Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, The United States, And An Epic
History Of Misunderstanding

Product Description

The relationship between America & Pakistan is based on mutual incomprehension & always has been. Pakistan--to American eyes--has gone from being a quirky irrelevance, to a stabilizing friend, to an essential military ally, to a seedbed of terror. America--to Pakistani eyes--has been a guarantee of security, a coldly distant scold, an enthusiastic military enabler, & is now a threat to national security & a source of humiliation. The countries are not merely at odds. Each believes it can play the other--with sometimes absurd, sometimes tragic, results. The conventional narrative about the war in Afghanistan, for instance, has revolved around the Soviet invasion in 1979. But President Jimmy Carter signed the first authorization to help the Pakistani-backed mujahedeen covertly on July 3--almost six months before the Soviets invaded. Americans were told, & like to believe, that what followed was Charlie Wilson`s war of Afghani liberation, with which they remain embroiled to this day. It was not. It was General Zia-ul-Haq`s vicious regional power play. Husain Haqqani has a unique insight into Pakistan, his homel&, & America, where he was ambassador & is now a professor at Boston University. His life has mapped the relationship of the two countries & he has found himself often close to the heart of it, sometimes in very confrontational circumstances, & this has allowed him to write the story of a misbegotten diplomatic love affair, here memorably laid bare.