A review by msgtdameron
A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan by Nelofer Pazira

informative sad fast-paced

4.25

Unlike many works on Afghanistan this one is more concerned with the Soviet war and occupation.  It shows once again how America used the Afghanies for our Cold War purposes and then abandoned them to their own devices.  This led to the Taliban which are really a bunch of uneducated, illiterate, clowns who are backed by Saudi money and Pakistan intelligence services.  How this unholy alliance led to so much grief for Afghanistan and continues this grief until today.  Even though this work stops around 2004, all you have to do is look back at the headlines of the past 17 years and you can see the affect of Saudi and Pakistan influence.  From good Taliban, both under the Soviets, Taliban and the U.S., to Mujahideen and the various factions that have been created over the past 30 years all have left the nation torn and destroyed.  Even worse is  the Taliban in power today and the retrograde to the oppressive Taliban under Saudi control that the U.S. should never have dealt with.  I would love to see a follow up by N. Pazira on the situation in her homeland.