To Afghanistan and Back Paperback – Illustrated, February 15, 2002

Ted Rall is one of the last of a dying breed: a journalist/political cartoonist who does not just repost corporate or government press clippings. Sane people 'go along to get along', and in this tough job market we must expect that someone willing to get blacklisted by the big media outlets in the name of truth should be a little, well, driven (or perhaps, even, crazy). Too bad. If you want smooth and polite oligarch-approved pablum go elsewhere, if you want the real story go here. Rall goes to Afghanistan, and instead of being embedded with the regular military he lives in ordinary peoples' houses out in the villages (on second thought forget the 'perhaps': he IS crazy). What results is a bit jumbled, I would have liked a longer book with more details. The cartoon maps didn't do it for me: I could have used some better maps and pictures so I had a better idea of where all this was happening. But still. A powerful and compelling look not just into the stupidest and most corrupt thing that the United States has ever done (and that includes Disco), but a look into a very different society: it's where the West used to be about 600 years ago. And if we don't start giving people like Rall more respect, it's where we are going back - and the return journey won't take a fraction of that time.

Even after seventeen (17) years, this on-the-ground reporting of the first months of the American war on Afghanistan is still very relevant.Rall focuses on the interviews with the locals, and his terrifying experiences as an independent journalist. He recounts how some of those journalists died: robbery, ambush, etc.He has since given an updated account of what is going on in Afghanistan with his book, "After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests: Unembedded in Afghanistan", published eleven (11) years later.

Rall is at his best here - channeling Hunter Thompson. Ted Rall's irreverent black humor comic about the Third Afgan War is still relevant (and funny/sad) over ten years after 9-11. The sarcasm is dripping in these concise, outrageous illustrations summarizing how Rall experienced the start of the war in 2001. And in 2012 the violence, tribalism, and lawlessness continues.Evan Tick CITI

This book is poor. It is claimed that the intent of this book is to bring us the truth about the war in Afghanistan, but instead it is just sensationalistic and self-aggrandizing.How many times does Ted repeat, self-importantly, that only he knows that the best way into Afghanistan is through the North, not Pakistan in the South? Only a few weeks into the war Ted was ready to declare it a total failure of US foreign policy. And, while Ted was more than happy to point out the flaws in the our strategy for dealing with Bin Laden and his terrorist friends, he never offers any viable alternatives. Criticizing is easy. Solving real problems is hard.The final insult comes toward the end of the book when Ted pines away about the racial and cultural harmony they have in Afganistan. He wonders why things can't be more like that here in the United States. So, now Afghanistan is a model the US should try to emulate? No thanks, Ted. I'll take our race relation problems over 30 years of nonstop war (much of it civil war).After reading this book I felt embarassed for the author.

These two books by Ted Rall will give you a powerful insight of what is Afghanistan and how America is really screwing up. 1). To Afghanistan and Back: A Graphic Travelogue 2). After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests: Unembedded in Afghanistan

Wish we had had this before we invaded! Hard hitting, humorous, and so true!

If you want to get a grasp about what Afghanistan is really about you need to read this book.

"To Afghanistan and Back: A Graphic Travelogue," by Ted Rall, is one of the most fascinating texts to emerge from the post-9/11 era of war. The book's dustcover notes that it is an updated edition with new material at the end. Although this book has a copyright date of 2002, its epilogue (pages 111-126) is dated May 3, 2003. The book also contains a brief introduction by political humorist Bill Maher. In the epilogue Rall notes that he went to Afghanistan in November and December 2001 in order to cover the U.S.-led war there for "The Village Voice" and KFI radio. The book is a striking blend of elements: Rall's reports from the war zone, photographs from the war zone, a three-chapter "graphic novella" about Rall's experience as war correspondent, and a generous helping of stand-alone cartoons about the war and post-9/11 America.A core theme of the book is Rall's claim that the mainstream media fed the public a load of "mindless jingoism" instead of truthful reportage; he describes his Afghan mission as an attempt "to separate propaganda from reality." In the course of the book Rall satirizes mainstream media, the U.S. military, U.S. foreign policy, and the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. His view of the U.S. military is particularly scathing. In the graphic novella U.S. military personnel are invisible, distant, but dangerous agents of indiscriminate violence; in the stand-alone cartoons, they are grotesque and destructive parodies. Rall creates a pungent, nightmarish portrait of wartime Afghanistan, and describes in great detail the dangers, discomforts, and frustrations endured by himself and other journalists. War itself is depicted as an ambiguous, messy, and even absurd enterprise.Rall's passion is evident and admirable, but the book is at times hurt by his arrogant tone. He sometimes sounds a little too convinced about the absolute truth of his own opinions, such as when he declares the Afghan war to be "merely an escalation of genocide," or when he claims that the war "will accomplish exactly nothing." With statements like those Rall strikes me as being as narrow of vision as some of the folks that he mocks elsewhere. Still, this is a bracing and thought-provoking book; Rall skillfully and effectively blends text, photography, and comic art into a compelling whole. I highly recommend "To Afghanistan" for all those with a serious interest in the Afghanistan campaign; as a military veteran of that campaign, I greatly appreciate Rall's work.

Ich habe mir "To Afghanistan and Back" gekauft, um einen tieferen Einblick in die Afghanistan-Materie zu bekommen, um zu verstehen warum es da keinen Frieden gibt und warum die Deutschen noch Truppen da haben. Was diese Erwartungen anbelangt, wurde ich leider sehr enttäuscht. Sicherlich ist das Buch stellenweise interessant und an anderen Stellen auch witzig, aber so wirklich viel zurückbehalten, habe ich davon nicht. Ich weiss nun, dass man nach Afghanistan am besten vom Norden aus kommt, das die Afghanen sich nun Pornos kaufen können und nicht alles unter der Herrschaft der Taliban schlecht war, wie Ted Rall der Meinung ist.Das Buch gliedert sich in 3 Abschnitte. Im ersten und dritten gibt es hauptsächlich kurze Text-Kapitel und zu jedem dieser Artikel einen sehr kleinen Comic-Strip, um das geschriebene noch einmal zu verdeutlichen. Der zweite Abschnitt besteht aus einem reinen Comic, was man aber auch durchaus als Text hätte schreiben können. Die Bilder der Comics sind, wie bei Ted Rall üblich, sehr schlecht gezeichnet und fangen überhaupt nicht die Atmosphäre des Landes ein. Während man bei Palestine, Barefoot Gen oder auch Maus das Gefühl hat, wirklich mittendrin zu sein, liest sich dieses Buch eher wie ein langweiliger Reisebericht. Vielleicht bin ich auch einfach noch ein wenig zu verwöhnt, da ich vorher Palestine von Joe Sacco gelesen habe, dass in meinen Augen sehr besser ist.Die ganzen 5 Sterne Bewertungen bei Amazon.com, kann ich absolut nicht nachvollziehen.