The duel
Subtitle: Pakistan on the flight path of American power
By: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Sydney
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781847373632; 9781847373557
Subjects: Politics and government
Description: "Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world. It is the only Islamic state to have nuclear weapons. Its border with Afghanistan extends over one thousand miles and is the likely hideout of Osama bin Laden. It has been under military dictatorship for thirty-three of its fifty-year existence. Yet it is the linchpin in the United States' war on terror, receiving over $10 billion of American aid since 2001 and purchasing more than $5 billion of U.S. weaponry in 2006 alone." "These days, relations between the two countries are never less than tense. Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf reported that U.S. deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage threatened to "bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age" if it did not commit fully to the alliance in the wake of 9/11. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama said he would have no hesitation in bombing Al Qaeda inside the country "with or without" approval of the Pakistani government. Recent surveys show that more than 70 percent of Pakistanis fear the United States as a military threat to their country." "Tariq Ali has long been acknowledged as a leading commentator on Pakistan. In these pages he combines deep understanding of the country's history with extensive firsthand research and unsparing political judgment to weigh the prospects of those contending for power today. The labyrinthine path between a secure world and global conflagration runs right through Pakistan. No one is better placed to trace its contours."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: 1.; title: Pakistan at Sixty: A Conflagration of Despair -- -- 2.; title: Rewinding Pakistan: Birth of Tragedy -- -- 3.; title: The Washington Quartet: The Man Who Would Be Field Marshal -- -- 4.; title: The Washington Quartet: The General Who Lost a Country -- -- 5.; title: The Washington Quartet: The Soldier of Islam -- -- 6.; title: The Washington Quartet: The General as Chief Executive -- -- 7.; title: The House of Bhutto: Daughter of the West -- -- 8.; title: On the Flight Path of American Power -- -- 9.; title: Operation Enduring Freedom: Mirage of the "Good" War -- -- 10.; title: Can Pakistan Be Recycled?