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A review by preetachag
Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World by Christina Lamb
4.0
What a timely book to read! It took me almost a month to read this book and I am ending it as Afghanistan falls to Taliban like a simple pack of cards in face of withdrawl of US troops.
If you want to learn about the politics of Afghanistan, this is the book. And if you want to feel the despondency of the Afghanis caught in a quagmire of foreign troops, local warlords and ever present threat of Taliban, this book gives you the picture.
With more than 20 years of reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Christina Lamb began her love story with the region when she receved an invitation to the wedding of Benazir Bhutto. Her pages of the comeback of Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan….Benazir’s fatalistic comments before she returns to Pakistan, the first journey home from the airpoirt wherein she was attacked is rivetting.
The author has been privvy to and privileged by her special access everywhere including Afghanistan President Hamid Karazi, whom she knew from her days in Peshawar.
The book is critical of the USA, the foreign powers who seem so hell bent on fighting their battles with air raids and strikes that they are completely divorced from the ground realities, from the real needs of the Afghan people.
Christina Lamb also emphasises the role of Pakistan’s covert support to Taliban and at the same time playing along side a cat and mouse game with USA in this regard.
But what struck me also while reading the book was the hard circumstances under which the foreign soldiers fought. Just dropped onto the war zone by their countries, and completely divorced from ground realities, they land to be overwhelmed by sheer uncertain terrains, peoples and political decisions taken back home.
The book is an emotional account by Christina Lamb whose love for the region is there on every page of the book. It arouses a feeling of heaviness and despair for the people of Afghanistan whose lives are in an uncertain turmoil from the last 2 decades.
The book is hefty (around 590 pages) and sometimes seems too long. But if you really want to know the politics of Afghanistan over the last 2 decades , then this is a great read.
If you want to learn about the politics of Afghanistan, this is the book. And if you want to feel the despondency of the Afghanis caught in a quagmire of foreign troops, local warlords and ever present threat of Taliban, this book gives you the picture.
With more than 20 years of reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Christina Lamb began her love story with the region when she receved an invitation to the wedding of Benazir Bhutto. Her pages of the comeback of Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan….Benazir’s fatalistic comments before she returns to Pakistan, the first journey home from the airpoirt wherein she was attacked is rivetting.
The author has been privvy to and privileged by her special access everywhere including Afghanistan President Hamid Karazi, whom she knew from her days in Peshawar.
The book is critical of the USA, the foreign powers who seem so hell bent on fighting their battles with air raids and strikes that they are completely divorced from the ground realities, from the real needs of the Afghan people.
Christina Lamb also emphasises the role of Pakistan’s covert support to Taliban and at the same time playing along side a cat and mouse game with USA in this regard.
But what struck me also while reading the book was the hard circumstances under which the foreign soldiers fought. Just dropped onto the war zone by their countries, and completely divorced from ground realities, they land to be overwhelmed by sheer uncertain terrains, peoples and political decisions taken back home.
The book is an emotional account by Christina Lamb whose love for the region is there on every page of the book. It arouses a feeling of heaviness and despair for the people of Afghanistan whose lives are in an uncertain turmoil from the last 2 decades.
The book is hefty (around 590 pages) and sometimes seems too long. But if you really want to know the politics of Afghanistan over the last 2 decades , then this is a great read.