Books

Afghanistan: A Modern History
Photography of Kamil Chadirji: Social Life in the Middle East, 1920-40
The Best of From Our Own Correspondent
Visions of Ararat: Writings on Armenia
The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis
The Villages of Manchester
North Wales Walks and Legends
A History of Mozambique
Triumph of the Lack of Will: International Diplomacy and the Yugoslav War
Crippled Giant: Nigeria Since Independence
Fundamentalism Reborn?: Afghanistan and the Taliban
Pakistan: A Modern History
From Grand Duchy to Modern State: Political History of Finland Since 1809
Asad's Legacy: Syria in Transition
Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi
Serbia: The History Behind the Name
Jordan in Transition, 1900-2000
Heavenly Serbia : From Myth to Genocide
A Celebration of Norway
Lincolnshire Natives and Others
Revolution Unending: Afghanistan 1979 to the Present
Himalayan "People's War": Nepal's Maoist Rebellion
Palace of the People: The Crystal Palace at Sydenham 1854-1936
Exploring Ottoman and Turkish History
A Teacher's Guide to Using Castles (Education on Site S.)

Average customer rating:

Between heaven and earth, past and present, wealth and poverty
Curiously flat and disappointing
A favorite
Entertaining read
An Amazing Journey

The Places In Between
Rory Stewart
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
The Emperor's Children
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ASIN: 0156031566

Book Description

In January 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan-surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. By day he passed through mountains covered in nine feet of snow, hamlets burned and emptied by the Taliban, and communities thriving amid the remains of medieval civilizations. By night he slept on villagers' floors, shared their meals, and listened to their stories of the recent and ancient past. Along the way Stewart met heroes and rogues, tribal elders and teenage soldiers, Taliban commanders and foreign-aid workers. He was also adopted by an unexpected companion-a retired fighting mastiff he named Babur in honor of Afghanistan's first Mughal emperor, in whose footsteps the pair was following.

Through these encounters-by turns touching, con-founding, surprising, and funny-Stewart makes tangible the forces of tradition, ideology, and allegiance that shape life in the map's countless places in between.

Customer Reviews:

Between heaven and earth, past and present, wealth and poverty.......2007-06-24

Rory Stewart narrates this wonderfully varied and ever-fascinating look at the people and places of Afghanistan - literally from he ground up. Stewart is a young (not quite 30) historian and medievalist who ostensibly set out to walk the route of legendary Mongol leader Babur. Stewart's voice is that of a man who is by nature gentle, but his path takes him through some of the most rugged terrain on earth as well as among some of its most threatening (and threatened) inhabitants.

Post-Taliban Afghanistan is a country that has been turned upside down and then suddenly righted. Old customs (and by "old" we mean medieval) are here and there being supplanted by the new customs bought with US dollars and European aid. In some places, pre-Taliban customs, like dog fighting, are re-emerging. But as many parts of the country are inaccessible, even to its own countrymen, there are many pockets where the old feudal ways still hold sway. Stewart makes his way from village to village, banking on Muslim's famed hospitality to strangers to keep him fed and to keep him alive. In some places, the welcome is extravagant; in others, hospitality comes in the form of a single cup of tea wheedled out of suspicious villagers. But as Stewart says in the introduction, though he met with all kinds of bad and disreputable behavior, no one ever killed or try to kidnap him. In a place on the globe reputed for doing both with impunity, this is no small matter.

Along the way, we become more familiar with Afghanistan's regions, its dialects and its biases. Having explained to a man that he is a Christian, the man describes Stewart to another as "a Jew." When Stewart corrects him, the man is perplexed. "Is there a difference?" he wonders. We meet villages burned by the Taliban and those that harbor ex-Taliban fighters. We meet families that have been on the right side or the wrong side of many of the country's fights in the last 25 years - with the Soviets, al Qaeda, the Taliban, or the new American-backed regime. Though fiercely loyal to their faith, we learn how little some Muslims know about it. Though they may revere the Koran as holy, many have never read its Arabic verses. Stewart braves the ignorance of villagers and their hatred of infidels, admires the history and rugged beauty of the place and learns to threaten, bluster and drop names to secure safe passage for himself and a decrepit old dog foisted on him by some villagers.

"The Places in Between" is full of surprises and helps the reader understand what Afghanistan is like from the level of its chief unit: the village. Stewart marvels at the lengthy intricacies of Afghani greetings. He grieves the loss of Afghanistan's archeological patrimony; his description of the ravaging of the Turquoise Mountain historical site (for a few dollars American) is both heart-breaking and completely understandable. Of what use is an ancient pottery jar when one is barely surviving? The only criticism of the story is that the land's history, characters and names are so unfamiliarity that they sometimes run together in a meaningless swirl of sounds. But stir yourself from this reverie long enough to appreciate the complexity and utter foreignness of the culture that many Americans see as "enemy."

Curiously flat and disappointing.......2007-06-23

I really tried to like this book more. I really did. My wife gave it to me with a rave review of her own. On paper you cannot miss with an idea like this one -- a lone traveller walks across Afghanistan just months after the fall of the Taliban, exploring remote parts of the country that few westerners have ever seen. Stewart speaks the main languages of the region, so he can tell us first hand what happens.

Most of the book is in the form of short chapters which relate what happened on each of the days he walked. This is where the first problem starts -- most of the chapters are so brief (some of them barely more than three pages) that it gives the book a very choppy feel.

And then there is the challenge of the people he meets. What Stewart tries to show is that as he walks from one town to the next the nature of the country is constantly changing, in part because of the many different clans, tribes and tribes there are. The place feels like a collection of mutually suspicious enclaves rather than a country and is therefore very hard to govern properly. This, he says, is what the West should have paid more attention to before it started on its misguided attempt to build a modern nation from a motley collection of tribes with beliefs that would not have been out of place in the 14th century.

As Stewart drags the reader behind him from one dump to the next, you slowly come to the conclusion that many of the people he meets really aren't all that pleasant or interesting. Most of them are dirt poor and suspicious of outsiders. If it weren't for the local culture, which obliges villagers to take in itinerant guests, you'd imagine that a lot of these people would happily try to rob him or kill him (and some do take pot shots at him on the way). The one time he stumbles across an hidden historical jewel the locals are busily dismantling it to sell for a pittance at various markets.

After a while Stewart starts to feel a bit sorry for himself and this seeps into the text. We hear far too much about his dysentry and other ailments. He adopts a large dog for protection and soon has closer feelings for the animal than he does the Afghans he encounters on the way. The end result is a flat and remarkably dispiriting book.

A favorite.......2007-06-08

Extremely well written. I loved it. A fairly quick read and the story never flattened out. Plus there are a few pictures added into the print! Definitely a wonderful travel story with quite a few surprises.

Entertaining read.......2007-05-30

I enjoyed this book in part because of it's structure: a series of short essays about each part of this man's incredible walk. It's not long-winded or preachy, yet it clearly outlines the culture and the recent troubles in the region.

Well done.

An Amazing Journey.......2007-05-13

Rory Stewart is a cool customer. He plows through chest-deep snow, faces semi-psychotic, gun-toting goons, and is told outright "you will die." Although he may have actually yelled, cried, and prayed fervently during this Kafka-esque series of events, he reports on his historic trek with the aplomb of James Bond ordering a martini while dodging bullets.

Personally, I believe his surprising sangfroid in the face of danger is not exaggerated to impress the reader. Stewart also earns respect for his expert knowledge of early architecture. He rather obtrusively weaves the historic accounts of Babur's original travels through the text, but the canine, v. royal Babur portions of the narrative add color and interest to the tale.

It's unsettling to read a book in which an entire gender is missing, but despite traveling hundreds of miles through many villages, the women are sequestered.

I spent a fair amount of time mulling over the courage/stupidity equation (if he has a family, I can't imagine their worry), but am grateful that we have someone to witness and chronicle this important place and time with clarity, pragmatism, and ultimately, compassion. (Although it's at least a little ironic that we congratulate those of us who travel through these regions, never mind the people who are actually trying to survive there.)

Thanks to Stewart, we have a much richer view of a complicated land and diverse people. May he survive to tell more tales.

Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families

Average customer rating:

Crying, laughing, both at the same time
Nothing has been closer to home for me
AN IMPORTANT BOOK
Excellent Audio Version
The real war

Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families

Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Blog of War: Front-Line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
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Letters of a Nation

ASIN: 1400065623
Release Date: 2006-09-12

Book Description

“Here is what you will not find in the news–the personal cost of war written as clear and beautiful as literature worthy of the name is. These stories are the real thing, passionate, imaginative, searing.”
–Richard Bausch, author of Wives & Lovers

The first book of its kind, Operation Homecoming is the result of a major initiative launched by the National Endowment for the Arts to bring distinguished writers to military bases and inspire U.S. Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen and their families to record their wartime experiences. Encouraged by such authors as Tom Clancy, Mark Bowden, Bobbie Ann Mason, Tobias Wolff, Jeff Shaara, and Marilyn Nelson, American military personnel and their loved ones wrote candidly about what they saw, heard, and felt while in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as on the home front. Taken together, these almost one hundred never-before-published eyewitness accounts, private journals, short stories, letters, and other personal writings become a dramatic narrative that shows the human side of warfare.

• the fear and exhilaration of heading into battle;
• the interactions between U.S. forces and Afghans and Iraqis, both as enemies and friends;
• the boredom, gripes, and humorous incidents of day-to-day life on the front lines;
• the anxiety and heartache of worried spouses, parents, and other loved ones on the home front;
• the sheer brutality of warfare and the physical and emotional toll it takes on those who fight;
• the tearful homecomings for those who returned to the States alive– and the somber ceremonies for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.

From riveting combat accounts to profound reflections on warfare and the pride these troops feel for one another, Operation Homecoming offers an unflinching and intensely revealing look into the lives of extraordinary men and women. What they have written is without question some of the greatest wartime literature ever published.

“Andrew Carroll has given America a priceless treasure.”
–Tom Brokaw, on War Letters

Proceeds from this book will be used to provide arts and cultural programming to U.S. military communities. For more information, please go to www.OperationHomecoming.gov.

Customer Reviews:

Crying, laughing, both at the same time.......2007-03-06

I am a military wife. My young daughter and I survived 12 months while my husband served in Iraq. This book was absolutely amazing. I cannot come up with the words to describe how much this book meant to me. I don't know about other spouses, but no matter how much my husband and I talk, it is not easy for him to communicate his thoughts or feelings on his service in Iraq. It was even difficult for him to describe his life over there when asked directly. I think a lot of it is him trying to protect me, but also, his brain does not work that way. He was there, he did what he had to do as a soldier, end of story. This book brought me insight into my husband. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me sick. It made me angry. It made me happy. It made me joyful. It made me all of these things at the same time. I am so thankful to the organization(whose name escapes me right now) that made this book possible. It is a book that touched my heart and soul. I will never be the same, and I am greatful for that. It is in know way a "light" read. I read it quickly, as I do everything, but because I was hungry to read more, to know more, to feel more. Do not read it without a box of tissues next to you.

Nothing has been closer to home for me .......2007-03-03

I am a NCO in the army and have been to Iraq 4 times and this book sent chills through my bodie many times with the pure honest look at war. Most of the stories are reflections of events that any service member will identifie with. Then there are some events told in this book only a select few will truely grasp. This is a must read if you would like a insight into the mind of a Military member who has been deployed. I cant recomend this book more then just get it read it and prepair to get choked up. I know i did

AN IMPORTANT BOOK.......2007-02-12

This book really gives you a taste for how it is in Iraq...I think everyone should read it...especially Pres. Bush.

Excellent Audio Version.......2007-01-20

I listened to the audio version of this book. It was one of the most moving panoramic portrait of emotions of this war. Hearing these letters read aloud bring them to life in a way not possible in a reading. My congratulations to the publishers and producers of this work of art. Very very moving. Makes this war more of a reality for me here at home; it doesn't take sides, but expresses the good and the sad about this conflict. I laughed and misted up. A truly beautiful and broad compilation of real life stories.

The real war.......2007-01-16

Operation Homecoming is a book all U.S. citizens should read. I am a military dad who knows many service people that have deployed to the middle east. This book gives first hand accounts to help us comprehend the war. It is also helpful in understanding the sacrifice made by members of the military on our behalf. Homecoming made me laugh out loud and cry at length. I wish everyone could read it.

The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban

Average customer rating:

An Outstanding Piece of Analusis
Captivating and Insightful Account of Afghanistan
Poignant Exposition of Failing Foreign Policy
Good Insights, Along with Too Much History and Personal Narrative
Very highly recommended

The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
Sarah Chayes
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan
The Places In Between
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics
The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq

ASIN: B000NA1XSK

Book Description

A National Public Radio reporter covering the last stand of the Taliban in their home base of Kandahar in Afghanistan's southern borderland, Sarah Chayes became deeply immersed in the unfolding drama of the attempt to rebuild a broken nation at the crossroads of the world's destiny. Her NPR tour up in early 2002, she left reporting to help turn the country's fortunes, accepting a job running a nonprofit founded by President Hamid Karzai's brother. With remarkable access to leading players in the postwar government, Chayes witnessed a tragic story unfold-the perverse turn of events whereby the U.S. government and armed forces allowed and abetted the return to power of corrupt militia commanders to the country, as well as the reinfiltration of bands of Taliban forces supported by U.S. ally Pakistan. In this gripping and dramatic account of her four years on the ground, working with Afghanis in the battle to restore their country to order and establish democracy, Chayes opens Americans' eyes to the sobering realities of this vital front in the war on terror.

She forged unparalleled relationships with the Karzai family, tribal leaders, U.S. military and diplomatic brass, and such leading figures in the Kandahar government as the imposing and highly effective chief of police-an incorruptible supporter of the Karzai regime whose brutal assassination in June 2005 serves as the opening of the book. Chayes lived in an Afghan home, gaining rich insights into the country's culture and politics and researching the history of Afghanistan's legendary resistance to foreign interference. She takes us into meetings with Hamid Karzai and the corrupt Kandahar governor, Gul Agha Shirzai, into the homes of tribal elders and onto the U.S. military base. Unveiling the complexities and traumas of Afghanistan's postwar struggles, she reveals how the tribal strongmen who have regained power-after years of being displaced by the Taliban-have visited a renewed plague of corruption and violence on the Afghan people, under the complicit eyes of U.S. forces and officials.

The story Chayes tells is a powerful, disturbing revelation of misguided U.S. policy and of the deeply entrenched traditions of tribal warlordism that have ruled Afghanistan through the centuries.

Customer Reviews:

An Outstanding Piece of Analusis.......2007-05-07

Sarah Chayes gives a view of Afganistan which goes far beyond what we get in the usual media. She is a skilled detective and finds answers which the military and the State Department cannot.

Captivating and Insightful Account of Afghanistan.......2007-04-03

This is one of the most insightful and captivating books written on Afghanistan since 2001. Ms. Chayes skillfully intersperses first-hand anecdotes, historical context, and current events into a non-fiction page-turner. This book does a wonderful job of giving the reader a good understanding of what is really happening in Afghanistan and why we can't ignore its problems.

Poignant Exposition of Failing Foreign Policy.......2007-03-29

Sarah Chayes has crafted a powerful book that well explains why reconstruction in Afghanistan, after several years and the expenditure of much blood and treasure, languishes. She is scholarly in creating a narrative that describes the geo-political realities affecting the region, and intensely personal as she describes her own experiences resulting from those realities. Her journalistic prowess shines as she makes some necessary history lessons flow. Her access to key players and the personal danger with which she lives on a daily basis give her the gravitas to make "Punishment of Virtue" a serious indictment of those she places in her cross-hairs. Sarah Chayes has masterfully written a book that exposes the buffoonery and corruption in the rebuilding of a country that was and is the stage of revolving wars by proxy. If you have read Sheehan's "Bright, Shining Lie" about Viet Nam, you will experience deja vu as you read "Punishment of Virtue".

Good Insights, Along with Too Much History and Personal Narrative.......2007-02-11

"The Punishment of Virtue" refers to an Afghan police chief who is poorly treated despite doing an outstanding job; ultimately he is recognized as an asset, assigned as Kabul's chief, and murdered. Worthy as he (Muhammed Akrem) may have been, his unsolved murder does not make for good reading. Neither does the sometimes laborious journeys Chayes sometimes takes into Afghan history.

What is worthwhile is Chayes' insights into today's Afghanistan and the struggle between President Karzai's government vs. tribal warlords, Taliban efforts at a resurgence, Pakistani meddling, and sometimes even the U.S. Army. Some important observations include:

1)Pashtun society, lacking the mechanisms of a strong state, tends to settle disputes by informal conflict resolution. A meeting is called between respected relatives of the two parties - they give the stolen animal back, negotiate a fine, pressure the victim's family to forgive, obtain women from the killer's family for marriage into the victim's family (saves the prohibitive cost of brideprice and helps heal the wound by uniting the families), or if all else fails, delivers the murders to the victim's family.

2)Looting filled the streets as the Taliban was forced out of various towns. This offered a foretaste of what would happen in Baghdad.

3)The Taliban, while excessively rigid, had ended an era of road robbers and general lawlessness that began after the Soviets left. These problems returned after the Taliban left.

4)Afghanistan's survival had, for a long-term, been based on pillage, road tolls, and subsidies. Opium sales now account for 60% of its economy and gorged the Taliban treasury - they banned it only after a glut lowered prices.

5)American aid efforts were severely hampered by bureaucratic infighting over territory, responsibility, priority, and process. Similarly, having a separate reporting channel for Special Forces vs. regular Army didn't help military efforts either. Finally, intended or not, the U.S. Army was THE de facto State Department in most of Afghanistan - unfortunately, its leaders received almost nothing in important cultural background training prior to deployment.

6)Afghanistan is probably the gun-capital of the world. The American attitude towards likely resulting problems was that the free market would absorb all these gunmen, notwithstanding Afghans' long history of using weapons for robbing and road tolls.

7)Warlords needed terrorists to make themselves valuable to the U.S., and thus receive aid (bribery, theft/misappropriation of aid, and extortionate contracts). Thus, they have no interest in "solving" the terrorist problem. (It was also handy for using Americans via feeding misidentification of old enemies or rivals as Taliban.)

Very highly recommended.......2007-02-09

In 2002 Sarah Chayes was a 'crisis jumper' reporter who left journalism to run an Afghan nonprofit organization, where she witnessed the return of violence in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban. THE PUNISHMENT OF VIRTUE offers a damning survey of U.S. foreign policy in the country and region as a whole, and comes to life in an audio powered by the vivid reading of Renee Raudman, an award-winning reader. Very highly recommended: audio libraries will find it a popular lending option.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Average customer rating:

Interesting
Grand Ideas Fall Short
A great fictional story based in reality:
Afganistan during the Soviet occupation of the 1980's

Kara Kush
Idries Shah
Manufacturer: Overlook Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1585673218
Release Date: 2002-11-07

Book Description

A riveting and fast-paced novel in which "Kara Kush"-or "The Eagle," as the Afghan-born, American-schooled, Adam Durany becomes known-returns to his homeland to lead his people against the Soviet atrocities and communist infiltration that threaten to annihilate his country and its dreams of modernization. Adam, convinced that a resistance movement is imperative, rallies his followers, the ill-equipped patriots, to fight back.

Idries Shah, the author of this gripping story, is the best-known Afghan writer of our time. His books on Sufism, philosophy, history, and travel, are known the world over. Shah was the descendant of a thousand-year-old Afghan family, and an author and teacher who found success explaining the East to the West. Kara Kush, first published in 1986, is his only novel: a fascinating adventure in which a gifted writer set out to inform the world about Afghan society, history, and culture. According to interviews with Shah, the novel is based on fact and eyewitness accounts.

Kara Kush is, above all, great storytelling-Doris Lessing called it "the best war novel I have read . . . As exciting as Shogun"-but Shah also provides readers with a remarkable degree of insight into the country of Afghanistan and its people. As The Washington Times stated, "what sets this novel apart are the Afghans themselves. The reader is brought into contact with a people, a history and traditions peculiarly remote from the conventions of popular fiction."

Customer Reviews:

Interesting.......2003-03-03

A pretty good read. Interessting details about the war with Russia, many of which I am sure are true. Gave me a better understanding of the Afgan people. The write goes a little "Tom Clancy" at times, but it's a good book and I think, for the most part, based on truth.

Grand Ideas Fall Short.......2002-03-07

When i got hold of this book (1987 Fontana edition) i had rather higher then average expectation`s. Who better to write a book about Soviet-occupied Afghanistan then an Afghan themselves? Half way through i decided that this book could have been so much better then it was. I can honestly say this book has a large amount of Anti-Russian feeling to it. I can understand why, considering the thing`s they`ve done there but Shah goes as far as to say that all Russian`s batter and beat their wives and consider it 'the right thing to do'. Almost every Russian in this book (and there are quite a few) are either described as psychotic lunatics (One smile`s in glee as he torture`s someone and rape`s her daughter) or so stupid you`d think they`d not even know how to operate the Kalishnikov`s they were assigned to use. The way Shah jump`s through the book giving new character`s almost every chapter, you can`t get to feel as if you have any connection or feeling`s for them and hence come`s across feeling more like a text book with a fictious story in a real life setting then a real story. Although it does have some good, like the description`s of Kabul and refugee`s escaping and such, i am forced to give this book an 'Average' rateing at best.

A great fictional story based in reality:.......1999-07-24

Kara Kush is one of the best adventure stories I've ever read. The tales of bravery coupled with the fascinating history and insight into the freedom fighters of Afganistan and the world sparked my interest long before I knew what a Sufi was (I still may not know). This novel had such a ring of honesty that I found myself doubting it could be anything but the very best of non-fiction. From the actual phone number of the KGB to the descriptions of leaders and life experiences, this book paints a picture so vivid and genuine that one must wonder from what narrative or collection the author was writing. I would recommend this story to anyone with a curious spirit and the wish to be led somewhere interesting.

Afganistan during the Soviet occupation of the 1980's.......1998-02-09

A revealing testimony about the authors homeland and his truely unique incites into its people and their history. A must read for any student of coherent thinking and a wonderful example of triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds. Whether you are interested in warfare, travel, or incites into the greater capacities of the human spirit Kara Kush is the book for you. This story is truely told from an insiders point of view.

Enduring the Freedom: A Rogue Historian in Afghanistan

Average customer rating:

Solid information but poorly written

Enduring the Freedom: A Rogue Historian in Afghanistan
Sean Maloney
Manufacturer: Potomac Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1574889532

Book Description

Within hours of the September 11 attacks, Sean M. Maloney deciphered that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were the aggressors behind the despicable act. A war in Afghanistan then was inevitable. As a military historian, Maloney was determined to go there to study and record the events for posterity, if for no other reason than the education of his future students at Canada's Royal Military College.

What resulted is an in-depth and up-close look at the planning stages, deployment, and aftermath of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. In Enduring the Freedom, Maloney presents a rare on-the-spot view from such important locations as Kabul, Bagram, and Kandahar. He describes the American-led intervention in Afghanistan and the conduct of the war through early 2003, then discusses the events of 2003 from the three locales in detail.

Some critics contend that the war in Afghanistan is another Vietnam. Maloney rebuts that appraisal, pointing out that as opposed to the vague language of the Vietnam era, American objectives were clearly stated for Afghanistan. Those objectives were: to destroy al Qaeda's networks, training camps, resources, and communication systems; to destroy any governmental entity providing support or sanctuary to al Qaeda; and to undertake reconstruction efforts to ensure international terrorists can never again use the country as a base. The first objective has more or less been achieved. How to accomplish the last two is still widely debated, and Maloney offers some insightful thoughts and opinions. Finally, he offers educated advice going forward in the hopeful completion of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Customer Reviews:

Solid information but poorly written.......2006-08-29

This book provides a detailed account of OEF but it is so poorly written that it is difficult to get through the text. Maloney needs an editor make sense of the long, convoluted sentences. He did his research, but botches the book with his writing style.

Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia

Average customer rating:

A Fine Account of the Empire
They Told You So
A Must Read
A pot of lies with one honesty

Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia

Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1844675068

Book Description

The war on Iraq didn't begin with the lethal pyrotechnics of Shock and Awe, and it didn't end with George W. Bush's made-for-TV aircraft landing. Undetected by the mainstream press, the US campaign against Iraq began many years before, featuring cruel sanctions, weekly bombardments, and assassinations. With Saddam deposed, the US now finds itself mired in a grinding occupation, its troops under constant attack with no exit in sight.

Iraq was just one of three major imperial crusades in the last decade, orchestrated by a new generation of American politicians, both Democrat and Republican, who backed pre-emptive strikes to overthrow unruly regimes in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan under the pretext of humanitarian intervention.

Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair reported on these wars as they happened. Years ahead of the pack, they exposed the economic motives behind the wars and how fraudulent intelligence, a spaniel press corps, a servile United Nations, and corporate propaganda techniques were used to sell them to the public.

Imperial Crusades chronicles the lies that are now returning almost daily to haunt the liars in Washington and London, the secret agendas and the under-reported carnage of these wars. It is a ripely vivid, blow-by-blow commentary from Cockburn and St. Clair, and regular CounterPunch writers such as the late Edward Said, former marines Chris White and Scott Cossette, historians Gary Leupp and Doug Lummis, psychologist Carol Norris, economist Paul de Rooij, human rights lawyer Joanne Mariner, and former senior CIA analysts Bill Christison and Ray McGovern.

Customer Reviews:

A Fine Account of the Empire.......2004-08-01

Generally speaking, this account lives up to the high standards of CounterPunch's usual work: timely, witty, committed, and analytically sophisticated. It's main drawback is that it won't be anything new to those who have paid attention, and its undoubtedly small printrun, non-corporate marketing budget, and invisibility to an establishment press (that it critiques so well) will limit its distribution and appeal--which is a great misfortune. That said, it is an excellent place to start for those who need basic data and smart interpretations of current events.

Otherwise, I find it necessary to correct the review below of S. Frantzman, who utters numerous distortions about Cockbrun & St. Clair's work. I will take Frantzman (who in his other reviews and lists appears to advance an extremely belligerent ultra-zionist, pseudo-islamophobic ideology, by the way) point for point.

Frantzman: "This is a book based on opinion [...] America simply took over Iraq."

Me: Of course it's based on opinion; as writing is a human endeavor, it is impossible for any discourse to be based on anything else. Ever. Period. The point about encouraging Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, via ambassador Glaspie's comments to Saddam in the summer of 1990, is well known and not open to dispute. The point about the US conspiring to "starve" Iraq relies on rhetorical equivocation, but is true nonetheless, for the Pentagon had produced war plans in the late 80s about how vulnerable Iraq's water treatment industry would be to US bombs, and thus how all biopolitical systems of the country would fail as a result of a bombing/sanctions one-two punch; to doubt this is to ignore the US government's own published records, which openly speculate on mass mortality for infants by means of disease. Likewise, assassinating Saddam is nothing new, considering all of the hubbub about "decapitation strikes" during the barbaric Shock and Awe offensive. However, at various points in the 90s did the CIA also attempt to "help" Saddam commit suicide; such is so well known that various Friedmanish/Pipesque/Limbaughian figures in the Empire often boast of it. Last, it's pretty obvious the the Empire "took over" Iraq, considering that the new Iraqi constitution opens the country to foreign investment--all subject to approval by the US appointed governing authority--now headed by former CIA killer Ayad Allawi, who is only in power because of the US occupation force, a force that conveniently occupied government buildings associated with oil while Baghdad was otherwise looted and burned.

Frantzman: "The truth is that Saddam chose to invade his [...] program to get billions for new weapons."

Me: No one, least of Cockburn & St. Clair, will deny Saddam's criminality--invasions, gas attacks on Iranians & Kurds, gross violations of human rights, arbitrary arrest, killings, torture, and so on. Indeed, the authors point out that it is precisely for these reasons that the US enlisted him as their creature during the Cold War; the Empire coddled, enabled, and valued Saddam. On the other hand, we know that sanctions did in fact work, for (as both Rice and Powell claimed in early 2001) Saddam has been effectively disarmed to the point that he "can't project power in the region" and that even little Kuwait didn't consider him a real threat. It likewise defies reason to claim that Saddam was a serious threat, even though his regime was destroyed so quickly and even though his evil weapons of mass destruction weren't used against the US invader--which is beyond curious. The notion that Saddam had any substantial control over the Oil-for-Food program (which only began in 1996) is furthermore completely at odds with the historical record, as the program was UN administered to hold Iraqi oil funds in escrow until reparations and debts were paid off, and moreover until Iraqi purchases were approved--a system which thoroughly destroyed the country worse than the bombing--a process called "Sanctions of Mass Destruction" in 2000 by *Foreign Affairs*. This is not to say that Saddam didn't become fabulously wealthy during the sanctions regime--but such a result was well known in advance: what else could've happened but the complete centralization of power in Saddam's hands if all Iraqi foreign transactions are limited to oil, controlled by the state?

Frantzman: "Yugoslavia may be one of the only [...] from the province and supporting terrorists. Here the book is on the mark."

Me: I happen to like their reading here too, but I suspect that Mssr. Frantzman only appreciates it because the text argues effectively against the Moslem position.

Frantzman: "In the last analysis the Afghanistan conflict this book is so far off the [...] Nazism was also wrong and therefore it may not even be worth flipping through."

Me: Interesting that Frantzman acknowledges the criminality of the Taliban, but doesn't seem to comprehend that they, like Saddam, are a product of US Empire. Of course, Frantzman is completely in Never-Never Land with his assertion that the Taliban are foreigners: indeed, such is generally not the case. Rather, the Taliban are an indigenous Pashtun movement that arose in the Afghani-Pakistani border regions during 1994 as a response to the various mujaheddin groups then fighting for dominance after the destruction of the communist regime of Najibullah in 1992. Though a small number of foreigners have been associated with the Taliban, the majority of the cadres and leadership are native to the region; Frantzman perhaps confuses the Taliban proper with the mujaheddin groups of the 80s, who were largely recruited from other Moslem nations (though not without significant local elements, such as the semi-feudal mullahs)--Arabs first and foremost (al Qaida germinated from these folks independently of the Taliban). Also, there is of course no similarity at all between the Taliban and the Nazis--except of course for the virulent anti-semitism of both, and each's place within the rogue's gallery of ultra-rightwing movements. I might as well point out that Frantzman here invokes Godwin's Law by mentioning the Nazis, but I'm sure savvy readers noticed that.

They Told You So.......2004-06-02

Bush's war on Iraq has degenerated into a bloody occupation, signified by war crimes, slaughter of civilians and US soldiers engaged in Sadean rituals with Iraqi prisoners. The justifications for the war have been proven to be bald-faced lies. Thousands have perished and Iraq as a nation is worse off than it was under Saddam. This war was supported by both political parties and the corporate press. But not Cockburn and St. Clair, and the team of writers at CounterPunch, which called it right as the war was being planned, sold and unleashed. A similarly bleak saga has played out in Afghanistan, where a cruise missile war was launched on an impoverished nation under the grip of a regime the CIA had put in power in the first place. Mullah Omar and Osama are still at large, heroin production has soared and the nation is controlled by warlords and misogyinistic religious zealots. Again, the press and the Democrats went along for the ride and haven't looked back at the carnage left in the wake of the war. Cockburn and St. Clair predicted and show why the Afghan war was doomed to backfire on US interests and the civilians of that desperate nation. Imperial Crusades doesn't spare Clinton and his gang, either, which orchestrated an illegal war on Yugoslavia, under the rubric of "humantarian intervention", which ended up killing thousands of civilians, propping up Kosovar terrorists, unleashing religious zealots and looney sectarians. Both Kosovo and Yugoslavia remain in dire straits and the humanitarian bombers have moved on to other causes. This book is written as a journal of the past 12 years of unremitting war by the imperial forces of the US and their allies in the press. It was CounterPunch which first exposed the fabrications of the New York Times's Judith Miller. This book holds no punches and plays no favorites.

A Must Read.......2004-05-25

This is a fantastic book that exposes the truth behind the last decade's worth of US war. The Counterpunch crew has done it again, in bringing the truth to light regarding the US involvement in Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

They debunk the lies the mainstream press has used in justifying and defending the US invasions. They reveal the truth behind the conflict in Iraq, and show that the wheels were set into motion long before Dubya took the oath of office in 2000.

Pick it up for yourself and take a look. It's a must read for those wanting to know the truth behind the current US foreign agenda.

A pot of lies with one honesty.......2004-05-22

This is a book based on opinion, fallacy and hyperbole. It deals with three conflicts, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia. The claim with Iraq is that America encouraged Saddam to invade Kuwait and then conspired to starve Iraq and assassinate Saddam, in the end America simply took over Iraq. The truth is that Saddam chose to invade his neighboors. First he choose to invade Iran, then he choose to Gas the Kurds and finally because of jealousy he invaded Kuwait. The sanctions were approved by the U.N and they didn't work anyway. Saddam used the Oil for food program to get billions for new weapons.

Yugoslavia may be one of the only conflicts that this book is slightly accurate in portraying. IN Yugoslavia the government reacted against terrorism and in doing so the international community claimed `ethnic cleansing'. In a brutal war America bombarded civilians in Serbia and then invaded Kosovo, helping to finish the cleansing of Serbs from the province and supporting terrorists. Here the book is on the mark.

In the last analysis the Afghanistan conflict this book is so far off the mark as to amaze anyone. The Taliban destroyed thousand year old Buddhist statues, they stoned women to death for daring to leave the house alone, they made music and cinema illegal. IF ever their was a regime that never deserved to exist it was the Taliban. Most of the Taliban were not even indigenous Afghans, but foreigners who invaded Afghanistan in the 80s to fight the `Jihad' against the Soviets. In the end the war against the Taliban was as just as the war against Nazi Germany. This book may well be so extremist as to argue that fighting Nazism was also wrong and therefore it may not even be worth flipping through.

Seth J. Frantzman

The Lion's Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan

Average customer rating:

a waste of money
The Lion's Grave, Dispactches from Afghanistan
Bullets Whizzing?
superb journalism
Average Reporters Journal

The Lion's Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan
Jon Lee Anderson
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802140254

Book Description

New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson arrived in Afghanistan to report for the magazine ten days before U.S. bombers began pounding Al Qaeda and Taliban forces. His dispatches provide an unprecedented and riveting on-the-ground account of the Afghan conflict, and his e-mails to the magazine — selections of which frame the pieces here — paint a vivid behind-the-scenes portrait of war journalism. From the battle for the Taliban bastion of Kunduz and the interim government's clumsy takeover of Kabul, to the search for Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora caves and the truth of Al Qaeda's assassination of charismatic Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud — two days before September 11, 2001 — Anderson offers an unprecedented look into the forces that shape the conflict and the players who may threaten Afghanistan's future. In the distinguished tradition of New Yorker war reporting, The Lion's Grave illuminates a region to which we will be inextricably bound for some time to come.

Customer Reviews:

a waste of money.......2003-12-09

Mr. Anderson got into Afghanistan at the beginning of the war, talked to anybody who would talk to him, and recorded his conversations. That's it. Out of this he got a couple articles for the New Yorker, but not enough to make the requisite inch and a quarter book thickness, so he filled in with emails between him and his editor. I'm not kidding, this is all there is to the book. No American who knew what was going on (by his admission) would talk to him, and the Afghanis who knew what was going on gave him their boilerplate PR spiel. You would learn more about the latest afghani war by watching the network news sound bites, and MUCH more by reading the reportage and think pieces that came out of Afghanistan from NYT, Washington Post, and LA Times (hey guys, what about an anthology of this stuff?). Don't waste your money and time.

The Lion's Grave, Dispactches from Afghanistan.......2003-11-18

The Lion's Grave, Dispatches from Afghanistan by Jon Lee Anderson takes you inside the first few weeks of the war in Afghanistan as American forces moved across the country. Several reporters followed the soldiers into combat, expect Anderson covered the war from the perspective of the Afghani Northern Alliance and the newly freed people. Anderson is one of the first reporters into the country after September 11th. Using several connections he manages to attain a passport into the country through the Russian embassy. The moment he enters the country Anderson places his life in danger. He is on the front lines reporting the war, expect he has no safe haven like the American reporters did in Operation Iraqi freedom. There are no American troops to protect him if he comes under attack, and the only other people around that spoke English were his translator and his photographer, who was from Germany.
The book is a collection of all the pieces Anderson wrote while covering the war for "The New Yorker" magazine. He has worked for the magazine for 20 years, and has covered hot beds of conflict around the globe.
Connecting each separate story is a series of emails that Anderson wrote to his editor who was back home in the states. I believe their intended purpose was to help connect each story and create a time line of events that helps lay the groundwork for Anderson's stories. But the emails end up feeling more like they are just their filling up space and padding the content to create a book. Plus more often then not they swing and miss. While some are very revealing and show the hardships Anderson endured while covering the war, "Another big dust story today, and a cold front. Visibility is almost nil, and the sat phone transmission is very bad. I've been trying for several hours to download two emails that are in my system," others seem to be just boring exchanges in which you only hear one end of the conversation.
I will admit that since I was not familiar with Afghani history I did have trouble keeping up with some of his stories. Several names might be thrown at the reader all a once making it hard to keep track of who was who. Then you throw city names into the mix and you could easily find yourself very confused.
Overall I would have to recommend the book. It is an interesting look into recent history from a non-American viewpoint of the world. And anyone interested in the Middle East should definitely give this book a try. I give it 4 stars.

Bullets Whizzing?.......2003-11-11

A quote on the top of this paperback reads "raw combat reportage... it's easy to miss the bullets whizzing by". I was surely taken in by this and just as surely disappointed.

At one point Mr. Anderson describes how a Mujahideen soldier reaches under his chair and steals his can of Pepsi. Mr. Anderson snatches the can back and this is the level of wartime action you can expect to find in this pedestrian account of Afghanistan after September Eleventh.

This is reporting from behind enemy lines - WAY behind them. It is a series of articles written about interviews the author conducts with the major players in Afghanistan. Each article is "framed" by not particularly interesting emails describing the difficulties involved with travelling to and around in the country, and the challenges of communicating with satellite phones.

The Lion's Grave serves as a readable introduction to the history of Afghanistan through the eyes and ears of those who shaped it and lived through it. It fills in a lot of face-to-face detail about the larger-than-life characters jostling for power in the remains of a smashed country that has undergone one major upheaval after another. It is also a chilling account of how bad things are in that part of the world, and how its people are indivisibly split by a common religion, and united by a hatred of the U.S.

It is NOT raw combat footage. For that, try Black Hawk Down and/or ChickenHawk.

superb journalism.......2003-05-31

This is a very readable account of post-9/11 Afghanistan, and I finished it in the course of one day. I did notice, however, after reading this book and his current dispatches from Iraq, that the US itself is sort of an unseen factor in all of his work, implicit in the goings-on but not directly reported on. For example, during his time with the Northern Alliance, there is one description of a B-52 strafing a hillside and that is our one explicit clue that a massive campaign is occuring. Instead, we are graced with very intricate and impressive first-hand accounts of internal Afghani struggles, specifically concerning the assassination of Massoud. I think that Anderson's very noble intention is to prevent Afghanistan (and subsequently, Iraq) from becoming an abstract idea for Americans, by supplying readers here with details about life under siege. I would've enjoyed a bit more specific information about American operations and strategy, but I was not disappointed at all with what was provided in Anderson's account.

Average Reporters Journal.......2003-01-20

In this book, John Lee Anderson provides a fairly insightful and educational narrative of his experiences inside Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks. In it, you read of his encounters with various people inside Afghanistan, some colorful and tragic, others brutal and dangerous. The book serves as a nice backdrop of Afghanistan during the US war there, and the immediate consequences of it. However, it suffers from a few flaws that kept this from being a really good book.

The book is titled the Lions Grave as a reference to the grave of one of the most tragic figures in Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Massoud, the Lion of the Panjshir. Several of the articles reference him, and his presence is felt almost constantly throughout the book, as it is in Afghanistan. Massoud was the charismatic leader of the Northern Alliance, the hodgepodge group of fighters opposing the Taliban. Just two days before the 9-11 attacks, two men sent by Osama Bin Laden managed to kill Massoud by dressing like reporters. This was in order to fracture the delicate alliance, to hamper any assault on the Taliban. Anderson points out how the man has become an almost religious figure, worshipped by millions of Afghanis. Anderson gives us a cursory look at the politics of the alliance, highlighting their disagreements and past atrocities. All throughout the book, you get a sense of the total devastation of the country, which has really fallen into the dark ages. I was surprised at how dangerous it was for the reporters sent to Afghanistan, as the countryside and the roads were patrolled regularly by all sorts of heavily armed brigands. One other interesting theme of the book was the educated class of Afghanistan that we usually do not hear about. It may come as a surprise to many readers, but Afghanistan was once a pretty civilized country. The remnants of this era survive in little hamlets of professional and academic men and women, desperate for a way out of the constant turmoil. I found that the most tragic part of the book.

There are a few reasons I did not really love this book. First, it is way too short and barely scratches the surface of the situation. Now I know this was not meant to be an in depth look at Afghanistan, this is just Anderson's story. Still, I felt like a lot more commentary was needed at certain parts, where themes are broached but never examined. Also, the book is full of interludes of real emails Anderson was sending back to his editors. At first, this is a clever and exciting way to track his movements on a day by day basis, but eventually it becomes tedious.

An average reporters book.

The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan

Average customer rating:

The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan
Marvelous Chronicle
An American chapter in the Great Game
Excellent and fascinating bit a history
Great read!

The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan
Ben Macintyre
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374201781

Book Description

The Riveting Account of the American Who Inspired Kipling's Classic Tale and the John Huston Movie

In the year 1838, a young adventurer, surrounded by his native troops and mounted on an elephant, raised the American flag on the summit of the Hindu Kush in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan. He declared himself Prince of Ghor, Lord of the Hazarahs, spiritual and military heir to Alexander the Great.

The true story of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker and the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, has never been told before, yet the life and writings of this extraordinary man echo down the centuries, as America finds itself embroiled once more in the land he first explored and described 180 years ago.

Soldier, spy, doctor, naturalist, traveler, and writer, Josiah Harlan wanted to be a king, with all the imperialist hubris of his times. In an extraordinary twenty-year journey around Central Asia, he was variously employed as surgeon to the Maharaja of Punjab, revolutionary agent for the exiled Afghan king, and then commander in chief of the Afghan armies. In 1838, he set off in the footsteps of Alexander the Great across the Hindu Kush and forged his own kingdom, only to be ejected from Afghanistan a few months later by the invading British.

Using a trove of newly discovered documents and Harlan's own unpublished journals, Ben Macintyre tells the astonishing true story of the man who would be the first and last American king.

Customer Reviews:

The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan.......2006-08-23

In Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, a young adventurer named Daniel Dravot penetrates feudal Afghanistan disguised as a cleric. In this nonfiction account with a similar title, MacIntyre, a columnist for The Times of London, tells the story of the real life adventurer who may have been Kipling's inspiration. He describes the life and adventures of Josiah Harlan (1799-1871), a young Quaker from Chester County, Pennsylvania, who set sail for China in 1822, telling his fiancée that they would marry when he returned. Upon reaching Calcutta, Harlan received a letter announcing that she was marrying another man. He resolved never to return home.

So began his adventures. After a failed stint in the Indian army--an action for which the Quakers excommunicated him--Harlan met Shujah al-Mulk (1792-1842), an Afghan king exiled to India in 1809 after just six years on the throne. Harlan offered a deal: he would raise an army, subdue Kabul, and restore the kingdom. In exchange, he would become vizier, the equivalent of prime minister. The deal struck, Harlan began recruiting native troops, using the U.S. flag as his own. In 1827, he and his army began their long march. But he soon had second thoughts about his army's loyalty. He picked a trusted team, paid severance to the others, and launched his Plan B: dressed as a dervish, he made his way to Kabul, arriving in 1828 just as an epidemic of cholera ravaged the city. Years passed and Harlan changed his allegiance to Shujah's rival, King Dost Muhammad Khan (1793-1863), to whom he became aide-de-camp. This Afghan king granted Harlan's wish for power. The itinerant Pennsylvania Quaker and stilted lover became prince of Ghor, today a province in central Afghanistan.

Harlan's story is riveting. MacIntyre describes his adventures, disillusionments, and eventual return to the United States as the only Afghan general to serve in the U.S. Civil War.

Harlan was not alone in his adventures. In the nineteenth century, a handful of men made dangerous journeys through Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Tibet. Not all survived. Author Peter Hopkirk has chronicled their stories.[1] But it is rare that so much new material surfaces in one book, and for this MacIntyre deserves special credit. After learning of this curious American from cursory references and footnotes in old travelogues gathering dust in the British Library, MacIntyre made it his mission to uncover the saga of this historical Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. His quest took him to Punjab and Pennsylvania, Kabul and California. He scoured through the official records of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore and poured over the intelligence archives of imperial India, whose agents were suspicious of Harlan's plots and schemes. Finally, in a Chester County museum, MacIntyre found a long-lost manuscript replete with love letters and sketches. Explanations of historical and cultural context weave together in his fluid prose. The result is impressive and well-worth reading.

Note

1. See for example, Great Game (London: Murray, 1990); On Secret Service East of Constantinople (London: Murray, 1994); Trespassers on the Roof of the World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Michael Rubin
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2006

Marvelous Chronicle.......2006-04-22

A fascinating read in every respect. Macintyre is a fluid writer and the book is a real page turner. Apart from vivid details of the remarkable adventures of the first American in Afghanistan; the intrigues, machinations and sheer depravity of virtually all the players in the great game are in plain sight. The book also provides rare insights - via Josiah Harlan's prism - of British mendacity, misrule and astounding arrogance. Harlan's account of British shenanigans may have a tinge of exaggeration owing to his eventual deep hatred of the Empire and many of its emissaries but the substance of Harlan's writings can be corroborrated in other accounts such as the Great Hedge of India by Roy Moxham (another British author) and in more substantive form with relevant data in Angus Maddison's The World Economy. Macintyre deserves considerable praise for presenting the unvarnished truth, albeit through Harlan's pen, about the largely negative legacy of the British Empire. It is a shame that Harlan's story, despite this wonderful book, remains largely unknown both in the US and the East.

An American chapter in the Great Game.......2006-04-21

Most people who pick up this book will already have read some of the travelogues of the "mad dogs and Englishmen" who wandered through Central Asia in the 19th and early 20th century: Burnaby and Nazaroff's memoirs, as well as any of Peter Hopkirk's books on the era.

But here we have a real fish out of water story, and a fascinating one at that: an American Quaker leading, or joining, armies through Afghanistan and elsewhere in the name of, variously: the sitting ruler of Afghanistan, the deposed predecessor, his Sikh neighbor, the British Empire, and arguably himself as "Prince of Ghor."

The tale is fascinating because it's so poorly-known, despite the fact that Kipling's fiction, which I understand to be inspired by Harlan and other adventurers of the time, is so well-known.

Undoubtedly, Harlan's own financial misfortune and quiet death contributed to the obscurity of the narrative, but Macintyre does a great job of weaving the scraps together, and keeping the story's pace. An interesting read, and a bit of history which has earned its place in Central Asian lore.

Excellent and fascinating bit a history.......2006-02-25

Considering all that's happening in Afghanistan today, this is a timely and fascinating story of an American who travled there in the early 1800's. Fast paced book that's hard to put down and it gives a glimpse into early 1800's life in a country that most people still don't understand today.

Great read!.......2005-10-02

If you enjoy history, especially military history, then you will enjoy this book. Written in much the same style as Byron Falwell's "Armies of the Raj," this amazingly true yarn about a Quaker who becomes, if not a king, the Prince of Ghor will keep you wondering just what is going to happen next. I absolutely enjoyed the book. My only negative comment is that the later years of his life are glossed over rather quickly, but, that is understandable since the last years were no where near as exciting as the first 40. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys history or biographies. Enjoy.

War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet, Revised Edition

Average customer rating:

Heavily Baised
Fanaticism exposed
Utter Rubbish
Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Tibet in the coming war.
A good book with limitations

War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet, Revised Edition
Eric Margolis
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415934680

Book Description

What will the post-Taliban government of Afghanistan look like? How will the war in Afghanistan affect the already unstable politics of Central Asia? In War at the Top of the World, veteran foreign correspondent Eric Margolis presents a revelatory history of the complicated and volatile conflicts that have entangled Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, the Soviet Union, and many others.

By 1999, Pakistan had proven they have medium-range nuclear weapons, and now the threat that their government could be taken over by a radical Islamic fundamentalist faction is stronger than ever. In fact, Osama bin Laden has already claimed to have a nuclear weapon. How could this have happened? Margolis plays witness to the escalating conflicts of the past decade, tracing disputes over Afghanistan, as well as those ever neighboring Kashmir and Tibet, back to their Cold War roots, exploring clashes that continue to threaten to destabilize the region today.

Combining vivid first-hand accounts of a war correspondent with a historical and strategic overview of the region, Margolis guides the reader through the geopolitical complexities of the area and its key players. He offers a clear, concise analysis of a complicated and little-understood part of the world that is home to a quarter of the world's population. Fascinating and now more timely than ever, War at the Top of the World is an extraordinary read for anyone interested in the current global balance of power.

Customer Reviews:

Heavily Baised.......2007-04-22

I am surprised how easy it is to put down a nation of a billion people with a history ranging back to over 3 Millennia as thieving indifferent thugs. That's the impression I got out of this book about India and Indian people as such.
The book has been written in an extremely biased manner. As if Mr. Margolis is making references straight out of a book he picked up for himself from a Madrasah in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
It seems Mr. Margolis is on a never ending romantic honeymoon with the Islamic fundamentalists and seems to romanticize this whole notion of a holy struggle.
Not sure what book he is working on but I am sure the next time I would be reading about Mohammad Atta and how Mr. Margolis had a big crush on him.
I left the book when I read his extremely racist remarks like "Godless Hindus" and the "infidels"
Read this book if you are an India hater it will certainly boost their ego for the night.

Fanaticism exposed.......2006-11-05

Showing the fine line between the struggle for 'freedom' and fanaticism this is a chilling expose of the fanatics in that part of the world and how they think. Read it to see what we are up against in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East where they have the same type of fanaticism as Margolis describes.

Utter Rubbish.......2006-08-21

What do you say about a book where the very first sentence is a lie? It starts off with an alleged "hindu prayer" which I've never heard nor has any Hindu I double-checked with and apparently it does not appear on any of the search engines. The first sentence sets the tone for the extremely biased book. The author conveniently forgets mentioning how Kashmiri pandits were forced out of Kashmir by Islamic fundamentalists and even the common man. If the author had written the book without biases and made some of the stuff he has...it just have led me to give it 2 stars. Don't waste your time on this one...unless you are a conspiracy theory buff.

Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Tibet in the coming war........2006-07-04

I am not sure of this book or the assumptions that the author makes. This is a fairly short read, but the author tries to make some grand assumptions here. He also takes some rumors and turns them into history. I was not happy about that.

First, this author assumes there will be a coming war between India, Pakistan, and China. Throw in some variables like Russia, Burma, Taiwan, Vietnam, and you could get a world war that could go nuclear. I think most people know that tensions between India and Pakistan are very volatile and could lead to a nuclear exchange. I am not sure China would enter the fray. The author's allegiance or sympathies are clearly with the Tibetans, and the Muslim Kashmiris and Afghanis. He rants about the brutal suppression of the Indians, Chinese, and Russians. Suppression there is in these zones, but the author may be rattling on to create sympathy.

There are some untruths in this book. One involves the supposed affair between Edwin Mountbatten and Nehru. This is an argument many Pakistanis have when they talk about the division of the British Raj. The author does not state any supporting evidence, just they had a affair and this may have resulted in additional territory being given to India. Then the comment that the backpackers lost in Kashmir were maybe killed by the Indian authorities. Most would argue these backpackers were killed by Muslim fundamentalists. These two statements are not grounded in fact.

This book has some good information about possible conflicts in the future. The reader has to be aware that the author is trying to expound some of his own viewpoints and pass it off at fact. These is some good info in this book, but the reader has to beware.

A good book with limitations.......2006-06-13

The first thing to know about this book is that it is not a neutral book about topics that arouse significant controversy.

If you consider the book to consist of neutral facts, you are mistaken. But if you read it as the opinions of millions of people, you will learn how they think, and what they may not always mention in casual conversation. You can be sure that North American devotees of political correctness will not touch Margolis's opinions.

There never was much love lost between the Indians and Pakistanis; Margolis' description of a Pakistani army officer who told him that he feels at home wherever he can fight the hated Indian makes this animosity quite clear, as do the reviews of this book. What makes this book worth reading is Margolis's description of his involvement with the Mujahideen, in the American political lexicon of the day "freedom fighters" who did much to rid the world of the bane of Communism. Many of the points he makes, such as that the Taliban, however many flaws they had, were a huge improvement over anarchy with widespread rape and murder, are indispensable to a true understanding of Afghanistan, but rarely mentioned in the North American press.

Other parts of this book leave room for improvement. Margolis is not exactly a fan of the Hindu religion or the Indian government. He is not only critical, one of the few Western writers willing to describe the dirty war in Kashmir, but somewhat one-sided. In my opinion, Kashmir's strategic importance, India's fear of unraveling, its rivalry with Pakistan, and Nehru's Kashmiri provenance figure far more heavily in Kashmir's past and future than the considerations that Margolis describes in long detail. Margolis accepts China's invasion of Tibet as an unfortunate fact of life; there is no overlooking that he is less stoic about India's presence in Kashmir.

Given the pages of vitriol Margolis has to spare for India's caste system, which damns many to a life of poverty, he could have made more of Pakistan's incredible corruption - transparency international rates it as the 144th most corrupt country of 159 - which does so much to keep Pakistan in poverty, and for that matter, poorer than India. This oversight is particularly glaring as he waxes lyrically over what an improvement and opportunity Muslim rule was in India which is "only" the 88th most corrupt nation. Another quibble is that Margolis doesn't raise the possibility of brinkmanship in describing the Kargil standoff. The Pakistanis and Indians cordially dislike each other; nevertheless, I find it unlikely that they would have gone all the way, and mutually irradiated themselves over a small spit of land. The book could have used a better editor; there are some bad typos.

Even if you disagree with every word in this book, and perhaps especially if you disagree with every word in this book, it is well worth reading, because it provides a concise and well-written description of the beliefs of many Pakistanis, especially of many in the Pakistani military.

This is an interesting book written by a Hoya with a fascinating life, and well-worth reading.

Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival

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Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival
Amin Saikal
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1845113160
Release Date: 2006-11-28

Book Description

Afghanistan’s history is a sad one: Soviet invasion in 1979; Pakistan-backed internal conflict in the 1980s; the Taliban regime and then the US invasion after the catastrophe of September 11th. Why does Afghanistan remain so vulnerable to domestic instability, foreign intervention and ideological extremism? Amin Saikal provides us with a sweeping new understanding of this troubled country that grounds Afghanistan’s problems in rivalries stemming from a series of dynastic alliances within the successive royal families from the end of the eighteenth century to the pro-Communist coup of 1978. This is the definitive study of Afghanistan.

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