cover image Letter from Kabul

Letter from Kabul

Hamid Karzai, . . Wiley, $25.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-470-04515-2

Karzai's missive, like a high-quality direct-mail marketing piece, is engaging, romantic and sometimes thrilling, but just a little too slick to be completely convincing. The book begins with a brief history of Afghanistan before Karzai tells of his early childhood in a prominent "educated... but conservative and traditional" Afghan family. After university in India, he moves to Pakistan to join his father and the Afghan resistance against the Soviets. After September 11, 2001, he and his companions return to Afghanistan, hiking over mountains, eating almonds and pomegranates at a farmer's hut and, aided by nocturnal American fire-lit weapons airdrops, alternately evading and fighting the Taliban. With shrapnel being cleaned from his head, Karzai receives the news that he's the new leader of Afghanistan, and he makes a triumphant but disarmingly low-key return to Kabul. The book waxes optimistic about disarmament, Afghan unity and women's participation in the new democracy. Conspicuously missing are coercive warlords, lawless rural areas and Taliban resurgence. Finally, Karzai makes his valid pitch that to avoid heroin trafficking and future terrorist attacks, Americans and the international community must not abandon Afghanistan again. This book provides a unique insider's view of Afghanistan, but distinguishing truth from hard sell is frustrating and difficult. (Aug.)