
Elliot Ackerman is a former MARSOC officer, CIA tactical officer, combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, recipient of the Bronze Star and Silver Star Medals, and author of eight books – most recently The Fifth Act, which chronicles his coordinated attempts to get people he knew and worked with out of Afghanistan as the Taliban seized control of Kabul in August of 2021. The following is an excerpt from that book:
Elliot Ackerman receives Silver Star for actions in Fallujah, Iraq, Nov. 10-15, 2004. (Task & Purpose illustration by Aaron Provost)
The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan
We have a code in the military: Leave no one behind. No matter what you think about the end of the Afghan war, this past summer America asked its veterans to break this code, to leave tens of thousands of our allies behind, abandoning them to the Taliban.
As Kabul fell, a group of veterans, journalists, and activists rallied together to evacuate as many of our Afghans allies as possible. We made lists, we called in favors with old comrades, we even negotiated with the Taliban, but knew our efforts would prove futile because we knew we couldn’t get everyone out and too many of our one-time allies would be left to the mercy of the Taliban. Like so many involved in this effort, this dredged up conflicted memories from my past, sucking me back into a war I thought I’d left long ago.
No American war has ever ended the way that Afghanistan did, in which those who were being abandoned could communicate directly with the outside world in real time on WhatsApp, Signal, and other platforms. The result was not only what’s been called a “Digital Dunkirk,” but also a strange collapse of distance, in which I could be on summer holiday with my family while simultaneously helping an Afghan family navigate the Marine checkpoints at Kabul airport on my phone.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-new-memoir-from-a-decorated-marine-raider-captures-the-horrors-of-the-afghanistan-withdrawal/ar-AA10rpFg?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=af2f3ce8c00f4b808c24b985cc66bd1e
