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The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power

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This is an interesting exploration of Pakistan's history and current problems. Tariq Ali, who first gained fame as a leftist student activist in Great Britain in the 1960's, grew up in Pakistan, the son of a leftist editor of one of Pakistan's major newspapers. With his strong connections to the elite in Pakistan he has been able to personally know some of the big shots of the country's oligarchy. He makes use of the insight such connections have given him into the dismal inner workings of Pakistani politics in this book.

He portrays Pakistan as a government controlled by a corrupt bureaucratic-military oligarchy in alliance with feudal landowners and heavily dependent on American backing. The majority of the population lives in horrendous poverty. Communicable diseases and malnutrition are rampant. The Pakistani military and intelligence services greatly assisted the Afghan mujahedeen drug running business in the 1980's. The effects on Pakistan were disastrous. According to Ali, Pakistan had only a few hundred heroin addicts in 1977 but had two million ten years later. But to adopt the view of the Western imperialists--that Pakistan is a cauldron of serious poverty, nuclear weapons and jihadists chomping at the bit--is quite wrong, Ali cautions. Islamic fanatics have terrorized Pakistan since the late 70's when General Zia, with Saudi support, began to provide them with state backing, but they represent a very small segment of Pakistani society. Pakistan has a strong secular tradition and Islamic fundamentalist parties have been never achieved much at the ballot box. Secular parties are even strong in Waziristan, supposedly the main center of jihadist agitation in Pakistan. However what could throw more Pakistanis into alliance with the jihadists, Ali warns, is substantial U.S military operations in Pakistan. US air attacks in Pakistan's western frontier have killed many civilians. If the U.S decides to engage in more substantial military action on Pakistani territory, Ali warns that this might very well throw many Pakistanis into alliance with the jihadists and split the Pakistani army. Segments of the Pakistani army might very well violently resist such aggression by a foreign power, ally with the jihadists and then Pakistan's nukes might find their way into the hands of terrorists.

A large part of the book, and maybe the most interesting part of it deals with the saga of the Bhutto family. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto created the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) as his personal political vehicle to ride the wave of the popular uprising against the dictatorship of General Ayub Khan in 1968-69. Bhutto had been a minister under Ayub and violently urged on the Pakistani military in its genocidal butcheries in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1971. (The factors leading to Pakistan's mass slaughter and the internal workings and flaws of the Bangladesh independence movement are discussed extensively in this book). Bhutto rode to power promising free health care, free housing, guaranteed food and other socialist rhetoric but he almost completely avoided implementing his promises while in power. He was executed by General Zia on trumped up charges in 1979, after a kangaroo court trial. Ali describes how he got to personally know Bhutto's daughter Benazir in the 1970's and 80's. He expresses some admiration for Benazir's courage in leading resistance against General Zia. But he is unsparing in his account of the gangster character of Benazir's second government (1993-1996). Benazir and her husband Asif Zardari accumulated at least 1.5 billion while she was prime minister and he minister for investment. Courts in England, Spain and Switzerland launched charges against the Bhuttos for receiving tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks from western corporations. Most of the corruption charges against the Bhutto's were dropped as a result of an amnesty for corrupt politicians declared by General Musharraf. Zardari, of course, is now president of Pakistan. Ali also implicates Bhutto and Zardari in the murder of Bhutto's brother. Murtaz Bhutto had been highly critical of the corruption and hollow politics of his sister's regime. In September 1996 the street to Murtaz's house was closed down and dozens of police officers descended upon him and machined gunned him and his bodyguards to death. Meanwhile, Benazir decided to put herself at the disposal of the Bush administration during the crises in Pakistan last year. This fidelity to American imperialism made her a sterling figure in the eyes of the American media and her assassination was mourned as the loss of a great secular democrat and stateswoman, etc. Her stratospheric corruption was forgotten as was her sponsorship of the Taliban in the mid-90's.

Ali also discusses the murder of Daniel Pearl. He argues that several pieces of circumstantial evidence suggest that the Pakistani government may have had some involvement in it. One such piece of evidence is the fact that many Salafi terror groups of the type that claimed credit for Pearl's murder have been the creation and tools of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)..........

Ali also discusses the most recent crises in Pakistan, touched off by the firing of Pakistan's chief justice after the latter's investigation of corruption in Musharraf's economic privatization and the "disappearance" of hundreds of dissidents.

The timing of the book could not have been better! For readers of Tariqs non -fictional work,the book ,its contents and the layout would come as no surprise.The depth and breadth of the work is charcteristic of Ali
with some amazing footnotes.His style of histoy telling makes the book "unputdownable".
For anyone who wants to know what has been happening in Pakistan,Afghanistan, this is almost a bottomless source of information...........highly recommended.

I happened to catch an interview on TV with Tariq Ali on University of California's "Conversations with History" program. The interview caught my imagination and induced me to read this book. Right off let the reader be aware that Mr. Ali is an avowed leftist and makes no bones about it in his narration and commentary. However there is no question about the historical veracity and originality of his work.

Beginning with the partition Mr. Ali gives us a fascinating account of Pakistan's history and how the culture and peoples worked to bring about the Pakistan we know today. Herein is displayed the sorry saga of corruption, patronage gone wild, intrigue, murder and outright bungling by both the political and military factions of the country. Mr. Ali traces the march to "islamization" of the military under General Zia Ul-Haq. The seeds of greater turmoil were sown on fertile ground during General Haq's stewardship.

There were a few short years when the skies cleared and Mr. Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto came to power. But alas the pattern of corruption and failed promises was not broken. Then there was the time that his daughter, Mrs. Benazir Bhutto had a golden opportunity but squandered it on the altar of timidity and corruption.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is reading Mr. Tariq Ali's commentary on the "why" question.
Why does Pakistan a nation founded on the premise of Muslim solidarity have so much internal strife?
Why were the people of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, treated so abhorrently to the point that they rebelled to quit Pakistan?
Why does the mantra that "the Hindus were behind this" fail to hold water?
Why are there no meaningful land reforms and basic education plans for a country now going on 62 years?
Finally where do we go from here? What are the options?

I have three areas of disagreement with the book, one a cavil and the others of significant import. First the quibble: It would have been nice if there were some pictures of the major characters and incidents reported in the book. I know that with publishing costs these days things have to be scrimped but I do think that one does wish to put a face to a name. It is an evolutionary trait that is hard wired in humans.

Second, I do think Mr. Ali should have gone deeper into WHY India with a far greater number of religions and cultures fared so much better. Yes, Mr. Ali does state that the populations in India, though diverse, for the most part do look upon themselves as Indians save with a few exceptions (example, the Nagas in Assam). But I think this area needed greater coverage.

Third, Mr. Ali asserts that the risk of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal getting into the hands of extremists is overblown and often used as a red herring for greater US intervention. I find his arguments for this position quite unconvincing. Yes, the Pakistan military would not allow this but is the military free of extremist elements who could shift the balance? After all was not Mr. A. Q. Khan out and about plying his nuclear wares to states like Iran and North Korea with the tacit approval of SOME elements in the military?

All in all I believe this is an important book that is extremely well written and is sure to divulge a nugget or two even for the well read. Reading this book is a melancholic experience of viewing a tapestry of missed opportunities, great human folly, and a dream gone bad.

Very highly recommended, especially to the concerned citizenry of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the United States.

The author writes in The Guardian (London):
`They don't ban books any more, or at least not recently, which is a relief and a small step forward.' I wrote in a preface to my latest book on Pakistan [The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power] after explaining how the previous two had been, at different times, banned by military dictators. I was wrong. I had foolishly assumed that since General Musharraf had not banned books his civilian, supposedly democratic, successors would also stay the course. The Pakistani distributors of my publisher, Simon and Schuster, who had no problems selling ghost-written volumes by Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto (published by the same house), have for the last four weeks been waiting for `clearance' from the Ministry of Information (i.e. Propaganda) to import my book. The Minister, Sherry Rehman, is a former Karachi journalist.
Her public embrace of Sarah Palin notwithstanding, she had a reasonable civil liberties record, often preached the virtues of legality, political morality, civic virtues, freedom and equality. They lie now at her feet, broken and scattered shards as the Government stumbles from one crisis to another. A war on the Western frontier, a run on the banks, a disaffected public is not enough. They still have time to stop books. Did she really think that working for President Zardari meant anything else? Her friends tell me she is not responsible for the ban and is trying her best to `expedite clearance', but if not her, who? The man at the top these days is well-known as a semi-literate who has never read a whole book in his life. But there is a chain of sycophants stretching down from the Prime Minister's office to the most lowly civil servants, whose task as loyal retainers, is to second-guess and please the master.
They don't realise that its totally counterproductive to ban a book in these times and even if they did they wouldn't care provided the master was happy. I've received e-mails from many friends in Pakistan who have expressed delight: `what an honour to be banned Zardari', ` surely you realise the book will be smuggled in from India', `everyone will want to read it now', etc. And one from a literary scholar urging me to read a short-story by the late and very great Saadat Hasan Manto: `Please read Manto's `The New Constitution'. It is the same old law. Nothing changes because no government in the last 63 years has made any attempt to even tinker with the state structure and a bureaucratic system designed to oppress. You should have felt surprised if your book wasn't to be banned.' All this may be true, but is still depressing. The short story, incidentally, was written during the raj when the 1935 Act of India promised limited democracy and Ustad Mangu an old tongawallah in Lahore attempted to test the new order by responding to racist abuse and violence from an English soldier by beating him up. Mangu was arrested but kept screaming `New constitution, New constitution.' His jailers told him `What rubbish are you talking? What new constitution? It's the same old constitution you fool.' Manto concludes: `Then they locked him up.'
My book is still locked up, but is being translated into Urdu for publication in November which will be a release of sorts. That edition does not require a clearance, but one can never be too sure in Pakistan. And in case you were wondering the book is a very sharp critique not just of military dictators, but also of their civilian counterparts, whose corruption knows no bounds. One mustn't exaggerate. When the Amsterdam Synagogue, mimicking the Inquistion, excommunicated Spinoza in 1656, they decreed: `May he be cursed by day and by night....may God never forgive him. We order that no one have commerce with him by speech or in writing, that no one give him the least sign of friendship or approach him or live under the same roof as he, that no one read a work written or composed by him.'
I got off lightly.

This is a superbly written close-hand look at Pakistan's sad political history, starting from the country's founding until 2008. Tariq Ali was one of the young lefties from the 1960s who held high hopes for a progressive Pakistan, and who have channeled their disappointment over the ensuing decades through their critical writings from exile.

This is not a professional historian's survey, but a journalist's heartfelt look at why a nation staggers from one crisis to the next when, as the author notes, its people deserve better. There is a poetic tradition in Pakistan of cries from the heart that lament what could have been, and what is. Tariq Ali clearly admires that tradition (as do most thinking Pakistanis) and this book is written in that vein. It is absurd to expect it, as some reviewers do, to read like a PhD thesis with prescriptions for policy. That may be for others to do; Tariq Ali is most effective in his chosen form.

An excellent way to understand the problems of contemporary Pakistan, and how that country's shaky foundations, ill-conceived political strategies and lack of a vision for itself have set back every hopeful step forward with, it seems, outcomes that bring it greater despair.

Pakistan's internal struggles, its motives and relations with India and Afghanistan are very difficult for me to get a clear mental image of. This book is an excellent source of clarification. Too few exist. Finis.

I must say this is a masterpiece by the author. The author has a great grasp on the subjects mentioned in the book. This is a Must read for anyone interested in knowing some of the actual happenings of Pakistan and the personalities involved. I was impressed with the depiction of many individuals who ruled this country one way or another and the way they are portrayed in public. The author have done a great job in digging in deep and explaining the true charactors of these personalities.
I would definitely recommend this book. This book is not only exciting but mind-opening as well.

In the backdrop of the events that take place in and around the ever volatile Kashmir-Pakistan-Afghanistan region, this is a book which provides a refreshing insight into the context through which we can seek to understand the pitiable state of affairs. The author is an unabashed leftist (with a truly remarkable career) and his views do come across strongly in a few pages, but for all the criticism that can be poured over the inclinations, the historical narrative is a masterpiece.
Its a sad tale by all standards, its a tale of how a lust for power and downright megalomania have ruined a cause, a tale of deluded sense of destiny wasting opportunities, in summary its a tale of why South Asia largely is in the situation of near despair as it is currently. The tale beings with the machinations of the Muslim League in the pre-Independence era , followed by the rather vacuous implementation of governance once the state of Pakistan was established. Spineless and confused leadership led to the entry of the army into governance, a decision which largely has left Pakistani democracy crippled. One megalomaniac (Yahya Khan) followed another (Ayub Khan) and meaningless wars were fought. Downright oppression of a legitimate victory by the citizens of East Pakistan led to the formation of Bangladesh. Bhutto brought in a glimmer of hope , but was quick to deceive and was shockingly replaced by Zia ul Haq, the rebirth of Democracy post Zia was largely marred by extreme corruption. Benazir and Nawaz Sharif frittered away a golden opportunity only to be followed by a dictatorship again.
Switchover to the present and Pakistan faces the ignominy of US troops operating on its soil. Here's where the author brings in a unique perspective, wherein the much feared vision of the Jihadists controlling the nuclear button may be a myth largely and sadly because the army is now all pervasive. From a readers perspective the shift between the historical narrative and the commentary on the current situation is apparent and it feels like 2 books spliced together. The historical narrative is extremely engrossing while the summary and interpretations of the present sometimes gives way to a rant. Nevertheless a priceless book for anyone seeking a honest appraisal of the history of Pakistan

october 9 2008, after last night's presidential debate, i recommend getting ahead of the reductionist version we will get through the mainstream media. Tariq Ali's
The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power

takes us from The Partition in 1947, thru the War in Bengal (aka West Pakistan, aka Bangladesh) with a death toll approx 2 million, of course you remember, right?), to the present, and the continuous American support for the succession of military dictators strictly in the interest of a stable government, which finally cost, at least, the birth of that nuclear power.
Who are the people? btw, i learn that the Rolling Stones wrote "street fightin' man" about Tariq.

enjoy, and get ready to tremble...

Length:: 4:04 Mins

Although it was well-organized, I think the book had very few new things about Pakistan for a regular Pakistani. It is actually a summed up history of Pakistan for someone who does not know Pakistan, as most people do not know. It tell you that Pakistan's history does not starts after 2001 or 2004 which specially every westerner needs to know.
I would recommend it to all non-Pakistanis and specially the second generation of overseas Pakistanis because for them Pakistan is a part of their life even if they have not seen it ever!