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Title: Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism by John K. Cooley, Edward W. Said ISBN: 0-7453-1917-3 Publisher: Pluto Press Pub. Date: June, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent reportage on the dark side of U.S policy
Comment: This book discloses the historical facts behind the rumors that the CIA did train people like Osama bin Laden as Muslim rebels to fight off the Soviets in Afghanistan in the late seventies and eighties. Well apparently it is all true. Given the author in depth research and documentation, this story appears credible enough to become part of history. This is an incredibly interesting book for both its shock value and historical documentation.
The book main two themes are:
a) that a U.S. foreign policy in the eighties aimed at fighting back the Soviets in Afghanistan resulted in the acceleration of the formation of Muslim terrorist networks such as al-Qaida; and
b) that in the nineties, the U.S. supported the advent of the Taliban in the hope of stabilizing the Afghan government. This was to facilitate the building of a Trans-Afghan pipeline to be developed by U.S. oil companies.
As part of a Cold War strategy, since 1979 and onward, the U.S. provided support and trained Muslim warriors who built up a resistance to the Soviet-backed Afghanistan government. The Soviets soon decided to invade Afghanistan to crush this Muslim resistance movement and control the U.S. rising influence in the region. At this stage, the U.S. renewed their efforts and enlisted, trained, and funded more and more warriors or moujahidin. The CIA turned to many Muslim charities and religious groups around the World and the U.S. for recruiting. Pretty soon the funding and arm supplies came not only from the U.S., but also from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other countries. At the same time, Osama bin Laden also found his way in Afghanistan and joined the fight against the Russian. Osama success in fighting the Soviets, gave him the leadership and momentum to build his budding organization al-Qaida.
After the retreat of the Soviets during the early nineties, Osama bin Laden, Pakistan, and the U.S. all favored the advent of the Taliban in Afghanistan. For the U.S. and Pakistan, the idea was to create an independent, strong, and stable Pushtun state in Afghanistan. In turn, this reliable Afghan government could provide the stability needed to allow U.S. oil companies to complete their plans for a trans Afghan pipeline that would deliver oil from Central Asia to Pakistani ports on the Indian Ocean. For Osama bin Laden, the Taliban created an alliance and a haven for his terrorist network al Qaida, since bin Laden had lost his Saudi Arabian citizenship. This was because he supported Saudi opposition groups against the royal family. He did that because of the Saudi government letting U.S. military forces in Saudi Arabia in the 1990 Gulf War.
Also, after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, many Muslim moujahidin joined al Qaida and other terrorist networks. As a result, Osama and his colleagues started exporting terrorism literally Worldwide and causing havoc in Africa, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Chechnya and many other places. Ever since terrorism has escalated in violence, ruthlessness (killing increasingly civilians, tourists), and capability (both from a weapon and strategic standpoint).
With 20/20 hindsight, one can only wonder what would have happen if the U.S. had never gotten involved in the affairs of the Afghan Soviet supported government in the late seventies and eighties. Would al-Qaida ever got off the ground? Would the clash of civilization between the U.S. and Islam be as intense? Would the 9/11 events never have occurred? Would the Cold War be over? And, would the Soviet Union still exist? This book will definitely make you think.
Rating: 3
Summary: The Tipping Point in Afghanistan
Comment: The thesis of John Cooley's Unholy Wars is that the tragic attack on the World Trade Center and the Pengaton was "engineered, planned and in some cases carried out by CIA-trained veterans of the 1979-1989 Afghanistan war, or those schooled or influenced by them." No small charge. Of course, Mr. Cooley is not claiming that the CIA intended the result; and he acknowledges that hindsight is an untimely gift. Still, he takes great pains to show that, after the smoke cleared in Afghanistan, the Afghan rebels became a terrorist diaspora -- one that remained highly networked and adequately funded. Mr. Cooley at points admits that other causal factors were involved as well, not least the continued flow of funds needed to finance jihad, but his recurring accusation is that "blowback" was at the heart of September 11th.
Invariably the book prompts counterfactual questions: Had there been no U.S. support for the Afghan rebels might the Soviet Union have imploded of its own weight? Was a CIA role in Afghanistan the decisive tipping point that culminated in September 11th or might it have happened anyway? Working from the premise that he is factually correct about U.S. "training," was that training really decisive? Wouldn't we expect a motivated al-Qaida to find or discover on its own what resources it needed?
The book's principal strength is the quantity of information it conveys. Readers in search of a map of the overall book might read Chapter 11, "The Contagion Spreads: The Assault on America," after reading the opening chapter on Carter and Brezhnev. This should not be the only book you read to understand the tragedy of September 11th, but it certainly should be one of them.
Rating: 3
Summary: Badly Needs Editing
Comment: John Cooley presents the reader with a mas of very interesting, though ultimately very poorly organised information. One has the impression that this book was rushed to the presses to capitalise on the public's need for information after 9/11. There is a great deal of useful information, but buried among a lot of trivia, that clouds the overall picture. He tends to jump back and forth through time, leaving the reader a little confused-and often forcing one to have to reread previous paragraphs. Very dense and difficult to digest. He does himself a disservice by not having an editor.
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Title: Western State Terrorism by Alexander George ISBN: 0745609317 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: December, 1991 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky, Edward W. Said ISBN: 0896086011 Publisher: South End Press Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid ISBN: 0300089023 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll ISBN: 1594200076 Publisher: The Penguin Press Pub. Date: 23 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban by Larry P. Goodson ISBN: 0295980508 Publisher: University of Washington Press Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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