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Seeds of Terror SO much has been written about the Taliban and al Qaeda since 9/11 that yet another book could be mistaken as the same run of the mill book. However, this book has made a valiant effort to dissect an extremely difficult subject. It is also a critically important book because not only the author lays bare the genesis of the problem with stunning honesty, she also tells us how to surmount it.
In the first chapter, The New Axis of Evil, the author establishes beyond any doubt that terror is supported by drugs and the Taliban are making money from the Afghan opium. The second and third chapters give lucid details of how the drug trade has been shaping the destiny of Afghanistan since the 1980s. The author explains in the next chapter how heroin money saved the Taliban from near-extinction and why the newly emerged Taliban are more deadly and ruthless from the one that existed in 1990s. A chapter, The Kingpins, deals with businessmen whose drug trafficking network is astonishingly large and who yield tremendous power to support insurgency in any part of the world. In the sixth chapter, Follow the Money, the author traces the shadowy details of notorious drug smugglers like Dawood Ibrahim whose links with Pakistan and Arab world are no secret. The next chapter gives the reader a clear overview of the US government’s counter-narcotics policy. The last chapter and perhaps the most important one from the point of view of moving forward towards an acceptable solution is appropriately titled Zero-Sum Game. After having traced the ‘whys and hows’ of US landing herself in the present state, the author suggested a blue print of way out. It is evident that the Afghans don’t like the Taliban, but they have no option as no one has been able to offer a better alternative to Hamid Karzai’s government, which is perceived by them as "corrupt and inefficient". The author’s strategy to way forward combines diplomatic initiatives for regional peace and free trade, a properly equipped and implemented counter insurgency strategy, blended intelligence and law enforcement effort, military strikes against drug lords, labs and opium convoys, the creation of the farm support network, a public relations campaign, the isolation and disruption of drug and terror funds, and an alternative livelihood programme. It is well known that US must share a lot of blame for its present unenviable position. Her obsession with giving Soviets the biggest black eye has cost her very dear. The decision of putting the Northern Alliance in place in Kabul through its operation, ‘Enduring Freedom’, will haunt her in years to come. That US has its own vested interest and it has compelling need to control Afghanistan as a transit route for oil from West Asia, which is also very clear. The US today is "all powerful as well as all vulnerable". It is unfortunate that US has landed itself in a situation which can be easily termed as avoidable. Though Peter’s reluctance to openly accept this in her book is understandable, the whole world has come to realise the fact that cracking down on drug smugglers on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border is not only crucial for peace in Afghanistan but it is a must to win the global war on terror. And US cannot back out; it has to act. This well-researched book can be helpful to strategy-makers, defence analysts and of course, the common man who wants to live a terror-free life. The US and other countries like India, which have a lot at stake, can learn so much from this valuable book. The author has done a brilliant job, it is now for all concerned to take note of it and act in the interest of world peace.
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Gretchen
Peters has more than a decade of first-hand experience of covering
Pakistan and Afghanistan as a journalist which makes her eminently
suited to examine and analyse this highly complex issue. She paints a
very frightening realistic picture: "September 11 cost al Qaeda
only `A3500,000. Terrorist groups can now earn that from the dope
trade every week."