I thought to start my blog-year with... a book review!

I refrain myself (thought I don't know for how long) to white about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has now become a subject of daily conversation and manifestation even as far away as in Paris. Though, while the characters and the geo-political context of what I'll write about today may not be the same, the quintessential problematique is not so radically different. Instead of Israel's war on Hamas, please consider the war of the West (I have this term but it is convenient!) on first, Al-Qaida, then the Taliban. (Nota bene: As a welcome sign, the book, unlike many 'commentators' on Afghanistan, differentiates the two). 

With no further adieu, I think it's now the time to break the mystery and spill the beans: the book's name is Decent Into Chaos by Rachid Ahmed, a Pakistani journalist, familiar with the region to the point of being able to fluently site the names of local tribal leaders, while at the same time enjoying access to Karzai and Musharraf, among others. The book is a jewel of anecdotes, some documented with detail so meticulous that it gives away the author's journalistic origins, while at the same time making the narrative almost difficult to follow for those not familiar with Central Asia. 

Despite the mountains of details, Rachid insists on several key messages, which he craftily waves in the story line. His first claim comes of no surprise - the American strategy in Afghanistan since the 1980s has made it a ticking bomb. As a result,  to experienced observers of the region, the 9/11 came as a shock, but not as a surprise. Many forget today, as Fred Halliday often points out, that the cradle of the global jihadist movements is Afghanistan already in the 1980s. Perhaps few will be surprised today that it is not Iraq - even Bush admitted last week that he was disappointed with the intelligence on Iraq he had received at the time. Rachid explains and convincingly documents the failure of the US, and indeed in the "international community" in Afghanistan, but also in Pakistan, and in the Central Asia generally. One can argue that this is no news, and this is hard to deny, but those able to understand why this has been the case, are far and few and between. 

The author of the book is one of them. If you are interested in why the US failed in nation building in Afghanistan and why NATO has found itself unable to create a convincing strategy in Afganistan, this is a book you might just enjoy. Just as a matter of preview, I will reveal that Rachid puts the weight of the guilt over Afghanistan on the shoulders of Pakistan (primarily under Musharraf's rule) and the complicity of the American strategy with the Pakistani leadership. This is all of course a story of the past. If you are interested in a story of the future, he has some pretty grim predictions abou the future of Central Asia (and Uzbekistan in particular) which make the current position of the Middle East as the winner in the 'most conflictual region' category seem questionable in the near future.