Customer Reviews

Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Finally a book that looks at what's happening in Afghanistan from the viewpoint of Afghans. This is a well-written and well-informed account of just why Afghanistan is the way it is. A bit of a spoiler: It has a great deal to do with the United States' criminal support of fundamentalist warlords. These men, who have risen to power in the new "democratic" government, are the same ones who abused human rights with impunity in the 1990s and paved the way for the Taliban. While providing an insightful background in Afghan history that shows their firm grasp of the facts not propaganda, the authors have written their most penetrating analysis on the ways in which Afghanistan has been misrepresented by both liberal feminist groups and conservative media. This is not yet another attempt to cash in on the temporary cool of a war-torn country. It is a genuine effort to draw attention to the vast injustices that are being perpetrated with US aid and collusion as well as to the many Afghans who face death to bring peace and justice to their country.

This is a must read for anyone who truly cares about the Afghan people and their country. It gives very detailed information on the US involvement in the country, that began way before September 11th to what is going on today. It is a book that is hard to stomach at more times than most because of the details given, but it is also vital information in understanding Afghanistan today. It also shows that Afghanistan is far from a success. This book is not only long overdue, but truthfully one of the most powerful books you could ever read on this country. The authors should be commended for not only writing it, but writing it with such love and care for the Afghan people themselves.

This book will truly reveal what it going on in Afghanistan and the role we have played there and the horrible mistakes that are causing many lives. AS well as billions of dollars going to War Lords,etc, and not the Afghan people.

Important book.

I made it to page 64 before I could take no more. This book is more like a rant against the United States and all its policies in Afghanistan. If you were to believe the authors, there was absolutely NOTHING of positive substance that the US did in Afghanistan. I find that hard to believe. When the troops arrest a man with nine AK-47s and two grenades in his home, we are to just chalk it up to simply a normal man in an armed country and not take him in for any kind of questioning? Who needs nine guns and ANY grenades, even in an armed country? So much of the book is "he said, she said" without much apparent independant validation of claims or stories. Do the authors not understand that situational lying is acceptable, even commanded, in Islamic cultures? Ms. Kolhatkar is a self-described subversive (check her website) and the book reads like it. Dr. Ingalls is an astronomist by education and employment, which I didn't know well-qualified you much as an expert voice on US policy in Afghanistan? Bottom line, this is a book written by zealots that only other zealots will endorse, while more reasonable minds will toss the book to the side - or to the recycle bin, like I did. I'm remorseful that I paid five dollars for it, but glad it was a far cry from the $18.95 cover price.

The book raises important moral and ethical problems for US supporting fundamentalists in the fight against communism during the cold war, and later using the same fractions for fighting the Taliban. The authors' good knowledge on what's going on in Afghanistan shows how the civilian population has suffered during 30 years of war, and how they continue to suffer. The rest of the book including coverage of US policies in general, western imperialism, racism, and media conspiracies are less founded in real facts. To exemplify they try to prove western racism by presenting statistics of media coverage of the Bosnian conflict compared the lack of media coverage of the Afghan civil war. Omitting to add the failed intervention in Somalia, the following genocide in Rwanda, and shadow that WWI and WWII genocides lay over the Balkan conflicts - shows just short of astounding narrow perspectives by the authors. If you can look past the traditional anti western rhetoric, there are still Afghan voices in the book that deserves to be heard.

The authors are self-proclaimed specialists on Afghanistan. Their idea of going to Afghanistan is a two week jaunt there staying in five star hotel, no different than the journalists they criticize. They claim to have spoken to 'real' Afghans about the war yet use quotes superficially and loosely to make them seem more involved and different than other journalists than they actually are. They are no different from the other journalists- they have made a career off Afghanistan- particularly Kolhatkar. The writing is elementary and unsophisticated, the analysis nothing Ahmed Rashid and others have not done before. Nothing original or insightful. Not academic at all. I m quite left leaning myself but this is not scholarship or research but blatant self promotion.

This book simply does not present a balanced perspective on the history of US involvement in Afghanistan. I defy the authors to claim that they began to research this book without a very specific thesis regarding the supposed culpability of the United States for all that is wrong in Afghanistan.

For a well-researched and very balanced perspective on US activities in Afghanistan read Steve Coll's Ghost Wars and spare yourself the largely illogical rant presented in this book. I wish I had... my eyes hurt from rolling so much.

Through my thesis research, this is about the 20th book on Afghanistan I've read over the last 6 months and I found it to be comparatively poor. As a work of activism, it's fairly run of the mill "this is all America's fault" stuff (I'm Canadian btw). As an academic or historically informative work, it glosses over important and complex points, and quotes out of context where these devices serve its purpose.

I read 5 pages before the hatred steaming off the author through his words made me put it down