Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
journalist and asute commentor, in one engrossing book, July 14, 2003
First a couple of simple observations.I found the book as a search of the library stacks in the tibet section. i buy almost all my books online. but i believe everyone ought to just take an hour or so each week just to skim their favorite sections of the library. this was a gem i would never have bumped into online.... on other reviewers here. this is a book that an Indian(india) would find offensive at first reading. he does not pull punches about ethnicity and its history, but this is one of the best features of the book. i hope they can see the heart that it comes from and not the surface level of words. an example would be the description of the internal Indian airlines. Now to the book.
Its about Afganistan, Pakistan, India, and Tibet. In particular the wars and the people who fight them in this region. the author is a very unusual man, extraordinary in several ways. first his english is journalist, fast paced, honed obviously to write pieces that compete for a newpaper readers attention. Pithy in using one word where another writer would use three. a very visual writer with an imagination and a view to vivid word descriptions that is very good. He would have been as good a novelist as he is a journalist. This really acts to the book and makes the reading a great pleasure. The topic is a timely one, even given the 2000 date on the book, or the research dating back even longer. The author is knowledgable about the area, passionate about the people and the topic, not afraid to express unpopular opinions. Organized and systematic enough that you feel that you have learned and shared his learning/passion/study. Generally simply the best of the genre. If it is your desire to learn a little more of the history of this region, or to understand the current events starting in this region and echoing throughout our world, then start with this book. This book makes available to all of us the author's extensive travels, careful analysis, and very important observations concerning the people and events. my Thanks to him. i am only sorry that he hasn't apparently written other books...maybe i can find a few extended essays on the net.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How I came to fear the bomb (again), December 21, 2001
Eric Margolis has written a book of tumultuous ethnic, political and religious conflict in the border regions of China, India, Pakistan, India and Tibet that rivals the tectonic majesty of the Himalayas. Although his book is short, it is an intense, detailed read of the a region in which the world's two most populous nations border, and three of the world's nuclear powers contend for regional survival and dominance.The first part of the book focuses on Afghanistan and "the bravest men on earth." While I think that the veterans of Iwo Jima, Inchon and the Normandy invasion might have a claim or two to that title, Margolis nonetheless paints a convincing picture of tough, determined fighters bound by strict codes of honor and rivers of tribal blood. The explanations of the Great Jihad and how the defeat of the Soviet Union has dissipated the focus, and thus the forces, of the struggle against "Satan #1" have led to the present spread of militant Islam (not unlike the 7th and 8th centuries AD) are clairvoyant. While it would overstate the claim that our current war stems directly from the conflict termination of the Russo-Afghan War of the 1980's, there are strong causal ties. Margolis further accurately captures the very circumstances of controlled chaos and weak to non existent government that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qeada criminals look to exploit, whether in eastern Indonesia, southern Philippines, Afghanistan, Lebanon or eastern Africa. After this opening section, Margolis turns his attention to another, more serious upheaval and potential for conflict with not just religious ideologies, but nuclear weapons. Margolis does a superb job of capturing in short paragraphs and chapters the British penchant for drawing arbitrary boundaries where none have ever stood or belong when dismembering their empire, and the resultant inevitable clashes. The "Durand Line" that separated the Pashtun tribe, one of the world's largest, into half in Afghanistan and half in Pakistan, is another case of British Imperial folly. As if that were not enough, the split down the middle of the Kashmir ensures a constant shifting population around that border between India and Pakistan, and armed conflict as each attempts to assert its supremacy and sovereignty over that contested fertile region. In trying to control the Kashmir, and the headwaters, both sides are naturally pushed higher and higher into the mountains, in essence trying to find a flanking position. In this case, the "flanking" movements have led them to the Siachen Glacier, 17,000 feet above sea level where men begin to die of cardiac and pulmonary edema and other exotic mountain climber maladies. Further, given the inaccessibility of the region, the cost of each round of artillery ammunition is exorbitant, and being paid by two of the poorest nations on earth for a piece of national pride. Lastly, in this section, Margolis neatly captures and summarizes the strategic dilemma for Pakistan: like Israel, lacking strategic depth and having a flat open southern border which can be quickly overrun by Indian armored task groups, Pakistan feels it has no option but to build nuclear, and be prepared to "go ugly early" in case of a war with India. Unlike the former USSR and the USA during the Cold War, neither side has enough weapons to apply the MAD doctrine, so there is no "comfortable" negating influence. Enter the Dragon. In the last third of the book, Margolis tries to portray the depth and complexity of the relationship between China and India at the top of the world. China has its own expansionist mandate, and internal fundamental rebellious Muslim population. India, too, has an expansionist plan into the Himalayas and northern high mountain plains. Both have postured against the other looking for leverage, and a flank. While Margolis does not paint quite so bleak a picture of these tow nations and the probability of war, given their size, and rapid naval expansion of both powers, it may be more inevitable than the more intuitive Pak-India war. This book has the traditional strengths and weaknesses of a book written by journalists. Favorably, it presents in short form a massive spectrum of international relations, geopolitics, ethnic divisiveness and religious separatism that is breath taking in its scope. Unfavorably, it requires that the reader have some pre existing knowledge of the region and subject matter. It does not have footnotes, so it is hard to plan further reading. It lacks enough maps or pictures to add richness to the written word. All in all, a good read that presents the issues clearly and concisely, prompts the reader to ask as many questions as it attempts to answer, and raises grave concern about perhaps the world's most dangerous flash point.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good book with limitations, June 13, 2006
The first thing to know about this book is that it is not a neutral book about topics that arouse significant controversy.
If you consider the book to consist of neutral facts, you are mistaken. But if you read it as the opinions of millions of people, you will learn how they think, and what they may not always mention in casual conversation. You can be sure that North American devotees of political correctness will not touch Margolis's opinions.
There never was much love lost between the Indians and Pakistanis; Margolis' description of a Pakistani army officer who told him that he feels at home wherever he can fight the hated Indian makes this animosity quite clear, as do the reviews of this book. What makes this book worth reading is Margolis's description of his involvement with the Mujahideen, in the American political lexicon of the day "freedom fighters" who did much to rid the world of the bane of Communism. Many of the points he makes, such as that the Taliban, however many flaws they had, were a huge improvement over anarchy with widespread rape and murder, are indispensable to a true understanding of Afghanistan, but rarely mentioned in the North American press.
Other parts of this book leave room for improvement. Margolis is not exactly a fan of the Hindu religion or the Indian government. He is not only critical, one of the few Western writers willing to describe the dirty war in Kashmir, but somewhat one-sided. In my opinion, Kashmir's strategic importance, India's fear of unraveling, its rivalry with Pakistan, and Nehru's Kashmiri provenance figure far more heavily in Kashmir's past and future than the considerations that Margolis describes in long detail. Margolis accepts China's invasion of Tibet as an unfortunate fact of life; there is no overlooking that he is less stoic about India's presence in Kashmir.
Given the pages of vitriol Margolis has to spare for India's caste system, which damns many to a life of poverty, he could have made more of Pakistan's incredible corruption - transparency international rates it as the 144th most corrupt country of 159 - which does so much to keep Pakistan in poverty, and for that matter, poorer than India. This oversight is particularly glaring as he waxes lyrically over what an improvement and opportunity Muslim rule was in India which is "only" the 88th most corrupt nation. Another quibble is that Margolis doesn't raise the possibility of brinkmanship in describing the Kargil standoff. The Pakistanis and Indians cordially dislike each other; nevertheless, I find it unlikely that they would have gone all the way, and mutually irradiated themselves over a small spit of land. The book could have used a better editor; there are some bad typos.
Even if you disagree with every word in this book, and perhaps especially if you disagree with every word in this book, it is well worth reading, because it provides a concise and well-written description of the beliefs of many Pakistanis, especially of many in the Pakistani military.
This is an interesting book written by a Hoya with a fascinating life, and well-worth reading.
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