Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism
by John Cooley

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Book Reviews of Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism

Book Review: Fine critique of US foreign policy
Summary: 5 Stars

The US state intervened first in Afghanistan. On 3 July 1979, President Carter signed a secret directive authorising covert aid to the mujehadin. The CIA promoted drug traffic in the Golden Crescent to raise funds for them. The Egyptian, Saudi, British, French and Israeli Governments all sold them arms. The CIA supported their sabotage and guerrilla operations inside the Soviet Union. Only in December 1979, five months after the US intervention, did Soviet troops enter Afghanistan.

The war's effects on Afghanistan have been terrible: four million refugees, the land in ruins, continued strife even after the Soviet Union withdrew its troops, the Taliban dominating vast areas of the country. Further afield, the US-created mercenaries have destabilised Algeria, Chechenya, and the former Central Asian Republics of the Soviet Union, among others. Some of them tried to create a separatist 'Eastern Turkestan' in China's Western region of Xinjiang. However, China has defeated these efforts, and the Algerian Government succeeded in quelling the reactionary forces trying to overthrow it.

In this book, Cooley portrays the US state as a good sorcerer, who mistakenly released shadowy yet invincible forces, which it is now trying to crush. He pretends that the mercenaries are now separate from and opposed to the US state. In fact, the mercenaries are doing just what the US state wants, trying to destabilise any Government in the world that shows any sign of independence. So Cooley's book both prettifies the US's real foreign policy, and tries to legitimise its globocop role.

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• Nonfiction