The Taliban: Afghanistan's Most Lethal Insurgents (Praeger Security International) PDF
Preview The Taliban: Afghanistan's Most Lethal Insurgents (Praeger Security International)
“Avivid,expert,andconvincingaccountoftheWest’smostformidableadversaries inAfghanistan,whomustbeunderstoodiftheyaretobedefeated.” —SirMichaelHoward “Silinsky’sbookisatriumphoflimpidwriting,well-marshalledanecdotes(manyof thempoignant)andconclusionsthatarethought-provoking.TheTalibaniscom- pelling reading and might even change the way you think about war. Not many booksofferboth.” —ChristopherCoker ProfessorofInternationalRelations, LondonSchoolofEconomics “Despitewhatourpoliticiansandmoreconventionallymindedgeneralswouldwant, conflictslikethewarinAfghanistanwillnotgoaway.Infactwecanexpecttosee more not less irregular warfare in the future. This work by Mark Silinsky on the Taliban fulfills the first Law of War: ‘Understand the battlefield you are about to deployto.’Itisessentialreadingforthosewhowanttobereadyforthenextwar.” —Dr.SebastianGorka MilitaryAffairsFellow,Foundationfor DefenseofDemocraciesandAdjunctProfessor, GeorgetownUniversity “MarkSilinsky’sstudyoftheTalibanwillbewelcomedbyanyonelookingforaclear, straight-forward, and jargon-free introduction to one of the iconic radical move- mentsofourtime.HisaccountfocusesonwhotheTalibanare,howtheyhaverisen tosuchprominenceinAfghansociety,andwhattheyaretryingtoachieve.Italso revealstheTalibantoberepresentativeofbroaderpoliticalandculturalforcesthat theWestcanignoreonlyatitsperil.” —DanielMoran ProfessorofNationalSecurityAffairs, NavalPostgraduateSchool RecentTitlesin PSIGuidestoTerrorists,Insurgents,andArmedGroups , TheETIM:ChinasIslamicMilitantsandtheGlobalTerroristThreat J.ToddReedandDianaRaschke ThePhinehasPriesthood:ViolentVanguardoftheChristianIdentity Movement DannyW.Davis TheMilitantKurds:ADualStrategyforFreedom VeraEccarius-Kelly ThePalestineLiberationOrganization:TerrorismandProspectsforPeace intheHolyLand DanielBaracskay ArmedforLife:TheArmyofGodandAnti-AbortionTerrorintheUnited States JenniferJefferis TheIRA:TheIrishRepublicanArmy JamesDingley TheKhmerRouge:Ideology,Militarism,andtheRevolutionThat ConsumedaGeneration BoradenNhem , TheLordsResistanceArmy LawrenceE.Cline , 17NsPhilosophyofTerror:AnAnalysisofthe17NovemberRevolutionary Organization IoannaK.Lekea THE TALIBAN ’ Afghanistan s Most Lethal Insurgents Mark Silinsky Foreword by Raymond Taras PSIGuidestoTerrorists,Insurgents,andArmedGroups JamesJ.F.Forest,SeriesEditor Copyright2014byMarkSilinsky Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval system,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical, photocopying,recording,orotherwise,exceptfortheinclusionofbriefquotationsina review,withoutpriorpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Silinsky,Mark. , TheTaliban:Afghanistansmostlethalinsurgents/MarkSilinsky;forewordby RaymondTaras. pagescm.—(PSIguidestoterrorists,insurgents,andarmedgroups) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978–0–313–39897–1(hardcopy:alk.paper)—ISBN978–0–313–39898–8 (ebook)1. Taliban.2. Islamicfundamentalism—Afghanistan.3. Afghanistan—Politics andgovernment—1989–2001. I.Title. DS371.3.S56 2014 958.10407—dc23 2013046869 ISBN:978–0–313–39897–1 EISBN:978–0–313–39898–8 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 ThisbookisalsoavailableontheWorldWideWebasaneBook. Visitwww.abc-clio.comfordetails. Praeger AnImprintofABC-CLIO,LLC ABC-CLIO,LLC 130CremonaDrive,P.O.Box1911 SantaBarbara,California93116-1911 Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Thisbookisdedicatedtomywife,Nadia. Istoodbyyou,andyoustoodbyme, andnowwestandtogether...always. This page intentionally left blank Contents ForewordbyRaymondTaras ix Preface xiii Introduction xvii Abbreviations xix 1. Afghanistan’sLandscape,thePeople,andIslamism 1 2. EntertheTaliban 19 3. TheTalibaninPower 29 4. TheTalibaninDefeat 45 5. TheTaliban’sRecoveryinPakistan 81 6. TheTalibanImproveTheirTacticsandFirepower 101 7. TalibanInc. 127 8. AffiliatedInsurgentGroupsandForeignConnections 137 9. TheCounterinsurgencyinAfghanistan 157 Afterword:SalafistDystopia 185 Appendix:CoalitionMilitaryFatalitiesbyYear 189 Notes 191 Bibliography 247 Index 253 This page intentionally left blank Foreword AbookabouttheTalibaninAfghanistan,writteninadetachedanddispas- sionatewayandstrivingtodeliveranobjectivebalancedaccountthatbrings differentperspectivestobear,isnotacommonplaceevent.Yetitmaybethe casethatthemosteffectivewaytoexposearogueandregressiveinsurgency movement like the Taliban—not all insurgencies have necessarily been retrograde—is to separate facts from norms in the analysis. Among other achievements of Mark Silinsky’s erudite and detailed study is how it raises importantmethodologicalquestionsabouttheuseofthecanonsofhistori- cal and social science inquiry to soberly frame an odious politico-religious phenomenon, one that is all too often vilified rather than surgically dissected. Theauthor’sprofessionalbackgroundinthemilitaryandinacademiclife gives him a unique vantage point from which to examine the Taliban. He allows that, in a historical context, the Taliban are not uniquely cruel. Indeed, compared to National Socialism and communism—two other twentieth-century totalitarian ideologies—he admits that the Taliban have killed far fewer innocent people and have rarely been charged by even its mostuncompromisingadversariesofbeinghell-bentongenocide. This book narrates how Afghan politics and society, like those in neigh- boring Pakistan, which it also examines, comprise many ethnolinguistic clans and subclans, as well as multiple ethnosectarian orientations. WahhabismfromSaudiArabianowtakesitsplacealongsideDeobandiphi- losophy,whichhademergedoutofthenationalisticandreligiousfervorthat followed the 1857 Sepoy revolt in mid-nineteenth-century India. This “Indian Mutiny,” which engaged many Muslims as well, constituted a
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