The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power

by Tariq Ali

Book Overview

Now in paperback, from a writer with unrivalled access and knowledge, a riveting portrait of America's closest ally in the war on terror as it spirals into political chaos. The sixth most populous... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416561021
• ISBN13: 9781416561026
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A very good book on a very important subject

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.

exhilarating

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.

Interesting exploration of Pakistan's history and politics

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 heal

PAKISTAN HAS BANNED CIRCULATION OF THIS BOOK

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

Riveting

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.