My Life with the Taliban (Columbia/Hurst)
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Author: Abdul Salam Zaeef List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $19.77 You Save: $10.18 (34%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Hardcover 360 pages Release Date: 01 March 2010 Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 0231701489 Rating:   Sales Rank: 43967 | | Look for similar books by subject:
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| | Customer Reviews: Biased and badly written (05 May 2010)I can't believe some readers gave this book 5 stars. These readers must be friends and family of the author. It reads like a personal journal, flat and unimaginative writing. Where was his editor? I just couldn't go on with it and skipped through it. However, I would like to make a couple of comments. On the chapter about 9/11 the author's only preoccupation is that America will retaliate and his concerns are for his country and his people. Where is the compassion of this "man of God" for the 3000 innocent people that were burned alive or jumped out of windows? Did I miss reading that part? As far as the inhumane treatment of prisoners by the Americans, I would like to ask him if stonings and beheadings, conducted in Islamic countries, are humane treatments. Interesting but Misleading (05 May 2010)While this is an interesting read I would caution readers from accepting it as objective truth. Not only does the author view the Taliban movement through rose tinted spectacles, which I suppose is a given, but he goes further than that and distorts history to present the Taliban in a more favorable light. One of the more glaring omissions in the book can be found (or not found)in the chapter entitled "The Beginning" where at the end of the chapter the author claims the Taliban were attacked by Ishmael Khan, the Governor of Herat Province and defacto ruler of the west. In fact the Taliban were urged to attack Herat by the Pakistani trucking mafia out of Quetta who resented the duties that IK was charging them to bring in goods from Iran. So in May of 1995 the Taliban launched a major assault on Herat only to be defeated with the loss of some 3000 men. Their most costly defeat up to that point. As they withdrew south to Kandahar in what was a disastrous rout 100s of their casualties died from lack of basic medical cover and even from lack of water as the Taliban's inability to supply and equip its men took its toll in the deserts of southern Afghanistan. My point; if the author is not able to cover this at all and omits it completely then what else is he distorting or not telling the truth about? So, as I said an interesting read but hardly a real history of the movement. The two editors, Linschoten and Kuehn have been gulled by a very credible snake oil salesman. A unique insight into the Taliban and its origins (11 April 2010)This book may outrage some, but it is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the country where the US and NATO-led war costs more lives every day. There is no pretence here - Zaeef is an opponent of the West's intervention in his country and continues to consider himself a Talib, if he is no longer an active member. Zaeef does not claim to be a historian - this is an autobiography, a form making no claims to `objectivity'. But historians will view this as an important source, telling a side of the story that has been completely absent in English-language accounts of the Afghan conflict so far. Reading this book with all its references to belief and scripture leaves the impression of a passionate Afghan nationalist who believes the Pashtuns are disenfranchised and who hates the Americans and the Pakistani ISI in equal measure. The section about Guantanamo should be read for itself alone by anyone who feels the West is more `civilized' than the Afghans. It is also impressive to read of Zaeef's attempt as ambassador in Pakistan to obtain the release of the Taliban prisoners in the Kunduz area who were subsequently massacred. On the other hand, Zaeef's account contains frustrating silences, as one might expect from a memoir. There is no mention, for example, of the Taliban's alleged use of opium money, or the use of suicide bombs and the civilian casualties they have caused. You may end up disagreeing with both reviewers and book, but you should still read it. If you end up, like us, with a sense of respect for Zaeef, who comes across as an honest and committed man - is that really so appalling? The most important book you can read about Afghanistan (05 April 2010)"My Life with the Taliban" is easily the most important work to come out of Afghanistan since the West realized it had not defeated the Taliban in 2001 and indeed was not winning against an ever-strengthening insurgency. Successive American commanders of the international coalition trying to defeat the Taliban and their allies have said there cannot be a military solution to the conflict. If you agree with them, you have to read this book. In order for there to be a viable political solution, the Afghan government, Western leaders and those they represent need to understand who the Taliban are. What Mullah Zaeef and his two writer/editors have done is remarkable not because it is an encyclopedia of who's who and what's what with the Taliban. That may never be written. But what they have done is open the curtains, through they eyes of one very important member of the movement, to a hidden culture that the rest of the world, from US four-star generals to left-wing German ministers to worried British voters, are now forced to reckon with. A serious contemplation of the idea of "Taliban" (05 April 2010)This book is unfairly maligned as being a work of Taliban apologetics. It is that, to a certain extent, but it is an important counter-narrative to the dominant "Taliban=evil" one. Mullah Zaeef writes of how and why he chose to join the movement and work toward its end; just as upsetting, perhaps, to an American audience, is his description of how we treated prisoners at Guantanamo - even legitimate ones like former regime officials. Does this book maybe go too far toward excusing the Taliban's activities? Yes. But don't blame the translators for that (they are just that - translators). Just as we give our own disgraced politicians the chance to explain themselves through memoir, so should we do that for Zaeef, especially when understanding the justification of our enemies is so vitally important. Joshua Foust [...] | |
