by Tamim Ansary
c
Silo was a boondoggle at first because it produced bagels mostly, and Afghans far preferred their own slipper-shaped whole wheat flatbread. But tastes change, and today Silo is still a working bakery.
d
Amanullah doesn’t count: he was a populist but did not officially relinquish one drop of royal authority.
Copyright © 2012 by Tamim Ansary
Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™,
a Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.
PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the US by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ansary, Mir Tamim.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-1-610-39095-8
3. Military occupation—History. 4. British—Afghanistan—History. 5. Russians—Afghanistan—History. 6. Americans—Afghanistan—History. 7. Afghanistan—Strategic aspects. 8. Afghanistan—Politics and government. I. Title.
DS361.A755 2012
958.1—dc23
2012025651
Table of Contents
Title Page
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Introduction
PART I: AFGHANISTAN BECOMES A COUNTRY
Chapter 1 - Founding Father
Chapter 2 - Ahmad Shah’s Afghanistan
Chapter 3 - Farangis on the Horizon
Chapter 4 - Between the Lion and the Bear
Chapter 5 - Auckland’s Folly
Chapter 6 - The Second Coming of Dost Mohammed
Chapter 7 - Eight or Ten Good Years
Chapter 8 - Interrupted Again
PART II: ONE COUNTRY, TWO WORLDS
Chapter 9 - A Time of Blood and Iron
Chapter 10 - Starting Fresh
Chapter 11 - King of the Radicals
Chapter 12 - King’s Law Versus God’s Law
Chapter 13 - Things Fall Apart
PART III: KABUL RULES
Chapter 14 - After the Storm
Chapter 15 - Nonaligned Nation
Chapter 16 - Development, No Brakes
Chapter 17 - The Democracy Era
Chapter 18 - Rise of the Left
Chapter 19 - Change by Decree
Chapter 20 - The Soviet Occupation
PART IV: OLD AFGHANISTAN ERUPTS
Chapter 21 - The Mujahideen
Chapter 22 - Cold War Endgame
Chapter 23 - From Horror to Chaos
Chapter 24 - Out of the Camps
Chapter 25 - Taliban Versus Mujahideen
Chapter 26 - Al Qaeda
Chapter 27 - America Enters the Picture
PART V: THE STRUGGLE RESUMES
Chapter 28 - The Bonn Project
Chapter 29 - Kabul Spring
Chapter 30 - The Persistence of Trouble
Chapter 31 - Drugs and Corruption
Chapter 32 - Talibanism
Chapter 33 - The Tipping Point
Chapter 34 - Obama’s Surges
Chapter 35 - All That Glitters
Postscript - The Big Picture
Acknowledgments
NOTES
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Copyright Page