The
NATO occupation of Afghanistan is over, and a balance-sheet can be drawn.
These essays on war and peace in the region reveal Tariq Ali at his sharpest
and most prescient.

Rarely has there been such an enthusiastic display of international unity
as that which greeted the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Compared to Iraq,
Afghanistan became the ‘good war’. But a stalemate ensued, and the Taliban
waited out the NATO contingents. Today, as the Kabul regime falters and
American bombing raids continue, what does the future hold for a traumatised
Afghan people? Will China become the dominant influence in the country?

Tariq Ali has been following the wars on Afghanistan for forty years. He
opposed Soviet military intervention in 1979, predicting disaster. He was
also a fierce critic of its NATO sequel, ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’. In a
series of trenchant commentaries, he described the tragedies inflicted on
Afghanistan, as well as the semi-Talibanisation and militarisation of
neighbouring Pakistan. Most of his predictions proved accurate. The Forty
Year War in Afghanistan brings together the best of his writings and includes
a new introduction.