Just finished Pervez Musharraf’s excellent book — leaving out some minor chapters, in about 3 hours. It’s a light & interesting read. He’s not the best writer (as he indirectly admits himself), but his account is very real, clear & even unnecessarily frank at times (he even talks about his early romance). Some chapters provide insight into how things work in Pakistan, what politics is like there. . The only negative part of the book is probably the gruesome photograph of a dead terrorist’s intact face/skin who tried to blow up a corps commander. I also didn’t like Musharraf’s picture on the cover.

I’m pasting an excerpt:

“The ultimate question that confronted me was whether it was in our national interest to destroy ourselves for the Taliban. Were they worth committing suicide over? The answer was a resounding no.”

“I war-gamed the United States as an adversary. There would be a violent and angry reaction if we didn’t support the United States. Thus the question was: if we do not join them, can we confront them and withstand the onslaught? The answer was no, we could not, on three counts:

First was our military weakness as compared with the strength of the United States. Our military forces would be destroyed.

Second was our economic weakness. We had no oil, and we did not have the capacity to sustain our economy in the face of an attack by the United States.

Third, and worst of all, our social weakness. We lack the homogeneity to galvanize the entire nation into an active confrontation.”