Scan barcode
unisonlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Tariq Ali has written a series of books on the state of Pakistan in the past and this is his latest offering sub-titled “on the flightpath of American power”. As always it pulls no punches and provides a good account of the politics in Pakistan up to and including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in 2008. The intrigue, backstabbing, assassinations and plotting within the various Pakistan governments down the years have always been played out on a canvas of American design. Where Pakistani dictators have trodden, the CIA and American military has never been far behind.
This current book gives us the background to the new front in the war on terror, Waziristan separated from Afghanistan by the spurious Durand Line. It is here that the US is focusing on a new battleground while killing and maiming innocent civilians. This is not just a tale of American imperialist dominance though, it gives us the reasons why this front has been opened in the war on terror. From Islamist parties being used by the army in a similar way to Lenin’s useful idiots in the areas in question to an ever increasingly bastardised government in the hands of ever more pliant civilian leaders and brutal, authoritarian military heads of state. Of the 60 years Pakistan has been a state, 34 of those years have seen a military dictator as head of state, and in the years that they weren’t? These were the years of personal fiefdoms of the ruling elites in Pakistan such as the Bhutto family and the Sharif brothers.
While the bureaucracy has been swung back and forth like a pendulum the people have continued to suffer with appalling health care, lack of basic education and infrastructure and a central budget that gives more credence to nuclear weapons than it does to feeding its own people. Ali despairs over the state of his homeland and the blame goes far and wide, but his solution would work and it is simple: land reforms, corruption legislation, social-infrastructure investment, the rule of law, the US to mind it’s business, empowering women and freeing minds. Though many before have paid with their lives for trying to bring progress and an economically and politically destitute nation, Tariq Ali believe it’s worth another shot and he’s probably right but will anyone listen?
This current book gives us the background to the new front in the war on terror, Waziristan separated from Afghanistan by the spurious Durand Line. It is here that the US is focusing on a new battleground while killing and maiming innocent civilians. This is not just a tale of American imperialist dominance though, it gives us the reasons why this front has been opened in the war on terror. From Islamist parties being used by the army in a similar way to Lenin’s useful idiots in the areas in question to an ever increasingly bastardised government in the hands of ever more pliant civilian leaders and brutal, authoritarian military heads of state. Of the 60 years Pakistan has been a state, 34 of those years have seen a military dictator as head of state, and in the years that they weren’t? These were the years of personal fiefdoms of the ruling elites in Pakistan such as the Bhutto family and the Sharif brothers.
While the bureaucracy has been swung back and forth like a pendulum the people have continued to suffer with appalling health care, lack of basic education and infrastructure and a central budget that gives more credence to nuclear weapons than it does to feeding its own people. Ali despairs over the state of his homeland and the blame goes far and wide, but his solution would work and it is simple: land reforms, corruption legislation, social-infrastructure investment, the rule of law, the US to mind it’s business, empowering women and freeing minds. Though many before have paid with their lives for trying to bring progress and an economically and politically destitute nation, Tariq Ali believe it’s worth another shot and he’s probably right but will anyone listen?
More...