Headlines about Pakistan, from Benazir Bhutto's assassination to protesting lawyers' being tear-gassed, shocked many Americans with the sorry truth about our allied nation, the recipient of billions of dollars in military aid and the linchpin of our antiterrorism strategy in Central Asia. We are slowly awaking to a crisis with global implications. America may have won one war in Afghanistan (or at least bribed its way to victory), but our failure to attend to the peace is now coming back to haunt us in the most terrible ways. Ahmed Rashid is the voice of reason amid the chaos of Central Asia today. His unique knowledge of this complex, war-torn region gives him a panoramic vision and grasp of nuance that no Western writer can emulate. In "Descent Into Chaos", Rashid reviews the regional conditions since 9/11 and the catastrophic aftermath of America's failed war on terror. The underlying theme is clear, devastating and deeply critical of current U.S. foreign policy. Iraq is essentially a sideshow. Pakistan and Afghanistan are where the war really began and Afghanistan is where the fight against Islamic insurgency is eventually going to be played out. He explains how Pakistan provided the Taliban with sanctuary, money, and arms after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, while remaining America's main strategic ally in the region, and how Pakistan's state security agency has been taking CIA money to arrest al Qaeda operations but is using it to fund the Taliban's regrouping in northwest Pakistan. He traces how the United States' and NATO's failure to attend to the Afghan economy and government after the invasion led directly to the revival and huge proliferation of the opium trade, which is now funding the Taliban. The United States wasted millions of dollars on contractors, corrupt bureaucrats, and double-dealing local authorities in a ruinous attempt to dodge the rebuilding problems in Afghanistan. Rashid also brings into clear focus the regional issues of Central Asia that few in our country seem to understand and yet are having a crucial impact on our own security and conduct-the nuclear programs and piracy in Pakistan, the all-important role of the Indian-Pakistani rivalry underlying every move in Pakistan, the abysmal results of the NATO peace-keeping operation in Afghanistan, and the roles of our other allies, the tyrants in Uzbekistan and the other former Soviet republics in the region. Seven years after 9/11, despite the thousands of lives and billions of dollars that have been spent in the region, it is in chaos. Pakistan, unstable and armed with nuclear weapons, has become terrorism central. The Taliban is resurging and re-conquering land, and al Qaeda is stronger than ever. And at the heart of these calamities is the United States' refusal to accept its responsibility for statecraft and nation building and its utter failure to understand the region. Rashid's blistering critique of American policy is also a warning and an impassioned call to correct our failed strategies. There is no more urgent global task.

Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List Includes maps of: Countries and Cities of Central Asia; Ethnic Distribution within Pakistan and Afghanistan; Afghan Provinces and Federally Administered Tribal Areas; NATO Deployment and Provincial Reconstruction Team Locations in Afghanistan, 2007; Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan, 2007; Military Offensives Launched by the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, 2007-2008.

Introduction: imperial overreach and nation building / Part I. 9/11 and war. A man with a mission: the unending conflict in Afghanistan -- "The U.S. will act like a wounded bear": Pakistan's long search for its soul -- The chief executive's schizophrenia: Pakistan, the United Nations, and the United States before 9/11 -- Attack!: retaliation and invasion -- The search for a settlement: Afghanistan and Pakistan at odds / Part II. The politics of the post-9/11 world. A nuclear state of mind: India, Pakistan, and the war of permanent instability -- The one-billion-dollar warlords: the war within Afghanistan -- Musharraf's lost moment: political expediency and authoritarian rule / Part III. The failure of nation building. Afghanistan I: economic reconstruction -- Afghanistan II: rebuilding security -- Double-dealing with Islamic extremism: al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan -- Taliban resurgent: the Taliban return home / Part IV. Descent into chaos. Al Qaeda's bolt-hole: Pakistan's tribal areas -- America shows the way: the disappeared and the rendered -- Drugs and thugs: opium fuels the insurgency -- Who lost Uzbekistan?: tyranny in Central Asia -- The Taliban offensive: battling for control of Afghanistan, 2006-2007 -- Conclusion: the death of an icon and a fragile future.