The Wars of Afghanistan; Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers

New York: PublicAffairs, 2011. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/very good. xxxviii, [4], 849, [5] pages. Maps. Note about Transliteration. Cast of Characters. Appendices. Notes. Index. Peter Tomsen (born November 19, 1940), is a retired American diplomat and educator, serving as United States Special Envoy to Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, and United States Ambassador to Armenia between 1995 and 1998. Ambassador Tomsen's thirty-two year diplomatic career emphasized South and Central Asia, Northeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. Ambassador Tomsen entered the Foreign Service in 1967. He served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 1993 - 1995, and was United States ambassador to the Republic of Armenia from 1995 to 1998. He was deputy chief of mission of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, spanning from 1985 to 1989. He served in the political-military office of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, 1967 - 1968. After a year of Vietnamese language training in Washington in early 1969, he was assigned to the U.S. Civilian-Military Advisory Organization in Vietnam, 1969 - 1970. He was a political officer of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, 1971 - 1975; a political officer of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, 1977 - 1978; and a political officer of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, 1981 - 1983. From 1984 to 1987, he served in the Department of State as office director of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives. Derived from a Kirkus review: Former special presidential envoy to Afghanistan takes the long view of the political failures in that country and suggests a more hands-off U.S. approach, especially in checking Pakistan. After a distinguished career in foreign service, Tomsen served as President George H.W. Bush's ambassador to Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, during a time of building an Afghan consensus following the Soviet withdrawal. The author fashions an ambitious, wide-ranging, informed historical overview as well as a detailed record of his work. Afghanistan has geographically operated as a "buffer" state between powerful, marauding empires, such as those by Alexander the Great, the Mongols, Mughals and Persians, creating what Tomsen calls a "shatter zone," isolating the nomadic tribes from global currents. The British empire used the country for criss-crossing rather than imperial acquisition, and Afghanistan remained factiously independent and resistant to repeated foreign onslaughts. The author examines the Afghan tribal and religious makeup, especially the friction between Pashtunwali and Sharia law. Tomsen examines the disastrous invasion by the Soviet Union in 1978, coinciding with the rise of a radical Wahhabi ideology in Saudi Arabia. Pakistan became the refuge of the Mujahidin, the "freedom fighters" largely supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia-and therein lay the problem, the author asserts. The U.S. aid package to Pakistan's General Zia starting with the "Reagan Doctrine" of 1980 essentially funded an "unholy alliance" of Islamist extremists such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban--all who have come back to haunt America in the wake of 9/11. Tomsen warns of the current dangers in continuing to "outsource" American Afghan policy to Pakistan, and instead sets forth a detailed, cogent plan involving tougher conditions to bolster a more autonomous Afghanistan.