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Caos Asia: Il Fallimento Occidentale Nella Polveriera Del Mondo (2008)

by Ahmed Rashid(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

8807171570 (ISBN13: 9788807171574)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Feltrinelli

review 1: Good book. But watch his interviews and talks, and they are full of contradictory statements. On the one hand, he says the militants are too powerful to be controlled by anyone in Pakistan. On the other, he says it is unbelievable that 700,000-strong army is unable to contain and control a few thousand militants. Only one of these statements can be true. There are too many of such blatant self-contradicting statements about him and about his book that undermines its quality. The only explanation I can think of is that living in Pakistan, he has to be diplomatic about what he says and how he says it. But it's not good for someone wanting to learn the actual facts.
review 2: Excellent book about the Afpak region. Wish I had written notes after I had read the book... more, I’m surprised that (now that I’m looking back for answers) there was no entry. This book is probably worth re-reading. Some of the things I remember from the book:There is a fairly detailed account of many of the players in Afghanistan, mainly guys who were Mujahadeen. Many of these people have stayed relevant, as some were part of the Northern Alliance (with whom the US allied to fight the Taliban), and others became Taliban after the US invaded. But basically the whole country is a bunch of warlords, some of the good (very few) and most borderline or just obvious criminals. The author explains a lot about the history of Afghanistan and its traditional system of governance. I think this is where I first read about the tribal nature of “government” in Afghanistan, and how it has never had a strong central government. Instead, the tribal leaders mostly govern autonomously, occasionally coming together to form a Loya Jirga, which is basically a council of elders where they can come to resolution about the bigger issues.The author also goes into extensive detail about Pakistani involvement with the Taliban and the insurgency against US troops in Afghanistan. In fact, he strongly believes ISI commanders were fighting side-by-side with the Taliban at key US battles, and that after the Taliban were routed, Musharref’s government even appealed to the US to airlift some of those ISI commanders back to Pakistan. Crazy. It is also well known that many Taliban attackers retreat back to the Pakistan border, where they can’t be touched by the US military. This is well-known and virtually every book I’ve read by former US military personnel in the area backs this up. What I hadn’t heard, and that the author asserts, is that the Pakistani military sometimes provides mortar support for those retreating forces. To me that is an outright act of war, but apparently it works, since our military forces are not allowed to counterattack, and are prevented from pursuing the retreating fighters.The reason for Pakistan’s involvement makes perfect sense though. It seemed mystifying before, why Pakistan, a supposed ally of ours, would actively support insurgents against us, but when looked at from their point of view it is not surprising at all. First, a lot of the senior people in the ISI are hardcore fundamental Islamists, and simply do not like the US or their presence in Afghanistan. They have been allied with the Taliban for a long time, far before the US ever invaded, and they continue their support. More importantly though, they do not see the US as being victorious in the Afghan struggle, and they want to develop ties with who they see as the eventual winner of the conflict, the Taliban. Pakistan knows that the US has no long-term commitment to Afghanistan, and that we are unwilling to participate in nation-building there. Without rebuilding that nation, there is no way that any kind of “central” government like Karzai’s could ever control the country. It’s simply too much of a wild west. Therefore, being neighbors with the region, they wish to ally themselves with the one group they do see as fit to control Afghanistan, the Taliban. Still, it’s mind boggling that they’re playing both sides, and to some extent are in a self-fulfilling prophecy - they do not believe the US can win, so they silently play against the US. less

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