Thursday, June 20, 2013

Introducing... Fahim Speaks: A Warrior-Actor's Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back by Fahim Fazli with Michael Moffett

Introducing books through the first chapter or so...

Afghanistan.

Before 1980, most Americans knew or cared little about this impoverished, land-locked, Central Asian nation. After the Soviet Union invaded, though Afghanistan became a flash point-- one that threatened to ignite a Cold War into the flames of a World War. Throughout the 1980s, American foreign policy sought to counter the Soviet presence there. The Carter and Reagan Administrations secretly supported a Mujahadeen resistance movement that eventually led to Soviet defeat and a 1989 withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Union of the Soveiet Socialist Republics imploded two years later. The dissolution of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War, beckoning a period of unprecedented world peace. Or at least many Americans believed so at the time-- not understanding the unintended consequences and true legacy of our Central Asian policies.

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