DEEPAK TRIPATHI is a British historian and former journalist whose career (1974–2000) was spent primarily with the BBC, where he was a correspondent, editor, and commentator. In the early 1990s, Tripathi set up the BBC bureau in Kabul and was the resident correspondent in Afghanistan. He has also reported from Syria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India. He is the author of Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan and Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism. Tripathi received his PhD from the University of Roehampton, where he is an honorary research fellow. He lives near London.
"Deepak Tripathi’s third book . . . is a political-military history
of modern Afghanistan that’s sharp and to the point."—Palestine
Chronicle
“In his concise yet powerful book, [Tripathi] details the
interlocking decisions and strategies that inflamed the conflict
and produced a new and dangerous historical context.”—Foreign
Policy Journal
“The Afghanistan killing fields threaten to become for President
Obama what Vietnam’s were for President Johnson: a political death
trap both for Americans and their European allies. No one has
better explained the making of this situation than Deepak Tripathi
in this book. A long-time BBC correspondent in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, Tripathi not only dealt every day with the tribalism and
poppy growing that now rule the Afghans, but has also exploited
newly released Russian, British, and U.S. documents to provide a
superb, if sometimes terrifying, historical context—including
Ronald Reagan’s massive help to those who are now killing American
soldiers. Tripathi’s work should be read by anyone who hopes to
understand this tragedy.”—Walter LaFeber, historian, formerly the
Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor at
Cornell University
“Deepak Tripathi’s penetrating analysis of the Afghan tragedy comes
at just the right time, when the United States is becoming more
deeply embroiled in an impossible situation. He approaches the
Afghan puzzle with a judicious historical perspective that
clarifies the way in which hysteria about terrorism continues to
obscure the truth about U.S. policy, the Taliban, and the suffering
people of Afghanistan. I wish this book could be put in the hands
of President Obama and his advisers. It would be a sobering
corrective to self-delusion. Failing that, we can only hope that a
better-informed public, educated by books like this one, will
demand a change.”—Howard Zinn, professor emeritus, Boston
University, and author of A People’s History of the United
States
“A book for anyone who wants to understand Afghanistan’s
transformation from a relatively tolerant and peaceful tribal
setting to a society ridden by a ‘culture of violence’ through the
agency of external actors. Tripathi offers an array of unique and
valuable insights into both the local processes and global forces
that have conspired to devastating effect on the country since the
1970s. This authoritative account combines the experience of a
journalist stationed in the country with the archival savvy of a
veteran researcher.”—Shah Mahmoud Hanifi, associate professor of
history, James Madison University
“In this incredibly well-documented book, Deepak Tripathi describes
in painful detail the sufferings of the Afghan peoples at the hands
of those who are playing the Grand Chess Game—above all the
Russians, the Americans, and the British—for their own selfish,
anti-Muslim reasons (they would have not done all that to a
Christian country in Europe). There can be only one conclusion to
this shocking book: Hands off Afghanistan, and if help is needed,
then from people to people, not via violent and corrupt
governments.”—Johan Galtung, founding director, International Peace
Research Institute, Oslo, and founder, TRANSCEND International, a
Network for Peace and Development
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