Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan

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June 28, 2018

Explains why we keep sending money and getting no results. The Pakistan military gets the billions we send and is more likely to spend some of this money to keep the bad guys causing problems so they can continue getting more money. Thank about this: if we give money to the Pakistan military and they are able to stop the violence then we stop sending money. They want the problems so we continue giving money. It’s the same old con game that Yasser Arofat of the PLO did for years. After his death from cancer his widow got 12 million dollars from his bank account. Pakistan is using the same scheme on us.

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The Tangled Mess of Afghanistan and Pakistan

November 23, 2015

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This is Ahmed Rashid’s follow up to Taliban and Decent into Chaos coving the events from 2009-2013-14. Pakistan on the Brink really ties the problems of Afghanistan and Pakistan together in this soup of dysfunction, in that Afghanistan’s failures coupled with Pakistan’s questionable foreign policy decisions of support for the Taliban mixed with eliminating those Taliban who haven’t promised not to attack Afghanistan has created quite a mess for both the Stans and the United States.

I think Rashid really hit the nail on the head in this book in that the United States as a country cannot solve Afghanistan without solving Pakistan. Given the current relationship between the two countries, such a solution does not seem likely in coming. This problem strikes me as a human problem and how do you change the thoughts and perceptions of an entity like the Pakistan Army, Taliban, or even American politicians? These are so entrenched that the situation becomes hopeless.

An informative book on a depressing situation.

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Eric C. Petersen

Comprehensive, authoritative - if totally depressing.

November 30, 2014

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If, like me, you have been totally confused by the on-going fiasco of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan for the last 13 years - and longer with Pakistan - this book clearly lays out the seemingly unending list of policy failures by both the Bush and Obama administrations, and how hundreds of billions of dollars were poured down various rat holes. Rashid has had unusual access to all the major players on this chess board and has been very prescient in his earlier books about where events were headed. This is not a blame-game book (although there is plenty to go around), rather how well-intentioned, if totally naïve, policies failed but nevertheless continued to march on because of sheer momentum and unquestioned funding from Washington. About the only person Rashid credits with understanding the situation in the region and possibly had a strategy for a favorable outcome was Richard Holbrooke. Unfortunately, Holbrooke unexpectedly died - not that anyone in D.C. gave his ideas any serious thought as various cabals in the foreign policy apparatus were each pursuing their own agendas. Unfortunately, the hubris of the Project for the New American Century, even after lessons hopefully learned from Iraq to Afghanistan-Pakistan, remains at the center of our foreign policy - see Ukraine and probably more to come.

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M. A. Seifter

This is the book you need

July 9, 2012

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This is the book that the intelligent American needs today-this year, this very minute- to understand the sad political, diplomatic, military and social realities that we are finding ourselves engulfed in in Afghanistan. Ahmed Rashid's "Pakistan on the Brink" weaves together the occasionally confusing conditions of South and much of Central Asia into a subtly textured fabric, from whose stark colors we dare not distract our eyes or attention. Each of the book's chapters might be read independently of the others, but all of them tell the same tale: the betrayal of our inititives in Afghanistan by Presidential ideology and high-handedness.Betrayal by the feudal shortsightedness and cynicism of President Karzai in Kabul. Betrayal by interfering neighbor countries. And, most of all, and central to Rashid's argument, betrayal of the Pakistanis, the Afghans, and the US/NATO troops still "in country" by the imploding death star of Pakistan, its government cowardly and clueless and crawling before its military and intelligence sectors who enjoy complete power at home and who exercise unrelenting terrorism against all of their foes at home and abroad, its economy crumbling, its infrastructure unfunded,its citizens mired in poverty and corruption, and all of Islamabad's energies commited to endless, pointless war against India and preserving or ensuring a Pakistani regime in Afghanistan, care of the Taliban.

If you read only one book about Afgahanistan today, Rashid's "Pakistan on the Brink" is that one. If you would like to read another book giving a background to events in Afghanistan, I would heartedly reccmmend Rashid's equally fine book, "Taliban".

Mark Seifter

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Baraniecki Mark Stuart

Pakistan's inability to build a civil society.

July 29, 2012

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In this useful book, the author says about Pakistan, "For too long the military and political parties have neglected their one single task, which is to make life better for their people".

The author is a journalist based in Lahore (Pakistan) with a deep knowledge of the complex relationships between local power sources such as the ISI (Inter Services Agency - Pakistan military), Taliban (both Afghan and Pakistani), the Americans (political and military), the Afghan government and tribes and India.

The picture that emerges, is of tremendously abused populations in Pakistan and Afghanistan that would be delighted to see an end to their corrupt and self serving governments together with the Islamic fundamentalist terror groups that inhabit the region.

Rashid shows that in common with other residents of the middle east they look with longing at Turkey, as he says, "Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan age fifty-seven, is a new hero for the Arab and Muslim world, taking on Muslim dictatorships like Syria, defending the Palestinians, tilting against Israel, yet firmly wedded to the West and the United States through NATO and other alliances; it is even up for membership in the twenty seven nation European Union."

After reading this book one can see that the only chance of getting from "here to there" would be a an unlikely Pakistan/Afghan "Arab Spring" , so for the forseeable future one would sadly expect Pakistanis to continue to emigrate from their disfunctional society.

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D. Hawthorne

Interesting book from the inside of Pakistan.

February 5, 2018

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Interesting book from the inside of Pakistan.

Rashid gives a very different perspective on what is happening in Pakistan to what is given in the main-stream Western media.

Rashid navigates the various historical and political currents that drive events in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He makes the point the destinies of these two countries are intertwined for historical, cultural, political, and ethnic reasons. The border between the two countries is the result of British imperialism.

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Alexander

Worth the Read! Interesting and enlightening

May 2, 2012

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I finished one book, which described the strained relationship the US has with Pakistan and needed to read more on the future of our relations with Pakistan due to our extended period of conflict within Afghanistan. When reading Ahmed Rashid you get an insight that is not really covered in other literature on the subject, a sensitive subject a matter of fact because of our constant willingness or need to work with Pakistan even knowing what they have continued to fail to provide with the US in terms of assistance. The provide us what keeps us satisfied but have not crossed the line in really working to provide the assistance that would warrant the amount of money and assistance we have been providing of a decade. The book does a great job in understanding the delicate balance both countries have been working to please each other while keeping the public at bay. Even with the work the CIA has done within Pakistan and Afghanistan the geopolitics and regional players that have stepped in have created a framework in understanding how foreign policy and the "war on terrorism" will continue to be a factor in the development of the globalized world.

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KXB

A nuclear headache

June 22, 2012

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For anyone who has studied or worked alongside Pakistanis in the West, it is always a bit a puzzle to see how such a resourceful and savvy population can come out of a country that always seems on the brink of some catastrophe. Ahmed Rashid is a Lahore-based journalist and offers a clear report of all the problems plaguing the nation. Some of these problems are imposed from outside, such as excessive American reliance on the Pakistani Army - but he reserves most of his ire for Pakistani leadership's short-sightedness. While other once testy neighbors, such as Greece & Turkey or France & Germany have settled their differences - Pakistan continuously sees India as waiting to attack, and thereby justifies the military consuming most of the nation's limited resources. For anyone who thinks that once the U.S. leaves Afghanistan that we can sleep easily will not be re-assured by Rashid's book.

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Benjamin Africa III

A book worth the money

October 4, 2013

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Rather than go on about the book and relate what Mr Rashid has written let me pique your curiosity by saying this. Mr Rashid is truly a brave man to come out writing his books that do not paint a flattering picture of either Afghanistan, the US, or Pakistan. He lives in country, has the knowledge and connections to write a book that explains the shortcomings of all three nations and their interactions. This is a worthwhile read for those that want to comprehend a bit of what has transpired and could happen. Granted it is the third of his books in this theme but one gets a vivid picture by reading this, and then you can pick up the others.

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ricky

the man is an incredibly good writer and makes what could be dull absolutely fascinating

September 28, 2014

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a must read for anybody who is even remotely interested in world affairs. the man is an incredibly good writer and makes what could be dull absolutely fascinating. would read any of his books without hesitation. read the other two , Taliban and chaos. just as good and would highly recommend. mr rashid is able to take a very complex subject, facts etc and make it clear and helpful in learning about what a mess things are. I wish I could say i felt some hope for the region, but I'm not real positive about that.

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