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Haqqani, former Pakistani Ambassador to the United States and currently persona non grata (extremely non grata) from his homeland, denounced as a traitor and accused of betraying the Pakistani military in favor of the United States, has no illusions about who runs his native land and who benefits from it. While "Magnificent Delusions" may seem over the top in places the more one reads about and studies South Asia the more one realizes that his book is very much on the money.
Haqqani writes that Pakistan has had an inflated view of its importance on the world stage since 1947 and expects the United States to fund and arm it. At the same time U.S. intelligence and political leaders refused to see that the Pakistani military was created, trained and deployed for war with India particularly to force the return of Kashmir to Pakistan. They continued to tell themselves that Pakistan was part of a bulwark against the USSR. In reality the Pakistani enemies list started and stopped with India although there were always belligerent noises toward Israel. The pro forma pronouncements against the Soviets in Afghanistan were mainly to keep the flow of funds moving from Washington. In recent years, their erstwhile proxies (Pakistan Taliban, al Qaeda, etc.) have turned their guns on the Pakistani state itself.
While the sorry tale of the huge increase in U.S. military aid to Pakistan after soviet invasion of Afghanistan doesn't need retelling, one unintended consequence was increasing funds for the development of an "Islamic bomb" in Pakistan. The Saudis contributed billions to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda operations while the United States matched much of it. There was so much money sloshing around with essentially no oversight or control from the donors it was easy to surreptitiously transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to the nuclear program.
Well written and told by a real insider.
- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1st edition (2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1610393171
- ISBN-13: 978-1610393171
- Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 1.5 x 9.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Customer Reviews: 85 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,006,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #164 in Pakistan History
- #304 in Central Asia History
- #1051 in International Diplomacy (Books)
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