A review by msgtdameron
The Storyteller's Daughter: One Woman's Return to Her Lost Homeland by Saira Shah
4.0
Fascinating read. The more I read memoirs and personnel histories of Middle Asia the more I see what a pack of lies Washington has told us since the Regan era. Saira Shahs' book is remarkable. She tell of the beauty of her homeland and how different it was/is from her home in Kent. She tells of towering mountains, beautiful valleys, rushing rivers, and the brutality of war: shelling's mortar attacks, refugees, wounded with no medical care, hospitals with hundreds in wards just waiting to die and all the other detritus of conflict. She also talks about what Washington wishes she wouldn't: the corruption that we encouraged, the sale of Stinger missiles to Iran that were supposed to be used by the Mhajadeen(SP), the illiteracy of the new ruling class after Russia evacuated, the Taliban. One pointed sentence tells all. She is in Kandahar province and is asked to debate with the local Mullah the finer points of the Koran. She starts in Persian, which he speaks, but then speaks in Arabic which he can not understand. She switches back to Persian saying they should conduct the debate in Persian so she can work on her Persian. This saves the illiterate Mullahs' ego and they talk. This guy became a Taliban leader. He can't speak Arabic and is a leading Religious Scholar? back in 92 when I was talking with the Turkish AF Mullah at Incirlick he told me that "You can't really understand the Koran when it is translated into English. It MUST be read in Arabic and chanted in Arabic and discussed in Arabic." And I've heard this from almost every Koranic Scholar that I have read or listened to. I repeat this Kandahar Mullah could not speak or read Arabic and was one of the leaders of the Taliban. Some reality here. The U.S. is spending 100 dead and a 1000 critically wounded a year to fight of bunch of illiterate religious
fanatics. And were loosing> Isn't it about time we come up with a new strategy? Maybe people like Ms. Shah or Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of tea, could help us work a new plan. People who aren't trying to sell more weapons systems to the U.S. Government and instead want to find peace with out religious tyranny for Afghanistan and also the rest of SW Asia that the U.S. has screwed up in the past 26 years.
Back to the book, if you are tired of continual news reports that come from Pentagon briefings about how well were doing but our troops, my Comrades in Arms, can't come home yet, If you want to arm your self with some reality of what is and was happening on the ground in SW Asia, this is a must read. It's also a quick read and worth the few hours.
fanatics. And were loosing> Isn't it about time we come up with a new strategy? Maybe people like Ms. Shah or Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of tea, could help us work a new plan. People who aren't trying to sell more weapons systems to the U.S. Government and instead want to find peace with out religious tyranny for Afghanistan and also the rest of SW Asia that the U.S. has screwed up in the past 26 years.
Back to the book, if you are tired of continual news reports that come from Pentagon briefings about how well were doing but our troops, my Comrades in Arms, can't come home yet, If you want to arm your self with some reality of what is and was happening on the ground in SW Asia, this is a must read. It's also a quick read and worth the few hours.