At every step, Rashid -- a fearless Pakistani journalist whose previous, largely ignored books warned the West of the jihadist threat being cultivated in Central Asia --is there not only to tell us afresh, but to remind us that he's told us already. Time and again, Rashid pauses to note how he advised the United Nations of the need for quick economic progress or "constantly berated" Afghan president Hamid Karzai to allow the formation of political parties, for example.
The book is a punishing examination of the failures of virtually everyone who set foot in Afghanistan. Rashid lays out charges against Pakistan: creating and supporting the Taliban regime as a potential bulwark against India, and providing refuge, since their 2001 overthrow, for Afghan fanatics and their Al Qaeda comrades. Its pro-fundamentalist policy has come back to bite it, in the form of suicide bombings and virtual civil war, and Rashid is relentless in reciting the names, dates, and incidents that have brought Pakistan to the brink of state failure.
Of Karzai, the author is no less sparing. The urbane leader is excoriated for indecisiveness on cronyism, corruption, and opium growing. "He seemed to be rejecting the fledgling institutions of government [and] resorted to traditional tribal methods of governance that were retrograde and ultimately contributed to more violence and fear."
And, Rashid says, after 9/11 the United States was intent on destroying Al Qaeda but ignored the resurgent Taliban, giving then Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf money and public support in exchange for sham assistance. Even as "democratic politics had regressed and Islamic extremism became ever stronger," the Bush administration, with the Pentagon focused on Arab terrorists and action against Iraq, handed over aid and stifled internal critics of the Islamabad junta.
