What Obama must do about Afghanistan and Pakistan’s descent

In a passionate essay on Afghanistan’s perilous situation, combined with a review of Ahmed Rashid’s new book "Descent into Chaos" (which was also highlighted in a Maclean’s feature article, "Disaster’s Prophet," last June 20), an expert on the region, William Dalrymple, doesn’t pull his punches. He says "a wave of crime and corruption" blights President Hamid Karzai’s regime. As for solutions-not just in Afghanistan but to the closely related problems of Pakistan-Dalrymple pleads for "a radically changed policy" under Barack Obama.

The New York Review of Books