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WHAT:  Digging Deeper LXVIII: Afghanistan (I)
WHO:  Led by Mark Jensen
WHEN:  Monday, January 5 & 12, 2009 -- 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
WHERE:  Mandolin Café, 3923 South 12th St., Tacoma, WA 98405

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United for Peace
of Pierce County
Study Circle:
January 5 & 12, 2009
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www.ufppc.org
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UFPPC study circle

DIGGING DEEPER LXVIII: Afghanistan (I)

On Jan. 5 & 12, Digging Deeper will examine two books on the recent history of Afghanistan:  Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (Penguin, 2004) and Ahmed Rashid’s Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (Viking, 2008).  Patrick O'Kelley said that Coll's book “offers revealing details of the CIA’s involvement in the evolution of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the years before the September 11 attacks. From the beginning, Coll shows how the CIA’s on-again, off-again engagement with Afghanistan after the end of the Soviet war left officials at Langley with inadequate resources and intelligence to appreciate the emerging power of the Taliban.  He also demonstrates how Afghanistan became a deadly playing field for international politics where Soviet, Pakistani, and U.S. agents armed and trained a succession of warring factions. At the same time, the book, though opinionated, is not solely a critique of the agency. Coll balances accounts of CIA failures with the success stories, like the capture of Mir Amal Kasi. Coll, managing editor for the Washington Post, covered Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992.” 

Publishers Weekly said of Rashid’s Descent into Chaos:  “Long overshadowed by the Iraq War, the ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan and Central Asia finally receives a searching retrospective as Rashid (Taliban) surveys the region to reveal a thicket of ominous threats and lost opportunities—in Pakistan, a rickety dictatorship colludes with militants, and Afghanistan's weak government is besieged by warlords, an exploding drug economy and a powerful Taliban insurgency.  The author blames the unwillingness of American policymakers to shoulder the burden of nation building.  According to Rashid, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and subsequently refused to commit the forces and money needed to rebuild it; instead the U.S. government made corrupt alliances with warlords to impose a superficial calm, while continuing to ignore the Pakistani government's support of the Taliban and the other Islamic extremists who have virtually taken over Pakistan's western provinces.  With his unparalleled access to sources . . . Rashid is an authoritative guide to the region’s politics and his is an insightful, at times explosive, indictment of the U.S. government’s hand in the region’s degeneration.”

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Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County (www.ufppc.org) has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-evening book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle.  Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, torture, Iran, U.S.-Iran relations, the writings of Robert Baer, Islam, American immigration policy, Barack Obama and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky’s life and writings, war and human nature, parallels between the U.S. and ancient Rome, the sustainability revolution, resource issues, and the debt crisis, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change.  Occasionally, the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation.

DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.

Participation is free and all who are interested are welcome.  For more information contact Mark Jensen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).