What an unlucky Country

Took me more than a month to read this fascinating book. Only time I could read was during the daily 45 minutes ride on the bus and tram back and forth to the office. It’s all about the tragic history of Afghanistan since the late 1970's when the country suffered continuous and brutal civil war, which included foreign interventions from Soviet invasion in 1979 to US-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban government and drove their radical Arab cohorts into hiding. The country was a play ground for foreign pawns from Russian to Pakistan, rich Arab gulf countries, Americans and many more.

Amidst the suffering and the deaths of millions, Afghanis never gave up and gave their energy and lives for their country for peace and return of normality. Hamid Karzai, the current President of Afghanistan, was a member of the Mujahideen and took active part in warring the Soviets out of Afghanistan during the 1980s. The Mujahideen then were secretly supplied and funded by CIA.

But all that time one man stood out - Ahmad Shah Massoud almost single handed played a leading role and led a formidable army in driving the Soviet out and later in standing up against the Taliban, through arms and political means. But everybody failed to give full support to him. He could have slaughtered the whole Russian army as their retreating convoys passed his Panjshir area. But he abided with the treaty. That infuriated the other Mujahideen groups and Western allies. After two decades of fighting and two days before 9/11, a suicide bomber killed him. Things could have been different. He would have been the rightful President instead.