Descent Into Chaos

VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. • Penguin Group (Canada),
90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada
Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s
Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell
Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books
India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ),
67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin
Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in 2008 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Rashid, Ahmed.
Descent into Chaos : the United States and the failure of nation building in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and Central Asia / Ahmed Rashid.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-4406-3104-7

1. Afghanistan—Politics and government—2001- 2. Pakistan—Politics and government—1988-
3. South Asia—Relations—United States. 4. United States—Relations—South Asia. I. Title.
DS371.4.R37 2008
954.05’3—dc22 2008002949

•
Set in Granjon
Maps by Jeffrey L. Ward

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

http://us.penguingroup.com

This book is dedicated to my children

Rafael and Saara

and to their friends Mohammed, Ameera, Emile, Sasha, Mehvish, Graham,
Naveen, Arooj, Taimur, Mamdot, Rachel, Lucy, Shabaz, Charley, Zoha,
Sarah, Amar, Jamal, Dona, and many more.

May you build nations.

And in loving memory of Begum Qamar F. R. Khan.

If the Central Asian Society exists and is meeting in fifty or a hundred years hence, Afghanistan will be as vital and important a question as it is now.

—Lord Curzon, speaking at the annual dinner of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1908

Go massive—sweep it all up, things related and not.

—U.S. secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to his aides on September 11, 2001, after the Pentagon was attacked