Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia

5 Responses to “Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia”

1. William Podmore says:

   May 18, 2010 at 6:39 am

   Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid is a friend and supporter of Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai. Rashid warns that Afghanistan is facing state collapse, Pakistan is in meltdown, and the five Central Asian states are dictatorships. He claims that the most vital thing in the world is to rebuild these nations.

   He shows that President Karzai’s regime depends on warlords and drug barons, who are backed by the CIA. Britain’s forces there are supposed to be helping to cut opium production, but their policy of paying farmers to ruin their opium crops has been `disastrous’. Opium production soared from 4,000 tons in 2005 to 8,200 in 2007. Half of this was grown in British-occupied Helmand, where the rest of Afghanistan’s opium was sold.

   The USA is allied to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which are al-Qaeda’s main sponsors. The USA has agreed more than $10 billion to Pakistan’s President Musharraf. Bush backed him even after he tore up the constitution, sacked the judges, imprisoned more than 12,000 people and muzzled the media. This `made immense hatred for the U.S. Army and America’.

   The USA’s torture of POWs has further increased this hatred. As Rashid writes, “By following America’s lead in promoting or condoning disappearances, torture, and secret jails, these countries establish their path to democracy and their struggle against Islamic extremism set back by decades. Western-led nation building had small credibility if it denied justice to the very people it was supposed to help. It could well be argued that over time Islamic extremists were emboldened rather than subdued by the travesty of justice the United States perpetrated. The people learned to despise America. … The wear of human rights in each country became linked to that government’s proximity to the CIA.”

   So the USA’s wars have increased the al-Qaeda threat, particularly in Pakistan. Rashid also notes that US interventions have failed in Yugoslavia and East Timor and made a hell-hole of Iraq.

   And then – after all this – Rashid calls on the USA, not to get out of the region, but to get deeper in. More sanely, he also calls on the peoples of the region to take responsibility for moving their nations towards democracy.
   
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
2. Albert Wayne Miller says:

   May 18, 2010 at 7:52 am

   While there is worthwhile information in this book,it is apparent the authors disdain for the west which has provided him with employment.It describes Operation Enduring Freedom as a bungling affair at best.Another Monday morning quarterback with No solutions.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
3. Leonard J. Fabiano says:

   May 18, 2010 at 9:05 am

   The last chapter in the book was obviously not written by Ahmed Rashid. The leader
   
   of the last chapter evidently had a disreputable agenda to promulgate. I abhor deception.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
4. Philip G. Krum says:

   May 18, 2010 at 10:53 am

   This book is a logged detail of all of the villages ruined and destructive activities involved in the 1928 war. More details than I needed to know
   Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
5. J. Ruff says:

   May 18, 2010 at 11:01 am

   service was quick and mailing was well-organized. product came in brilliant condition. was a gift for a family tree member and they seem to delight in it.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5