Full Measures

The central tragedy of Full Measures is precipitated by a specific and dangerous phenomenon of the War in Afghanistan: a “Green on Blue” attack. This military term refers to an insider attack in which members of the Afghan National Security Forces (the “Green”) turn their weapons on their US/NATO, or coalition, partners (the “Blue”). An Open Democracy article reports that the media usually portrays such attacks as stemming from perceived “religious or cultural […] insults” or from “Taliban infiltration into Afghan security forces” but then notes that if NATO strikes inadvertently killed Afghan troops’ family members, “rogue soldiers became lethal enemies” because the core “cultural characteristics of Afghans are based on a hierarchy of respect and care for family, clan and tribe,” and when “[t]he family’s pride is wounded […] someone in the family must bring the pride back” (Fekrat, Nassim. “The Root Cause of Bue on Green Attacks.” Open Democracy, 2012). These incidents became a significant concern for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). According to data compiled by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, such attacks surged between 2008 and 2012; in 2012 alone, 61 ISAF personnel were killed in 44 separate attacks. One notable real-world case was the August 2012 attack in Helmand province, where an Afghan police officer killed three US Marines. Since 2012, the attacks have largely subsided because the US government established security measures such as the strategic placement of “guardian soldiers”; in addition, the reduction in US troops in Afghanistan means that there are fewer US soldiers to target (Koplowitz, Howard. “What Is a Green-on-Blue Attack? Killing of US Major General Harold Greene Is Just Third Insider Attack in 2014.” International Business Times, 2014).

In the novel, the notification officers inform the Howard family that Justin was killed by “small arms fire in a Green on Blue incident in the hospital, which is still under investigation” (6). Grounding the plot in this real-world political context adds a layer of brutal realism. Justin’s death isn’t a generic casualty of war but a product of the complex and often fraught partnership between coalition forces and their Afghan allies. This specificity heightens the sense of betrayal and the seeming senselessness of his death, particularly for Ember, who struggles to comprehend how her father, a doctor, could be killed by a supposed partner.