Above the Din of War Afghans Speak About Their Lives, Their Country, and Their Future—and Why America Should Listen

What happens when international forces finally vacate Afghanistan? Veteran journalist Peter Eichstaedt, believes the answer to that question is unknown, but if there is any hope for Afghanistan, it is with the people. Most books about Afghanistan examine the war from the perspective of a foreign correspondent, political analyst, or US soldier. Eichstaedt's book differs in that the focus is on the people of Afghanistan themselves, providing a forum in which the voices of everyday people are heard for the first time. Traveling the country for a year, Eichstaedt draws out Afghans from all walks of life: a former warlord, a Taliban judge, victims of self-immolation, courageous women parliamentarians, would-be suicide bombers, besieged merchants, frightened mullahs, and desperate archaeologists. Afghanistan continues to vex and fascinate the world, and instability, interest, and international involvement in the country will continue well into the future. In Above the Din of War, Eichstaedt explores what the Afghan people have to say about living through 30 years of continual unrest, violence, and negative international attention. From his time spent interviewing and living with the people of Afghanistan, Eichstaedt proposes two alternative American and NATO exit strategies that could avoid leaving Afghanistan mired in chaos and war: 1) convince Pakistan, Iran, and China, as well as the central Asian states, that it is in their collective interests that Afghanistan be at peace and not controlled by militant Islamic extremists, and negotiate a regional settlement in Afghanistan; or 2) partition the country along ethnic lines into semiautonomous regions. This thought provoking title will add a human element to a situation that all are familiar with, but only from a journalist's point of view.

Peter Eichstaedt worked most recently as the Afghanistan Country Director of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, during which time he managed six journalism development programs, including the Afghan Investigative Journalism Fund, a one-year project to build investigative journalism reporting capacity. He is the former Africa editor for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting in The Hague. A veteran journalist, he has worked in locations worldwide, including Slovenia, Moldova, Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, and Uganda, where he was a senior editor for Uganda Radio Network. He is the author of Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the World's Deadliest Place, Pirate State: Inside Somalia's Terrorism at Sea, First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army, and If You Poison Us: Uranium and Native Americans. He lives in Denver, Colorado.