What ho, device types! Hear that drum roll in the background? Knew you did. That's because I'm here to announce the selection for our next e-book read. By popular acclaim, we will be discussing a work of nonfiction, Waiting for the Taliban: A Journey Through Northern Afghanistan by Anna Badkhen. $2.99 Kindle.
Couldn't have selected a book to provide higher contrast to our previous read, in my opinion. Even without having read a word, I think it's safe to presume there will be no idyllic enchanted locale and no representative women seeking and finding emotional renewal.
This will be the first contemporary book I've read about Afghanistan from any perspective. Those of us who have read Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King. . .it doesn't count.
While short, this promises to be a painful read. Click the link above to read an interview with the author, who in part delineates a key strategic mistake committed by US-allied forces for ten years.
After the invasion, the north--where ethnic Pashtuns, who form the core of the Taliban, are a small minority--was universally considered to be virtually Taliban-proof. NATO forces and most international donors focused their attention on southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban had retained a stronghold. The notion that the Taliban posed no threat in Northern Afghanistan spelled the region’s undoing: While the world was distracted, the Taliban quietly returned to the north, capitalizing on the disillusionment of the local population both with the UN-backed kleptocracy that governs in Kabul, and with the West, which, in their eyes, had broken its promise to improve the way people live in the region.
Badkhen promises to not just deal with warfare but also will delve into the make up of the Afghan people, ninety percent of whom live in rural villages and who want what any living human being wants, to
kick back after a day of grueling manual labor, eat dinner, fly kites. They want what most people want everywhere in the world: Peace. Stability. Electricity, clean water, access to health care. They want to have enough food to feed their families. They want roads, and they want to be able to drive on those roads—whether to take their crops to market, or to visit relatives in a distant village—without being blown up by a roadside bomb, and without having to pay a bribe at every police checkpoint. They want to know that no misguided air raid will destroy their farmhouse while they sleep. It seems to me that at this point they don’t care whether all of this comes from the United States, or from some relief agency, or from the Taliban.
She'll also take time to describe for us the visual beauty of this rugged, often harsh, country; tell us about the "delightful food" that is the customary diet of Afghans, such as "rice pilau, meatballs, stewed lamb, salad, creamed spinach, and spiced rice pudding--mantwo, large Afghan dumplings with ground meat and onions"; but ultimately the book is about politics -- successes, and probably overwhelming failures in the prosecution of the war.
I look for this book to answer several questions: Is it too late for the US to have a polite working relationship with Afghanistan? Can America ever accept the idea of government Afghans want to put in place? If the long-term outlook for peace and stability in Afghanistan is poor, what should the US willingly settle for? Should America accept the realpolitik of dealing with a politically legitimized Taliban contingent when dealing with Afghanistan, or continue the fight to destroy the Taliban?
Keep in mind, the book and the perspective it provides reflect the situation before Osama bin Laden's demise. Still, I think we'll enjoy it as an insightful comparison between Afghanistan in 2001 and the country nine years later and appreciate what may be a comprehensive overview of Afghanistan, the Pashtun, and the power of the Taliban. Look forward to seeing you Thursday, two weeks hence when it will be nonfiction this time.
This is a small book and may only require a single discussion diary, so please have read the book by our meet date of Nov. 3rd, 2 PM ET. Thank you. And see you then!