Ran across an interesting column about an interesting book in my hometown newspaper today. Newspaper, you know, large sheets of flimsy paper with black ink with a few splotches of color thrown in that show up at your doorstep or roadside box. Anyway, I was reading a column by Trudy Rubin about the deteriorating conditions in Pakistan/Afghanistan’s lawless border area.

In it, she was quoting the author of a new book, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. He should know. Also author of Taliban, Ahmed Rashid is know as “Pakistan’s Best and Bravest Reporter.” He knows the players: outgoing Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, the assassinated would-be returning hero Benazir Bhutto, W., the Taliban, al-Quaida and other insurgents and so-called Federally Administered Tribal Areas in northern Pakistan, which really aren’t administered by anyone except the inmates in that particular asylum.

Perhaps better known (not much) by its snappy acronym, FATA, it is believed to be home to Osama bin Laden, assuming he’s still able to sit up and take nourishment.

It’s just another garden spot that W. thought he could waltz in and clean up, with the help of his good friend, “General,” as he famously named Musharraf in a TV interview (BEFORE he was elected!! People, how could you elect someone that uninformed??).

I’d like to read the book, but I’m afraid it’ll send me off on a long rant, and honestly, I don’t think that’s healthy.

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Dave Wilson is the Grand Pooh-Bah of Editorial Content at DelMio.com, a site developed by SunLit Communications LLC. He also is at times janitor, chauffeur, chief cook and bottle washer. Once upon a time he was a metro editor and copy editor at the Akron Beacon Journal. Send love letters and trash talk to dave.wilson@delmio.com. Or post a comment. Whatever.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, with an up-close view of the situation there, has written new book that doesn’t disguise his point of view: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin says it should be required reading for both John McCain and Barack Obama, the two major presidential candidates.
In her column, citing Rashid’s book, Rubin predicts that the next major foreign policy problem will stem from a lawless region in Pakistan known (at least by a few) as FATA: Federally Administered Tribal Areas of northern Pakistan. Calling it federally administered is a bit of an oxymoron: It’s largely a lawless expanse that is safe haven to al-Qaida, the Taliban and other undesirables (to the United States, anyway). Neither Pakistan nor the United States is effectively combating the insurgency there.
Rashid told the columnist he thinks President Bush should first stop publicly backing Pakistan’s unpopular leader, Pervez Musharraf. Both figures are widely disliked in Pakistan and parts nearby.

To learn more about the book or buy the book, CLICK HERE.