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The #1 New York Times bestselling author provides a shocking analysis of the crisis in Pakistan and the renewed radicalism threatening Afghanistan and the West.
Ahmed Rashid is “Pakistan’s best and bravest reporter” (Christopher Hitchens). His unique knowledge of this vast and complex region allows him a panoramic vision and nuance that no Western writer can emulate.
His book Taliban first introduced American readers to the brutal regime that hijacked Afghanistan and harbored the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Now, Rashid examines the region and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe to see how the promised nation building in these countries has pro-gressed. His conclusions are devastating: An unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a renewed al’ Qaeda profiting from a booming opium trade, and a Taliban resurgence and reconquest. While Iraq continues to attract most of American media and military might, Rashid argues that Pakistan and Afghanistan are where the conflict will finally be played out and that these failing states pose a graver threat to global security than the Middle East.
Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the crisis in Pakistan are only the beginning. Rashid assesses what her death means for the region and the future. Rashid has unparalleled access to the figures in this global drama, and provides up-to-the-minute analysis better than anyone else. Descent Into Chaos will do for Central Asia what Thomas Rick’s Fiasco did for Iraq — offer a blistering critique of the Bush administration and an impassioned call to correct our failed strategy in the region.
- Sales Rank: #886580 in Books
- Published on: 2008-06-03
- Released on: 2008-06-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.59" h x 6.36" w x 9.36" l, 1.80 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 544 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Long overshadowed by the Iraq War, the ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan and Central Asia finally receives a searching retrospective as Rashid (Taliban) surveys the region to reveal a thicket of ominous threats and lost opportunities—in Pakistan, a rickety dictatorship colludes with militants, and Afghanistan's weak government is besieged by warlords, an exploding drug economy and a powerful Taliban insurgency. The author blames the unwillingness of American policymakers to shoulder the burden of nation building. According to Rashid, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and subsequently refused to commit the forces and money needed to rebuild it; instead the U.S. government made corrupt alliances with warlords to impose a superficial calm, while continuing to ignore the Pakistani government's support of the Taliban and the other Islamic extremists who have virtually taken over Pakistan's western provinces. With his unparalleled access to sources—I constantly berated [Afghan President] Karzai for his failure to understand the usefulness of political parties—Rashid is an authoritative guide to the region's politics and his is an insightful, at times explosive, indictment of the U.S. government's hand in the region's degeneration. (June)
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Pakistani journalist Rashid presciently warned about the problem of Islamic extremism in Taliban (2000), and in this work, he reviews the efforts since to defeat the fanatics. Sympathetic to the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, he proves to be highly critical of American-led strategy since and of the role in events of Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf. Personally acquainted with many involved in the attempted reconstruction of Afghanistan, such as its president, Hamid Karzai, Rashid covers years of international military, diplomatic, financial, and civil-affairs endeavors; in fact, the imposing quantity of information he presents makes his point: nothing tried so far has rescued Afghanistan from being a failed state. Afflicted by warlords, opium cultivation, ethnic divisions, and a resurgent Taliban, Afghanistan prompts pessimistic analysis from Rashid. He describes the support and haven that extremists in the mountainous tribal areas on the Afghan-Pakistani frontier have received from Pakistani intelligence. He then suggests that reform in Pakistan may improve matters in Afghanistan, which is indicative of the political difficulties dealt with by this well-informed current-affairs observer. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
"Not only provides thoughtful, detailed dissection of seminal events in Central Asian recent history, but an insightful snapshot into future scenarios of where the roadmaps to terror and peace may be headed."
-Greg Mortenson, author of The New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea
"Powerful."
-Wolf Blitzer
"Rashid, a Pakistani journalist, is that most valuable of political analysts: both insider and outsider to the problem he studies. His book should be read by anyone pondering how America might stop widening Osama bin Ladin's pool of bomb-clad volunteers."
- Chicago Tribune
"[A] brilliant and passionate book."
-The New York Review of Books
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
The proverbial "first draft" of history...
By John P. Jones III
Ahmed Rashid is a journalist, and a good one at that. He is courageous, and the reader cannot help but marvel that he has not met an "untimely end" due to his criticism of various leaders. From his base in Lahore, Pakistan he has had a vital "South-central Asian" perspective on many of the events that have become of essential importance to the United States, and to a large extent, the Western world, in the "post 9/11 era." His "beat" is Afghanistan, the five central Asian "'stans," India, and his native country. His book Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, Second Edition, written in 2000, became essential reading for American policy makers a year later.
Rashid's book is an essential compliment to Junger's book WAR. Junger covers the combat conducted over a year's period, by one unit of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, in a remote valley near the Pakistani border. To quote Junger: "The men know Pakistan is the root of the entire war, and that is just about the only topic they get political about." Rashid covers in detail the internal political situation in Pakistan, most tellingly, the "double game" that has been played, and continues to be played by the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), which is Pakistan's intelligence agency. Numerous members of the agency openly support the Taliban, while paying lip service to the Americans that they are fighting them. One of the most astonishing vignettes told by Rashid is dubbed "the Great Escape." It occurred on November 15, 2001, when there was an imposed lull in the fighting at Kunduz, so that Pakistani planes could fly in and evacuate members of the ISI, and untold number of Taliban, to Pakistan, thwarting the efforts of the United States, and the Northern Alliance, in the very early days of the ground combat in Afghanistan post 9-11. Rashid documents again and again how the American leadership turns a blind eye to the ISI's double-dealing, and continues to support General Musharraf's dictatorial rule of Pakistan, and his double-dealing with the reactionary forces of Islamic fundamentalism.
But there is much else besides. Rashid knew Hamid Karzai before he become Afghanistan's current leader. He gave a concise account of his background, and the logic behind his selection by the Americans. Karzai is a Pashtun counterweight to the Northern Alliance. His coverage of "the Stans" is incisive. Each ruled by a dictator, who milk the Americans for rights to bases. Graft and corruption are the norm; the ruling elite become fabulously rich, which only helps fuel an Islamic fundamentalist backlash in each of these countries. Telling, Rashid echoes a variation of a once famous question in the American `50's: Who lost Uzbekistan? Rashid also provides vital explanations of what he terms "Al Qaeda bolt-hole," which are their sanctuaries in the Northwest frontier provinces. Is Osama Bin Laden still there? Rashid draws no definitive conclusions, but the continued lack of real interest in bringing him to justice, almost 10 years after 9/11 remains disturbing.
Rashid frequent travels to the West provide an opportunity to report on the Western leaders as well. He renders scathing indictments of the American "neo-con" leadership, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al., and how they blew a truly wonderful opportunity in Afghanistan by refusing to engage in even modest "nation building," a term anathema to them, and their almost total focus of Iraq, which created the conditions for the Taliban to become resurgent.
Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? A telling anecdote is on the author's website, easily reached via Google. George Bush, in his book Decision Points lifted Rashid's account (without attribution) of the meeting between Karzai and a Tajik warlord on Dec. 22, 2001
But I did have some problems with the book, and found it a bit of a slog to finish. Journalists, to generalize somewhat, seemed inclined to produce "cut and paste" books from their work. The book could use much tighter editing; for example, three times in three pages the reader is told that East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971. The history of Pakistan, as related in Chapter Two, has a "stream of consciousness" style about it. And there are numerous misspellings, the type that even a reasonable publisher would have caught via "spell-check." Rashid clearly has his opinions on various individuals, for example, "brutal," "corrupt", and renders them, but sometimes without providing the reader with his basis. Another reviewer, Timothy Graczewski, calls the author out on his statements about Toyota Landcrusiers travelling 150 mi/hr in the open desert. Did he mean kilometers? Doesn't matter. Anyone who has travelled in the open desert knows, that, save for perhaps the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, you cannot travel that fast due to the wadis, and innumerable dry water courses that would destroy the suspension on any vehicle.
Overall though, a vital, essential book. It was published just before President Obama took office. With the President's increased focus on this area, including augmented troop levels, Rashid's account is more important than ever, and will almost certainly be the most comprehensive view of the area that will be available in the West. 4-stars.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Hard-hitting journalism
By JDIRENZO
Rashid's book is an in depth look at the mistakes made by the US in post-war Afganistan. Mistake # 1 was believing that we could trust or count on the Pakistani government. It spells out in unprecedented detail how Pervez Musharaf, the Pakistani military and the Pakistani Intelligence services took the Bush administration for a ride, by being our "ally" against Al Qaeda and simultaneously supporting the Taliban. Mistake # 2: Rumsfeld's policy of buying the cooperation of Afgan warlords in the search for Al Qaeda, who as we now know had already found their way in to Pakistan. Rashid also puts into context the warlords on the US pay-roll ( Wolfowitz likes to call them "regional leaders") who carved up Afganistan and billions in reconstruction funds. He makes a compelling argument that the war lords and the US policy of buying them off was the chief obstacle to reconstruction and the establishment of government rule in Afganistan. I think the book is overly generous and forgiving of Hamid Karzai (though Rashid makes it clear that he is a friend and admirer of Karzai on the very first page) because it never really addresses the issues surrounding the reasons that the Pashtuns viewed him as untrustworthy. Beyond being a first class journalist, Rashid is an insider's insider in this world and the book provides a level of insight and detail that only he could give.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Devil's Brew
By Keith A. Comess
In, "Descent into Chaos", as with it's predecessor, "Taliban", Ahmed Rashid demonstrates profound and intimate knowledge of and familiarity with the byzantine complexities of Central Asian cultures and politics. An understanding of this troubled region is required not only to place our current involvement in context, but also to more fully comprehend the situation in the Middle East.
Rashid devotes around a third of his pages to recapitulating the history of modern Central Asia as previously recounted in "Taliban". While this may be a redundant feature for those who carefully follow Rashid's work, it is necessary background material. The majority of "Descent" adds more recent history as well as a trenchant analysis of the apparent failure of all parties: the US (indicted as the principal Western culprit), NATO (assigned secondary responsibility), Pakistan (the engine behind the Taliban) and finally, Afghani internecine conflicts, all of which contribute in near equal measure to the blossoming debacle now enfolding the entire region.
The basic premise of the book is that a regional and international solution of a genuinely comprehensive nature will be required to prevent development of a potentially catastrophic "descent into chaos". Taken in order of importance:
1). Pakistan; it's government, the pervasive and all-powerful security service (ISI). The long and sorry history of the State of Pakistan, embroiled in perpetual, fruitless and self-sustaining conflict with India is the prime motive force behind the Afghani farrago. An incendiary brew of pro-Islamist sentiment, anti-Indian maneuvering to efforts to "secure" a friendly (i.e., pro-Pakistani/anti-Indian) regime in Afghanistan and to secure survival of military despotism domestically have combined to support the Taliban in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Northwest Frontier Provinces. By providing logistic, military and non-military support, refuge, intelligence and political cover, Pakistan (acting via the ISI) has effectively demolished the effort to rebuild Afghanistan. By cynically and dishonestly manipulating foreign governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), aid given directly to Pakistan (well over 10 billion dollars through 2007) to combat terrorism has been diverted into pro-Islamist efforts and huge sums have been stolen. Additionally, the Pakistani government has (acting through A.Q. Kahn) proliferated nuclear weapons technology to Libya and Iran, while destabilizing missile technology has traveled in the opposite direction from North Korea to Pakistan.
2). US and NATO; a litany of bungled, misdirected efforts was catalogued in the efforts of Western governments in Central Asia. The prime culprit was identified by Rashid as the US. With a singular focus on Al Qaeda to the exclusion of the Taliban (seen as a secondary annoyance) and opium cultivation; with comprehensive disregard for Afghani governmental corruption; with cultivation of local warlords and, most importantly, with cavalier disregard of the role of Pakistan in the problem, the Western partners, especially the US have contributed to destabilization of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the entire Central Asian region.
3). Local despots: President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan is depicted as acting in connivance with the US, Russia and recently China to undermine democracy, promote "kleptocracy" and oligarchy. This regime was given prominent attention as an example of looming problems for Afghanistan's neighbors, a the issues in Uzbekistan extend to neighboring Central Asian countries. All of which have violent Islamist revolutionary groups to whom local populations, increasingly frustrated and exploited by their repressive governments are increasingly turning to violent Islamist movements as potential alternatives to existing regimes.
4). The current Afghani government: Indicted as corrupt, ineffectual and uninspiring, reflecting a tribal and warlord culture, now thought to control little territory outside Kabul. The multiple failings of the current president, Hamad Karzai were catalogued in sorry detail.
5). Other actors: These include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia and China. All have interests in the area and none are conducive to a stable, democratic and secular regime.
There are some idiosynchrasies in the book. Part of it reads like a personal travelogue. Other parts amount to a virtual "info-mertial" for the author. There are some redundancies in the text and a few glaring factual errors (such as representing on p. 324 that a group of Toyota Land Cruisers operated by drug barons was crossing the sands at "150mph").
Rashid offers no panacea for solving the mess in "the graveyard of empires", though he subscribes to the now widely held concept that the solution to Afghanistan lies in Pakistan. He provides suggestions, but the riddle of how to build a good, stable, secure government in the midst of a violent insurgency, especially when the entire region is experiencing similar problems cannot be dealt with by providing simple nostrums. It will take plenty of money (many, many billions of dollars) to improve the living conditions of the general population. It will require vast efforts to educate and provide for locals. It will need a sea-change in attitudes by governing elites regarding support for proxy warriors and their use in dealing with intra-regional conflicts. In other words, especially given the current economic situation world-wide, it appears hopeless. Unfortunately, the problems of the Central Asian region will not remain localized: given the current appeal of Islamism and the presence of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the major players (India and Pakistan) the prospect for a cataclysmic debacle appear excellent.
In summary, this book is a good or perhaps excellent study of genuine Devil's Brew, one consisting of irrational religious elements, realpolitik actions by neighboring and remote nations, incompetence, poverty, tribalism, greed and ignorance; in short all the elements required for rapid and violent ignition. "...If something be not done, something will do itself one day and in a fashion that will please nobody", as Thomas Carlyle once wrote.
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