Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, Second Edition [Paperback]

Here we have a fascinating subject made dull by bad writing and the Yale Press distaste for copyediting. As with Tim Judah's "The Serbs," a clumsy, academic style overwhelms the text, turning recent history into routine textbook mush. Shame. Like a mediocre grad student, Ahmed Rashid depends on rote listing of names and dates as a means of conveying expertise. Bad move. Anyone with access to Google and a word processor can cut-&-paste the facts. Taking this approach also assumes that readers have an encyclopedic knowledge of Afghanistan. Another mistake. You'll have to excuse my ignorance and audacity, but credible reporters fill in the blanks with more than minute details about the career trajectory of a particular tribe's onetime third-in-command and eventual exile. Detail upon detail is hurled at the reader in this manner without regard for context or relevance to later events. This is painful reading. Do not be fooled by the good reviews. The author needs to go back to school and learn that he inclusion of every imaginable detail does not indicate solid journalism or scholarship, but overcompensation or a small mind's thirst for tenure. Let me make myself absolutely clear-this book represents the worst of historical scholarship and journalism. The author subordinates the reporting of actual events to tedious listing of defunct military cells and which of their members belong to the Taliban. Lengthy quotes from Taliban members reiterating this narrative are employed, AP style, demonstrating the author's wholesale lack of genuine technique yet solid grasp of journalistic padding. Some chapters read like a gossip sheet for terrorists--a Taliban Enquirer, if you will. Feel free to skip around this book as you would any bloated article in The Economist. You can sniff out the relevant information and feel satisfied that only a sucker would suffer through the rest. On a final note, over 100 other people have reviewed this book and most are enthusiastic. My guess is in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 readers wanted info about the Taliban from a more thorough and knowledgeable source than CNN or Fox News. Now that the scare is over, you can restore your critical faculties and call this book what it is.

This is a great book for anyone hoping to learn about Afghanistan or the Taliban. Starting with a thorough summary of Afghanistan's history and the people who inhabit it, he goes all the way up to the current day and age and gives the reader a very good idea of the main players in the Taliban, where they came from, and what they want.
Ahmed Rashid knows his stuff, he has personal experience with the nation and with many of the people he writes about. I doubt you'll find anyone else with his perspective writing books.
It's a very well written and engaging book. From a purely entertainment standpoint the book also does well, you'll enjoy it.
A lot of misinformation can be found about Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the role of other nations, mainly the US, in their creation, reading this will give you a much better and much more accurate picture.

A cliche is appropriate here. Ahmed Rashid owned this story.

A long-time correspondent based in Central Asia, Rashid was singularly situated to tell the world about the Taliban. Written well before the United States invaded Afghanistan, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia is a testament to the author's power of observation, ability to cultivate excellent sources, and prowess as an interviewer and a researcher. To the outside world, the Taliban seemed insane. Rashid chronicles why that distant perception was correct. Years as a journeyman reporter provided Rashid entree into places few independent sources could go. This unprecedented access, and Rashid's talent as a writer, convey the sheer madness that gripped Afghanistan. The result is the definitive book on the Taliban.

Rashid proves to be a brilliant analyst as well as an intrepid reporter. As an example, the author gives the best explanation to date of why the Taliban was so virulently misogynistic. Many of these Islamist fanatics, Rashid explains, were raised in all-male orphanages, educated only by men, and lived exclusively among other boys. This incisive explanation of the gender issue is typical of the author's best analyses, some of which come across almost as throwaway lines ("failed states are not necessarily dying states" springs to mind). Rashid also has a keen eye for the absurd. The number of Taliban officials missing limbs, eyes and other body parts, he notes, was quite disconcerting.

On a serious note, Rashid also examines the wider issues the Taliban represented. In the process, he spares no one. Such diverse personages as American oil barons, old-style Russian expansionists, Islamic religious fanatics, atavistic communist tyrants, and corrupt Muslim officials all receive the harsh treatment they richly deserve. The Taliban's Afghanistan truly became a quagmire for its enablers and enemies. As some regional powers promoted their vision of a religious utopia, they also sowed the seeds of their own destruction as Afghan-based terrorists put those very governments in their crosshairs. Unfortunately for the West, this failed state also gave al-Qaeda and heroin producers a sanctuary. Western energy interests, Wahhabi-promoting Saudis, Central Asian dictators, and power-crazed Pakistani intelligence officers sacrificed national interests for their narrow concerns, and Rashid makes it clear the world is a much more dangerous place as a result.

This book is a triumph precisely because the author ties together all these seemingly disparate evils--terrorism, repression, gratuitous violence, corporate greed, geopolitical hegemony, Islamic radicalism, drug trafficking----and makes a compelling case that the Taliban was more their symptom than cause.