Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism
by John K. Cooley
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Book Summary Information
Author: John K. CooleyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2002-06-04
ISBN: 0745319181
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Pluto Press
Book Reviews of Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism
Book Review: Like a textbook - comprehensive and factual
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a comprehensive and detailed account of the Islamic rebellion against the West. John K. Cooley's reports reach many different countries including Afghanistan, the West Bank, Egypt and Algeria and certainly the United States, but as you assemble them in your mind, there emerges, like in a mosaic, the history and compelling forces of the clash of Islam with the Christian West. It began perhaps in 1928, when the Moslem Brotherhood was founded in Egypt and soon reached its first peak at the time of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. From the beginning, it was a hostile reaction, the response of the Islamic civilization, awakening from long dormancy, to the clash with the intrusive, advanced, imperialistic and alien Western world. It was their retreat into the protective castle of what was good and eternal in their history, their God, their Prophet and His ancient law. Their level of belligerence had reached a level high enough in 1979 to bring about the power grab of Khomeini and the Iran hostage crisis, but these were promptly compounded, in a seminal and cataclysmic way, by the Soviet invasion into Moslem Afghanistan. At that point, Islam declared all-out war on atheistic Russia and the pagan West, as the mujahedin arrived in Afghanistan from many Arab countries. It was a pivotal event, because the same mujahedin fighters, after achieving victory, returned to Egypt, Palestine, Algeria, Bosnia and elsewhere, carrying with them their newly learned martial skills and fanatical religious ideology, in order to light the torch of jihad in their home countries.
There was a long row of aftershocks after the outbreak of the Afghan Jihad. Anwar Sadat paid for his peace mission with Israel in his assassination in 1981. Hezbollah bombed the US Marine Barracks and Beirut Embassy in 1982 and 1984. Abu Yassaf began his Islamic resistance work on the island of Mindanao. The civil war between the Islamic Salvation Front and the Algerian government forces raged from 1994 to 1996. US installations in Saudi Arabia were bombed in 1995 and 1996, and so it went on to the more recent armed attacks and exchanges we all know.
The author goes into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, itself the earliest and most offensive crisis in Moslem conscienceless, only after the HAMAS organization was formed at the end of the Afghan war. Perhaps this was, because up until then the Palestinian guerilla war, raging for decades, was still chiefly a secular and territorial conflict, whereas with HAMAS it was one waged by religious fundamentalists, who refused to cooperate with Arafat's PLO.
For those who look for an in-depth and factual textbook about this ongoing clash of civilizations, its origins, motives and complications, Unholy Wars is an excellent choice.
Summary of Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism
This completely revised edition examines the events of September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden's role and the complex working of the Al Qa'ida terror network. With a new foreword by Edward W. Said, this is the classic book on the history of the USA's involvement with Afghanistan that explains the devastating consequences of the alliance between the US government and radical Islam. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the current international crisis.Cooley marshals a wealth of evidence - from the assassination of Sadat, the destabilization of Algeria and Chechnya and the emergence of the Taliban, to the bombings of the World Trade Center and the US embassies in Africa. He examines the crucial role of Pakistan's military intelligence organization; uncovers China's involvement and its aftermath; the extent of Saudi financial support; the role of "America's most wanted man", Osama bin Laden; the BCCI connection; the CIA's cynical promotion of drug traffic in the Golden Crescent; the events in Pakistan since the military coup of October 1999; and, finally, the events of September 11, 2001 and the impact they continue to have on world affairs.
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