stories. A book that gives a live account of the international missions of the Spanish military
One of the paradoxes of the Spanish narrative is that, despite having focused on the theme of the Civil War, it has generally been reluctant to address the issue of war in its arguments. The contest that lasted from 36 to 39 seems to be the only one that has interested him. For the Spanish narrator in general, that has been the only war that has existed in the world. It is in this absence of a war novel that goes further than the tragedy that began on July 18, 86 years ago, where Lorenzo Silva puts the sore with his latest literary installment. ‘No one ahead’ is a collection of texts that, halfway between the journalistic chronicle and the fictional story, address the missions that, within this first quarter of the 21st century in which we find ourselves, the Spanish military have carried out in the shadow. In the shadows because they have done it with their backs to the public and with the utmost discretion both by the media and the political class. However, in the ‘Preliminary Word’ that opens the volume, the author reminds us that since that 11-S of 2001 in which the demolition of the Twin Towers took place, this century “has been pierced day by day by war » and that this, although distant in appearance, «has not for an instant ceased to concern us».
The spirit and key to these pages, which narrate and describe the main planetary conflicts in which the Spanish Army has intervened in response to the international commitments of our country, lie in this wise and realistic assertion. Pages that are read in one go and almost like a literary story because those who lead us through the different scenarios of maximum and assumed risk are veteran members of the so-called Special Operations Command (MOE), who offer, with their respective, genuine and plausible nicknames, the profile of authentic fictional characters: Ruina, El Abuelo, Nadal, Bacterio, Lepanto…
Divided into half a dozen thematic blocks that, in turn, appear divided into brief and entertaining chapters, the first of them, which is presented as a ‘Prologue’, deals with the intervention of these men on the islet of Perejil, when in 2002 was taken by Moroccan forces. From there we went to the battle of Najaf, in Iraq in 2004; to an ambush in the Afghan province of Badghis in 2008; the eviction of the Islamic State in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar back in 2017; to Afghanistan in 2019 and, finally, to an ‘Epilogue’ that dramatically picks up the withdrawal of Western troops from Kabul in 2021, the chaos at the airport, the improvised evacuation operation, the abandonment of Afghan civilians to their fate… .
Lorenzo Silva renounces disguising as purely humanitarian missions those that required adequate weapons and a reaction capacity in the response, but for this reason he does not at any time incur the temptation of a justifying warmongering discourse. There is, yes, a hagiographic exaltation of the comradeship, the sense of duty and the ability to sacrifice of those soldiers whom he had the opportunity to interrogate in order to obtain extensive and rigorous documentation that, although logically it is overshadowed by the commitment to discretion and confidentiality or by literary elaboration and fictional treatment, the reader can appreciate throughout all the content.
‘No one ahead’ is a balanced text even in the dosage of the quotes from classic and contemporary authors, which are not at all overwhelming or fall into a tedious culturalism. Lorenzo Silva makes use of an aphorism of Heraclitus or ‘War has no name woman’ by Svetlana Alexievich; of ‘Imán’, the first novel by Ramón J. Sender or of the ‘Diarios’ by Rafael Chirbes, and heads the parts into which the volume is divided with quotes from Homer’s ‘Iliad’ that are not forced and that, at appear as epigraphs, they do not paralyze or slow down the action in a text that preserves its fundamentally narrative character at all times.
In a postscript that closes the brief introduction to the book and that appears dated February of this year, the writer points out that, barely a month after completing its writing, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. In this way, we find ourselves before a more than timely reading, which can provide us with some new or illuminating perspective in relation to that uncomfortable phenomenon of war on which we have been forced to reflect in these dark days.
#war #Lorenzo #Silva