PROMISES BETRAYED

"Promises Betrayed is the extraordinary story of Jamil Hassan, one of the Afghan interpreters who managed to escape and make his way to America. His first-hand account of his and his family’s experiences is absolutely riveting.  It is also illuminating, full of insights, and inspirational – while inevitably prompting, as well, reflections that include anguish, frustration, and anger, as Jamil’s story reminds us of important work that is very much unfinished.

This, then, is the compelling story of one of our many extraordinary Afghan terps in the War in Afghanistan – one who proved to be particularly determined, resourceful, and intrepid.

To understand our engagement in Afghanistan, America’s longest war, one must understand the role of the courageous Afghan terps, many of whom served multiple “tours” alongside our men and women on the ground against a tenacious enemy in the most challenging of environments and contexts imaginable. Promises Betrayed provides that understanding.

Given all that, I encourage you to read this important book and also to recommend it to others – and then to join the voices calling on our government to meet the unfulfilled moral obligation we still have to those who served on the ground with our forces but are left behind in the shadow of the Hindu Kush.”

~ General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and NATO/US Forces in Afghanistan, and former Director of the CIA