The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror (Paperback)
ISBN: 1574888315
Amazon.co.uk link - £10.56

This isn’t a book review - yet - as I am still part way through reading this title, but I found what I have read so far so striking that I thought it merited a mention. I will reprise my comments when I have completely finished the book.

Eastern promise
Wolves of Islam is a commentary about the role of Islamic extremist fighters in the Chechen War (first and second). As such this title caught my interest as I was eager to read about the Russian military involvement in these wars, our own media’s coverage being little more than the usual excuse for some ‘Russian bashing’ a la Cold War.

Russia was embroiled in two wars in Chechnya - a former Soviet region in the south of what was the USSR which borders Georgia - between 1994 to 1996 and 1999 to today. It is of some dispute as to whether the second of these wars is really over, certainly Russian has declared that the war is at an end, but it seems that a lower level insurgency still smoulders on.

Wolves at the door
As to why anyone in the West should be interested in this conflict, and therefore be persuaded to read this book, is because it’s theme is so entangled - in an Alice Through the Looking Glass way - with the West’s own involvement in Afghanistan.

To cut to the chase, as it were, the group of Islamic extremists who incited the Chechen declaration of independence from the Russian Federation and the subsequent wars that followed were very much of the same school as the Taliban, who our forces are at war with. In particular, the Chechen ‘freedom fighters’ were influenced and were in part made up of ‘Wahhabis’, those Islamic fundamentalists who were the driving force of the Taliban’s ‘Shariah’ state, where the law of the Koran was practised so literally.

The goal of the Chechin Islamists was none other than to establish Islamic emanate in Chechnya and neighbouring regions that would rival Afghanistan as a stepping stone in the spread of their particularly fierce form of Islam.

Ibn al-Khattab with Chechens armed with anti-aircraft missilesWolves of Islam
The book pulls no punches, and - in short - is one of those literary warnings that is not a little sensational in the way it attempts to get at the substance of why, exactly, this form of revolutionary Jihadist warfare *should* frighten us. As such it is not, I would say, an academic work - a altogether unbiased history of the Chechen wars - but it does highlight in a particularly popularist manner the dangers of this sort of Islamic extremism.

Because of it’s almost ’tabloid’ style of description the book is in danger of being labelled as anti-Wahhabi propaganda, but to balance this the chronology and events it depicts are documented accurately.

The word that comes to mind is ‘grisly’ - and that may be something of an understatement - as the brutality of the main protagonists are related. But the very real - and accurate - atrocities that are described are a timely reminder to the Westerner just *why* we are fighting a war in Afghanistan and why the Taliban and their particular form of Shariah state should not be allowed to return.

The Wolves of Islam is a wake up call to anyone who lazily declares that they do not know why British service personnel are fighting and dying in Helmand. The Taliban are *not* the good guys, despite however much the cynical Western media might like us to believe that they are simply a ‘misunderstood’ indigenous group of ‘freedom fighters’. This book reminds us why this is so.

Disclaimer: I use the words Islam and Islamist in my commentary to describe the religious faction that the extremist Chechen and Taliban align themselves too. But it should be clear to all that these extremists bear very little resemblance to the vast majority of Muslim practitioners - and, in reality, their form of fundamentalism is in actuality almost ’anti-Islamic’ in it’s theme of intolerance, brutality and lack of value for human life.

Useful links:-

> Wikipedia: The First Checken War (1994-96)
> Wikipedia: The Second Chechen War (1999-?)
> Wikipedia: Ibn Al-Khattab (1969-2002)

> Alternative review: Jamestown Foundation - Wolves of Islam

'Ross Kemp return to Afghanistan' - Sky One - Sunday 10pm

I don't like Ross Kemp as an actor. Nothing wrong with that, he's just not my cup of tea - but unfortunately I let this bias against the person influence my decision not to watch a TV series which I now think I should have watched.

'Ross Kemp in Afghanistan' (Sky One) was much acclaimed, but Ross's previous outing in 'Ross Kemp on Gangs' so irritated me that I did not tune in to see his documentary about our troops in Afghanistan. However, when I heard he was to be following the exploits of the 5 Scots I could not resist the temptation to give his new series - 'Ross Kemp Return to Afghanistan' - a go. And I'm now glad I did.

I admit, part of the draw was to see how long it took an Argyll & Sutherland Highlander to chin the poncy actor. But as I watched the first episode in this new series I slowly developed a grudging respect for Ross, as he genuinely put himself in harms way - at times under a hail of enemy fire - to give us a very sympathetic insight into the work of British forces in this war zone.

So - in short - I am sorry Mr. Kemp. 'Ross Kemp Return to Afghanistan' is a gripping and intense window into the war, and not some wet excuse for someone from the media to espouse their anti-war pinko psudo-intellectual clap-trap (like 99% of all the rest of the media coverage).

Watch this program.

[Postcript: This series may have finally made up for 'Ultimate Force' - owwww, stinky!]

Link to the series web page: Sky One: Ross Kemp Return to Afghanistan

> 5 SCOTS - British Army Website
> British Army official YouTube channel
> The Royal regiment of Scotland

An icon of 60s and inspiration to left wingers ever since, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara has had a very deep impact not only on Marxist Internationalism but also on popular Western culture. Not least because his posters have been a 'must have' item in every student household over the past thirty years and on countless numbers of t-shirts.

What is rather mysterious, however, is how well recognized Che is but how little we really know about him.

I am one of those people who thought they knew who Che was, but when it came down to it could not put together any real outline of his deeds or even his real nationality. Hands up who among you thought Che Guevara was Cuban?

...Actually, he was Argentinean.

This is just one of the curious facts about the Marxist guerilla leader that you will discover if you read Jon Lee Anderson's wonderful book - 'Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life'. It is a wonderfully written biography which examines the life of Ernestro (Che's real name) Guevara in great detail.

Be prepared to be surprised, not least because Che has garneted an almost Christ-like persona and therefore the real life of this communist icon will not be quite what you supposed it was. If anything his life is far more colourful that it might have been if he had been the Marxist saint that legend has cast him as.

Moreover, aside from getting to know more about Che himself the book opened my eyes to South American social history and in particular issues of colonialism and nationalism and the plight of the native peoples and their European descended oppressors. So you actually get two books for the price of one!

If I had to sum up this book, this is the story of a rebel in every sense, but do not assume this is some dry political tome - Che was a rebel before he was a Marxist and not the other way around. You will conclude that this was definately a person you will have wanted to have known.

Useful links:-

> Amazon.co.uk - Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson

> Wikipedia - Che Guevara
> Che-lives.com
> The Ernesto Che Guevara collection -A Workers' Web Archive

ISBN: 0297846523 | Amazon.co.uk link

The history of the Great War (1914-1919) is an area which I have not as yet shown much interest in. Like many Britains of the post-war generations my knowledge of World War One is a circumstantial one, and like most I probably thought I knew most of what was pertinent about the 'war to end all wars'.

Then I read Peter Hart's book '1918: A Very British Victory', and I realized that I knew very little about perhaps the most important part of that war - how it ended.

Why the end of the war is a mystery to the British
The history of the Great War is - I think - taught very well in our schools, for the essential facts of how and when the war began and the terrible cost in human lives is well enough treated by our curriculum. But of the conclusion to this war, and any real sense that 'we won' is somewhat obscured by what has been decided has to be the main lessons from this part of our history.

To be fair, it is not so hard to understand why there is little apatite for any jingoistic self-satisfaction about our role as one of the victors. I remember my father talking about his father and what impressed me was the strong feeling that they were genuine in their conviction that that war should unequivocally be 'the war to end all wars'. How it ended was much less important than the relief in the hearts of the British public - and especially veterans - that it just ended.

1918 and it's legacy
If it was, then, enough for our forefathers that the Great War should be remembered in a particular way, then why change that?

Well, in perhaps what is understandable eagerness to 'put it all behind us', certain important facts have not so much been brushed over with regards to the true events of 1918/19 as having been completely replaced by ideas that people think should be what should be remembered about how the war ended.

For example, we are all led to believe that it was the intervention of American troops at the end of the war that brought about the German capitulation. Peter Hart dispels this legend quite forcefully, and explains that while America's involvement was a catalyst for Germany's fateful last role of the dice in 1918, the 'Doughboys' real military effect was less than decisive and did not change the inalienable fact that Germany was heading for defeat in any case.

Learning history so that it will not repeat itself
There are many of my generation, and younger, who feel that learning history is a waste of time, that what is important is the here and now and not the past. But the old adage about history repeating itself was one of the reasons that the story (I chose the word carefully) of World War One is adhered to and why this conflict is given prominence in our History classes.

However, it is precisely because of the need to prevent old mistakes that one should take an interest in Peter Hart's book, because the way in which the end of the war was re-interpreted in the years after its end and proscribed an almost allegorical or moralistic ending is something we are in danger of repeating again today.

Above: "Their coats are plastered with mud and weigh an awful weight with the water which has soaked in. Their backs are bent, and they stagger and totter along with the weight of their packs." Captain Noel Chavasse, 1914. Photo - Lima Company, 42 Commando Royal Marines Group carry out operations in the Helmand province of Southern Afghanistan to bring security to the surrounding areas. © Crown Copyright/MOD 2009

I speak of the current involvement of the British Army in Afghanistan, and this is why this book struck such a cord in me. There is a very close corresponding ghost authorship at work, a redefining of the real history of the Afghan War, just as there was when the story of the Great War was moulded by politicians and 'historians' after that event.

The only difference between the way the decisive events of WWI and today's war in Afghanistan are being managed is that today's journalists, activists and politicians are not waiting for this war to end before they ascribe an 'end', they are re-writing its history while its happening!

Through the looking glass
Obviously the Somme is not Helmand, rather it is the treatment by armchair generals and those with an axe to grind who make '1918: A Very British Victory' a wholly relevant history with a resonance in today's recounting of the war in Afghanistan. To me, the title 'a very British victory' is a ironic play on the fact that subsequent generations have turned what was, in the end, a spectacular British military feat during 1918 & 1919 into something which has - rather - the sense of a defeat.

Philosophically, of course, any war is a defeat, but I am not taking about philosophy, I am talking about history, factual and documented 'truths' about events and undertakings.

The truth is, as far as I can see, that the British Army in Afghanistan is involved in a arduous yet spectacular campaign, which sees our understrength force of service persons WINNING military engagements day in day out. But where do the British public hear about these deeds?

Almost none of today's media sources countenance any talk of 'victory' or even courageous and dogged redoubt. All talk is of waste, incompetence and lack of political will (sound familiar yet?).

I will end with an extract from a (low-key and well hidden) BBC report on a recent battle which took place, coincidently, just as I finished Peter Harts book, and leave you to pause for thought. But before I do, I strongly recommend '1918: A very British Victory' as a superb historical account of the end of the Great War, perhaps one of the first ever true historical accounts of that period.

Headlined: 'UK forces take key Taleban bases' - Sunday 4 Jan. 2009

"Afghan and coalition forces joined 1,500 UK troops for the pre-Christmas operation around Nad-e-Ali, which cost the lives of five UK servicemen...

They fought knee-deep in mud during First World War-style trench battles...

Over the following days, K Company - known as the Black Knights - waged battles in ditches and trenches to push back insurgents as Royal Engineers struggled to build patrol bases in terrain which had been turned into a sea of mud by heavy rain...

Meanwhile on 11 December, commandos backed by the 2nd Battalion The Princesses of Wales's Royal Regiment and soldiers from the Afghan National Army captured the town of Shin Kalay, west of Lashkar Gah...

The most ferocious fighting took place during the battle for Zarghun Kalay, north of Lashkar Gah, from 17-19 December...

Troops had "yomped" 60km through mud to get to the town before fighting a "canny and determined enemy" in 360-degree hand-to-hand combat, the Ministry of Defence said."

[Link to full BBC article: 'UK forces take key Taleban bases']

...But will this bravery, resoluteness and victory be remembered in future accounts of Afghanistan? Perhaps one day Peter Hart will turn his attentions to recounting the war in Afghanistan with the same accuracy and unbias objectivity as he has applied to his book on the end of the First World War?

I don’t know how this transpired, but Friday has slowly developed into the Milgeek media day. So today’s entry is a couple of wonderful history audiobooks I am listening to at the moment that I would highly recommend.

The first – but which, chronologically, should be the second – is entitled ‘A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century’ by Barbara W. Tuchman and is an overview of the fourteenth century with heavy emphasis on the state of ‘chivalry’. It is a fascinating documentary that focuses on this turbulent century, and unavoidably includes heavy reference to the wars between the two jostling (European) super-powers of the time, England and France.

I say that this is an overview and documentary rather than a academic history of this century as Barbara Tuchman examines the social impact of the two great catalysts of social change of the time – war and plague – rather than simply generating a ‘on this date this happened’ history book. Much of her concentration is on the effect on the people of the time and how they were buffeted about by these terrible arbiters of life and death (battle and pestilence). Moreover, as it transpires, she comments on the comedy of errors that was the nobility and the unmasking of the chivalric code as an outmoded fiction.

This book is fascinating and wonderfully read by Nadia May whose jovial inflection highlights the great ironies of the 14th century in a very pleasant way.

The second book I would like to mention is perhaps the book I should have ‘read’ (listened to) first, as it is perhaps a most appropriate prequel to any history of France in the middle ages. ‘Charlemagne’ by Richard Winston is a slightly more academic, but no less fascinating, insight into one of the – almost – legendary figures in European history.

What is nice about this book, when mated with ‘A Distant Mirror’, is that it established a basis on which you can understand how the chivalric culture developed. It establishes a bridge between the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ and the middle ages and tells how the great Charlemagne managed to claw back some vestiges of the might and pomp of the Roman Empire. (One of the things I found amazing when reading either of these books is just how much had been lost – in technology, tactics and knowledge – since the fall of the Roman Empire and how even up until the 14th century, in some ways, certain areas of development were still retarded – for want of a better word.)

In this case Charlton Griffin, who narrated one of my other great favourite audio books ‘The Twelve Caesars’, read this history of Charlemagne. Now, I enjoyed Mr. Griffin’s peculiar vocal style when he read the classic Suetonius book on the lives of the Roman emperors, as his very deep and plumy public school accent and excellent diction lent something to this ‘Latin textbook’. But others may find his rendition of Charlemagne a little dry and academic.

Whether you buy or borrow the printed versions of these books or, as I do, download them and listen to them on your iPod (while commuting), the subject matter is absolutely absorbing - from a historical, military and social point of view.

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> 'A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century' at Audible.co.uk (£17.69)
> 'Charlemagne' at Audible.co.uk (£33.32)

Note: 'A Distant Mirror' seems to be a littel hard to get in book form these days - Amazon.co.uk has a couple of new hard back versions for £70! But you can get it second hand there in paperback at about a fiver. 'Charlemange' is a Penguin classic and available in paperback almost anywhere.