It's hard to think of a book that was published with as much good timing as Ahmed Rashid's Taliban. The book itself is heavily academic and therefore largely unexciting, but remains the best treatment of the Taliban up to 2001. Readers wanting analysis of events afterward will obviously have to look elsewhere.

This fellow is an arm chair quack. He grew up in Pakistan, but that's all about it. Now he makes his living saying cocophony about Pakistan and that region of the world on US TV networks. And with so many networks looking to fill up their airtime, he is having no trouble making this living. He has no clue of what the conditions are on the ground in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Says that Musharraf could have 'nipped the evil in the bud' if he had acted sooner in Swat. If Musharraf had done that, then Mr Rashid would have accused Musharraf of being trigger happy. So if you can see, Mr. Rashid is just a monday morning quarter back. All he is doing is second guessing whatever Musharraf does. And in a couple of months he'll be doing the same with the new govt. in Pakistan, because that's what the US TV networks want him to say.
Why would you pay to read baloney from such a quack?

This was a great novel, go buy Detained Differencesby J. Robert Rowe. It is about Detainee Operations inside Afghanistan.

This was a great novel, go buy Detained Differencesby J. Robert Rowe. It is about Detainee Operations inside Afghanistan.

If you want to understand Afghanistan latest history, this is a great choice. The narrative is center on the Talibans of course, how this group was invented after the end of the cold war and after fighting against the Soviets in a united front known as the Mujaheddin. It is clear to all of us that the Taliban are Islamic Fundamentalist and that its presence on Afghanistan has rendered the country on a violent and unstable path.

Again we found here the endemic problem of some countries of the middle east and central Asia: several ethnics groups with different Islamic religion flavours, Sunni and Shi'ite, with external players trying to consumate the country to a sole religion, and I am referring to external players like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan representing the Sunni side and Iran defending shiism. This is the pitiful case of Afghanistan and in this book all these importants facts are depicted by the author so you become aware of the difficult geography of this country, the ethnics groups that inhabit it and the relation to neighbouring countries, especially Pakistan and Iran.

In my opinion, a worthy person that had the character, education and leadership to run Afghanistan future was the Lion of the Panjshir, Masud, but he was also killed either by the pickup warriors or by Bin Laden terrorist, with the latter the most likely. Now president Karzai, has a very difficult task to deal with, to pacify the country and the spirits, finish the war against the Taliban, improve the economy and the relations with their neighbours and of course help the people of Afghanistan. Is my belief that in order to do that, external aid is absolutely needed for a long time, in particular from the UN which must include more countries apart from the current ones. It is important to improve education for all, so these people do not based its life only on religion and to stabilize the country so Central Asia Energy projects can successful be realized, using Afghanistan as a transit for the gas and oil to South East Asia. I hope Afghanistan finally choose Peace as its way of living and get accustom to it.

A very well written book detailing the rise of the taliban movement and the immediate political crisis that followed. These ignorant warriors were thought to be liberators of the afghan people but demonstrated to be highly inadequate to pacify the country and govern it. Also astonishing the complete lack of central asian policy from the USA government after the cold war ended. This was seminal for the growth of extremist movements and was a major cause in the strenghtening of Al-Qaida. Clinton government has a major responsability for tide of the modern day terrorism. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are the best funders of terrorism and extremism but still they are the best allies of USA in the region...Highly recommended.

This is book brings in a clear picture of who the taliban is where it came from and how they came to give shelter to Bin Laden. There is a lot of names dates and places, making this book read a lot like a long journal article. This does not take a way from the work because it is a report of the facts that led the taliban to come to power. This book only gives the story pre 9/11 but it is needed for a complete understanding of how central asia has played such a pivotal role in islamic extremism and its ability to export terrorism on a world wide scale.

yes a good book but it left out some of the most recent horrible actions by the taliban like the b-heading of teachers in the country. Of course the good thing is that this research is well founded and the documentation of the rise of the Taliban and their scope not just in Afghanistan, but the entire world is very good. So far I would have to say this is one of the better books on these ding bat goof ball chickens who hide behind babies and still think it is all in the name of Ah La. Barbaric ruling is brought to a whole new light and it makes me feel great I live where I do, can you imagine having your eyes gouged out because you pick what shows you watch for television?

Read this book if you're_really_interested in the Taliban. You will be dizzied by the sheer amount of names and facts. Mr. Rashid covers it all and more. Since I am no diplomat or anti-terrorism official, I really wasn't in need of so much detail, so I found myself skimming large parts of it though. I also found myself frustrated by more than a few problems that a good editor should have caught. For instance, the map of Afghanistan in the front of the book does not show many of the towns, rivers and geographical features that the author references throughout the book. So, when the author was- for instance- explaining the geographical boundaries of the Pashtuns, I was completely lost since the map contained hardly any of the place names he was talking about. The author also seemed to be writing at such a hurried pace that he omitted seemingly important things or neglected some necessary facts about the subjects he was talking about. For instance, I wondered why he never mentioned the First Anglo-Afghan war, when a British Army was completely destroyed, but he mentioned the Second Anglo-Afghan War. We were also never told why the name of the Abdali tribe was changed to Durrani. He mentions several major events, like the overthrow of Zakir Shah without telling us when they happened. Still, this seems to be a definitive work and I certainly learned a lot from it, such as why the Taliban enjoyed such support among the Pashtuns and internationally; they were a vast improvement over their barbaric rivals in that Darwinian hellhole of Afghanistan. The American invasion was certainly a positive thing for our national interest and at least in theory for the Afghan people, but it remains to be seen whether the democratic government has the ability and ruthlessness to prevent the country from slipping back into a pre-Taliban anarchy.

Read this book if you're interested in the Taliban. You will be dizzied by the sheer amount of names and facts. Mr. Rashid covers it all and more. Since I am no diplomat or anti-terrorism official, I really wasn't in need of so much detail, so I found myself skimming large parts of it. I also found myself frustrated by more than a few problems that a good editor should have caught. For instance, the map of Afghanistan in the front of the book does not show many of the towns, rivers and geographical features that the author references throughout the book. So, when the author was- for instance- explaining the geographical boundaries of the Pashtuns, I was completely lost since the map contained hardly any of the place names he was talking about. The author also seemed to be writing at such a hurried pace that he omitted seemingly important things or neglected some necessary facts about the subjects he was talking about. For instance, I wondered why he never mentioned the First Anglo-Afghan war, when a British Army was completely destroyed, but he mentioned the Second Anglo-Afghan War. We were also never told why the name of the Abdali tribe was changed to Durrani. He mentions several major events, like the overthrow of Zakir Shah without telling us when they happened. Still, this seems to be a definitive work and I certainly learned a lot from it, such as why the Taliban enjoyed such support among the Pashtuns and internationally; they were a vast improvement over their barbaric rivals in that Darwinian hellhole of Afghanistan. The American invasion was certainly a positive thing for our national interest and at least in theory for the Afghan people, but it remains to be seen whether the democratic government has the ability and ruthlessness to prevent the country from slipping back into a pre-Taliban anarchy.

I originally bought this book right after 911, but our early success in Afghanistan made it look as if the Taliban were toast and their history irrelevant. But, now that the Taliban are resurgent, this book proves itself essential to understand not only what happened in Afghanistan prior to 2001, but what will happen in Iraq once the U.S. withdraws, be it one, two, or ten years from now.

This book helped me understand that the U.S. invasion of Iraq will probably have the same consequences as the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1980. The Russians stayed almost ten years, before finally giving up on the idea of creating a friendly, viable nation state. Instead, as the author points out, Russian intervention created a "Lumpen Proletariat" of young, orphaned, ignorant, rootless, traditionless bandits, thugs, and drug smugglers who call themselves the "Taliban." The Taliban are boys without normal interaction with fathers, mothers, sisters, or extended family. Even Mullah Omar is a sad, lonely little wild boy in an adult body.

Try to imagine an entire nation governed by the type of boys described by William Golding in his novel, "Lord of the Flies." That is what decades of war have produced in Afghanistan. We are in the process of producing the same conditions in Iraq today. Based on the results of the "laboratory experiment" in Afghanistan, we can expect the same results from a similar volatile mix of ingredients in Iraq. After one, five, or ten more years of occupation, we will have Talibanized the entire middle east.

Rashid often refers to Roy Olivier's excellent study entitled "The Failure of Political Islam." I would highly recommend reading the Olivier study first, then the Rashid study. For those who do, it may seem as obvious as it does to me that the Western strategy of killing off charismatic Islamic leaders has the result of creating a vacuum that can only be filled by Golding's wild boys as best they can.

Militant Islam will not accept a national organization with a professional bureaucracy and constitutional government. It depends instead upon iron fisted dictatorships by charismatic leaders who appear to wear the mantle of Mohammed, as Mullah Omar pretends to do.

Rashid's evidence indicates to the discerning reader that Iran also passed through the "Lord of the Flies" stage after the long war with Iraq, in which over 1.5 million died. Iran today is a much more mature and consistent entity as a result of all that misery. Most of the Iranian wild boys grew up. In fact, one can hardly help concluding that a partnership with Iran would be far more productive than a partnership with Wahabbi exporting Saudi Arabia, which Rashid holds responsible for creating a Sunni extremism worse than any caused by Iran's Shia Moslems.

The most fascinating idea presented by Rashid was his proposed solution to the Afghan problem. Essentially, he proposed that each of the neighboring states each take responsibility for a slice of Afghanistan, with due consideration of the strategic interests of the other neighbors. He seemed to be suggesting some sort of partition composed of "trust territories" or "protectorates", in which each partition would be managed by a more or less benevolent neighbor state having a compatible ethnic identity. This parallels the solution proposed for Iraq by Senator Biden 17 years later. But Rashid takes the idea beyond the mere sound bite, providing real analysis to justify the proposal.

When one considers the application of the protectorate partition idea to the problem in Iraq, one immediately realizes one big advantage Iraq has over Afghanistan. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq's neighbors are relatively sophisticated nation states. Iran has matured. Turkey is a member of NATO. Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are strategic partners of the U.S. Syria is a bit of a wild card, but not nearly as dangerous as a nuclear armed "failed state" like Pakistan.

The other significant contribution of Rashid's study is an understanding of the tremendously fragile condition of Pakistan. His musings on whether the whole of Pakistan is simply being manipulated by the Pashtun tribes is fascinating. He thinks that rather than Afghanistan providing strategic depth for a potential conflict between Pakistan and India, the situation is actually the opposite. Pakistan is providing strategic depth for the Taliban. So long as the Pashtun can hide the Taliban in their sections of Pakistan, the Taliban will never be rooted out of Afghanistan. Heavily infiltrated by the Taliban, Pakistan seems balanced on the knife edge of anarchy, with its nuclear arsenal up for grabs. One shudders to think what might happen there. Pakistan seems far more worthy of the sacrifice of lives and treasure than Iraq.

We have another 19 months before we are rid of our failed Presidency under our own wild boy, George Bush. Surely, the next President of the United States will want a foreign policy in the Middle East that is based on fact instead of fantasy. I would hope that anyone who plans to participate in the next administration will read Rashid and Olivier.

We don't have to speculate about what will happen in Iraq. It has already happened in Afghanistan. Let's plan accordingly.

If you are going to read one book about the Taliban and the struggle for power in Central Asia, this should be that book.

Before there was Zahid Hussain ("Frontline Pakistan. The Struggle with Militant Islam"), a Pakistani correspondent for various prestigious British and American newspapers and journals, there was Ahmed Rashid, a fellow Pakistani journalist and equally prestigious author.

In "Taliban" Rashid writes about the history of the Taliban, their organization and view of Islam, and their role in "The New Great Game", the struggle for power and influence in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The author writes well and his book shows the clear linkages between the Taliban and their Pakistani patrons - the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Rashid argues that the ISI supported the budding Taliban movement and made it the modern-day organization it is today in order to create strategic depth for Pakistan against India. More importantly, many officers in the Pakistani military agreed with the Taliban's view of Islamic Revolution.

Yet the author also makes it clear that Pakistani support for the Taliban, in the form of tens of thousands of young, radical Pakistani muslims, allowed the ISI to flush these potential revolutionaries out of the country and into neighboring Afghanistan.

The dilemma for Pakistan is, of course, that the greater the success the United States led Coalition and NATO enjoy in Afghanistan, the greater the likelyhood that the Islamic revolution the ISI and Islamabad have been struggling to flush into Afghanistan will explode, with a vengeance, in their faces.

This is bad news for Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf, who has already survived four assassination attempts at the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda, has pledged his full support to America's war on terrorism in the region. For this reason, he has become a target of radical extremists. Some experts believe it is only a matter of time before the extremists succeed.

Several of Pakistan's northwestern provinces are already fully under Taliban control. And Rashid believes it is only a matter of time before the Islamic revolution returns, in full force, to Pakistan.

So to "win" in Afghanistan, America and its European allies will probably have to "lose" in Pakistan.

"Taliban" is a tremendously insightful and informative book and should be required reading for anyone who deals with Pakistan and Afghanistan. It should be read in conjunction with Zahid Hussain" "Frontline Pakistan. The Struggle with Militant Islam".

If you want to know Afghanistan's history,,the people, how the Taliban came to be in power and how the the world helped to create this evil ideology, you have to read this book, it is outstanding. Don't skip any part of it, even the forward and intro are valuable. I have never written a review before, but this book was so great that I had to. I have been walking around, spouting facts to friends and families (they could care less, but let me ramble anyway:)

I was stationed in Afghanistan and I learned more about the history and background of the Taliban from this book than I did from being there. Ahmed Rashid spent a lot of time interviewing members of the Taliban and just being in Afghanistan over the last 20 years. Overall this is an excellent book for anyone that wants to understand the varying complexities that exist in Afghanistan today as well as insight into why there is still conflict in Afghanistan.

If you would like to understand what is happening in the Middle East, read what happened in Afghanistan much earlier. This book puts the current world conflict in perspective. Then,you should read "Jihad" by the same author.
Eric

I just got done finishing this book. It is well-written and informative. There are alot of reviews praising this book, so I don't have to say much. I will just state that you can read books by so-called Taliban experts, or you can read it from a real expert. Ahmed Rashid is somebody who actually interviewed members of the Taliban, and observed the causes and effects of the Taliban takover, since he visited and stayed in Afghanistan for an extended period of time.

An awesome read. Well worth your time.