The two best pieces you’ll read about Afghanistan and Pakistan

David Rohde in Afghanistan in September 2007. (Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife)

If Iraq is increasingly the forgotten war, I fear too that memory and foresight could soon fails us in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Given news that NATO ministers have endorsed General McChrystal’s plans for more American troops, clear-eyed vigilance is even more urgent. Here are two sources to sharpen your knowledge.

The first is New Yorker writer Jane Mayer’s devastating assessment of the growing U.S. “drone” program. The twin military and CIA programs use a convoluted web of contractors, official authorizations, and shady Bush-era kill commandments to seek out and assassinate key Al Qaeda operatives. The thing is, scores of civilians have been killed or injured in Afghanistan and worse, in Pakistan, with whom we are not at war. And earlier this year, one of the drones, called a Predator and armed with Hellfire missiles, went astray and had to be shot down. Even with important enemies taken out, is this program worth the collateral damage?

Helping answer that question is David Rohde’s stunning five-part account of his capture, seven-month detention, and ultimate escape attempt from the Taliban. The drama of his personal ordeal is riveting enough. Better still is his almost revolutionary access to Taliban in their natural habitat. Moved by his kidnappers from southern Afghanistan into the Talib microstate in northern Pakistan, this New York Times reporter has first-hand intelligence on the cold-blooded leaders, fanatic underlings, and tragic malevolence of a little-understood movement. Guess what? His captors are terrified of being vaporized by a drone. But when one strikes nearby, more recruits join the Taliban fold.

This is Obama’s war. It’s confusing; it’s heartbreaking; it’s not going away. The least we can do is our homework. And Mayer and Rohde are essential sources.

Bonus: My friend Adam B. Ellick makes video documentaries for The New York Times. This is his harrowing, heartbreaking story from Swat.