A Kingdom of Their Own: The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster

by Joshua Partlow

The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.

The United States went to Afghanistan on a simple mission: avenge the September 11 attacks and drive the Taliban from power. This took less than two months. Over the course of the next decade, the ensuing fight for power and money supplied to one of the poorest nations on earth, in ever-greater amounts left the region even more dangerous than before the first troops arrived.

At the center of this story is the Karzai family. President Hamid Karzai and his brothers began the war as symbols of a new Afghanistan: moderate, educated, fluent in the cultures of East and West, and the antithesis of the brutish and backward Taliban regime. The siblings, from a prominent political family close to Afghanistan's former king, had been thrust into exile by the Soviet war. While Hamid Karzai lived in Pakistan and worked with the resistance, others moved to the United States, finding work as waiters and managers before opening their own restaurants. After September 11, the brothers returned home to help rebuild Afghanistan and reshape their homeland with ambitious plans.

Today, with the country in shambles, they are in open conflict with one another and their Western allies. Joshua Partlow's clear-eyed analysis reveals the mistakes, squandered hopes, and wasted chances behind the scenes of a would-be political dynasty. Nothing illustrates the arc of the war and America's relationship with Afghanistan from optimism to despair, friendship to enmity as neatly as the story of the Karzai family itself, told here in its entirety for the first time.

Genres: History, Middle East, Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, Asia, Biography Memoir

432 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2016

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book sketches Hamid Karzai, his brothers (slight mention of a sister), and his male cousins giving the reader a lot of information but little understanding. There are a lot of facts showing Hamid as president living modestly, loving poetry, despairing the war’s atrocities and publically eschewing nepotism. Among reports of corruption, the war’s devastation, Taliban resurgence, duplicity, outright theft and murder and war crimes there is both innuendo and praise for the Karzai family.

Politically prominent in the time of King Zahir Shah, most Karzai family members fled during the Russian invasion. Family patriarch Abdul Ahad Karzai was imprisoned for three years (and later shot by the Taliban). Hamid went to Pakistan to raise money for the Mujahedeen. Other Karzai’s went to the US and after a time in low wage jobs became successful in the US. There is a question on how some paid for their college degrees and got start up capital for their successful high end restaurants, but like all the corruption in the book, a theory is only mentioned in passing. Nevertheless, their experiences motivated some family members to work with the US after 9/11 and prepared them linguistically and culturally able to do so.

The stories of corruption move from one thought to another. For instance there are facts about the Kabul Bank, how it arose from what seems to be a street system, of lending and money changing/laundering and how it used a lottery to attract depositors and how its owners (Mahmood Karzai at 8%) raked off cash for expensive shopping trips. There is mention of an audit by a western sounding firm. There are hints that the bank is involved in drug smuggling and money laundering. But these strands are left and new ones emerge. An example is that after pestering by his older brother Mahmood, Karzai fired the head of mines and replaced him with Mohammed Ibrahim Adel:

(p. 177) “Adel moved forward with the sale of the Ghori Cement Plant. While there was a bidding process, other companies believed that the minister put up unrealistic obstacles. In the final days of bidding Adel informed them they needed to present $25 million in cash as a guarantee…..Mahmood’s business partners didn’t have a problem… they had the Kabul Bank. Ministry staff members watched as gunmen entered the ministery carrying a cardboard box filled with cash and placed it on the minister’s desk. One deputy minister worried that the gunmen were Taliban coming to kill the minister.”

The text goes on about the value of Mahmood controlling the bank, how the cement company generated cash for successful investments in Dubai. Fragments on the Kabul bank and Karzai real estate investments continue. Most of the corruption is shown in this way: allusion to a crime or corrupt gain, praise of Karzai business acumen, innuendo of about family and no discussion of the role of the President (in this case changing the head of the mines).

In contrast to the corruption stories the human interest stories are complete. The stores of both Mohamad Yar (a Karzai relative) and a janitor who give the US forces a “Taliban tip” show how men as well as women are prisoners to the persecution of women. With no dating, no looking, no music, both men created tragedies for many by being deprived a bride whom they believe was promised to them by her father. Both sought revenge using US forces. Like the corruption stories, the Mohamad Yar story is told in several places and the murders are unsolved. Unlike the corruption stories, Partrow clearly describes the murders and the motivations of the suspects and accomplices.

This is very much a reporter’s book. It is like a series of articles with mixed chronologies and few transitional links. Such a book is important since it does assemble a lot of facts and can be used as a foundation for better works.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Kingdom of Their Own: The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster by Joshua Partlow is a book chronicling the rise and reign of the Karzai family in Afghanistan. Partlow takes a journalistic approach to this subject, utilizing interviews, news and opinion to paint a picture of the Karzai family. This is not always a rosy picture, and Partlow examines issues of corruption, cooperation with insurgent groups and tribal militias, Pashtun nationalism, and foreign conspiracy.

The book begins by looking at the rise of Hamid Karzai, current and long-term president of Afghanistan. His humble beginnings as a low level political adviser in the United States, his connections to wealthy Afghani expats and businessmen in the US, and his rise and return to Afghanistan as a deal maker and well connected individual are noted. Hamid Karzai was backed by the US, as he was a well known entity to them after they began moving forces into Afghanistan. He helped sway some Pashtun and other tribal groups to move away from the Taliban sphere and support the US-backed invasion. He was also well connected with the Northern Alliance, a group of northern tribes, Uzbeks and Turkmeni, who were fighting a long term struggle with the Taliban for control of the country. Karzai eventually took power after an election, and has remained in office since. His reign has been beset by allegations of corruption, and his wavering between support for, and criticism of, occupying US forces.

Karzai's family is also chronicled. Hamid had brothers who worked initaiting real estate deals, dealt in military procurement, and ran insurgent groups in the south of the country. Hamid and his family had their hands in almost every pot, and owned companies while also retaining important political positions. The US tried to crack down on corruption in Afghanistan, and eventually turned on the Karzai family, as Hamid was particularly honest about the grievances of foreign occupation. The US seems to have interpreted this as betrayal or ungratefulness, as they began to seek alternative political options and even worked to sway elections against Hamid by supporting other candidates. Karazi, for his part, was accused of ballot stuffing and intimidation (although similar accusations were leveled at his competitors). This led to a growing rift internally between Karazi and the Americans, even as the two maintained close relations in terms of combating the Taliban.

To be frank, I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped. I found it lacking in basic background information on the Karzai's - something expected from a journalistic style expose book. The book is heavily critical, both of the Karzai's and the support given to them by the US. This is interesting discourse, delving into the inner workings of Afghani politics, tribal divisions, ethnic and religious rivalry, and so on. However, I felt it was written with too much of a Western viewpoint. Partlow often seems to skip over or not understand the on the ground realities of Afghani politics, ignoring the challenges faced in forming any sort of unified state in Afghanistan, and criticizing politicians for trying to skirt the fractious politics of the country. This comes off as pure corruption in this account, although it is easily interpretable as political necessity. One could hardly have a US backed regime in Afghanistan if one constantly ignores rival political groups and the realpolitik of a nation controlled largely by competing warlords and tribal groups. Partlow decries the US's ability to state-building in Afghanistan, but little reason is given, and no solutions offered. Although one can surely criticize the US occupation of Afghanistan due to its inability to defeat the Taliban (they are still very active today), no solutions are offered. Partlow views them as both over-zealous, and underhanded, for example, as they supported the Karzai's with little background checking, but then sought to topple them through electioneering and promoting corruption charges against Karzai loyalists. Which one, if any is preferable? Is there a healthy balance? What would that look like?

I have been a bit critical of this book, suffice to say it is an overly journalistic look at a very interesting topic. I feel like the book lacks focus and detail in some respects, while offering some interesting tidbits overall. This book would have been a much stronger analysis if it had more political and technical analysis, something that may be out of its sphere as a book, but would certainly have offered a clearer and more concise examination of the Karzai's and there ties to Afghanistan, both good and bad. I certainly would have preferred a more political analysis, instead of the interview/opinion style writing in this book. This is certainly a personal opinion, but did effect my enjoyment of this title in a major way. I could recommend this book for those looking for introductory detail on Afghanistan and the Karzai's, but for those looking for something more to sink there teeth into, this one is a hard skip.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent profile on the Karzai family’s major players, and how they sought to harness the power of the American intervention in Afghanistan or clashed with it in the waning years. The writing strikes a great balance between reported personal histories and first person encounters, policy-level debates within the US military and diplomatic corps over how to engage with the Afghan government, and the impact of these dynamics on the conflict’s big picture. The setup and fallout of the 2010 Kabul Bank crisis and the murder of Ahmad Wali Karzai in July 2011 form the two big anchors of the narrative but there’s plenty more to discuss in between. There are necessarily some gaps in the coverage – the early years of the government’s formation are glossed over fairly quickly, with the story basically picking up around Karzai’s re-election in 2009, and while the author seems to have gotten a great deal of interview access through his stint as Washington Post bureau chief, the armed and unarmed opposition is mostly reflected in their relations with the Karzais or the Americans rather than being a focus themselves. But the book fully captures the ways in which the U.S. government went in circles on whether to seek to break up the Karzai family members’ various patronage machines or embrace them as anchors of stability; whether expectations that Afghanistan meet U.S. governance and legal standards would have to submit to the need for armed local proxies; and how Hamid Karzai sought to maneuver against his rivals and carve out an independent position while remaining head of America’s biggest overseas dependency.

While this ultimately may be familiar and still-recent history for those who have worked on Afghanistan issues, it’s very well-told and I’d put it at the top of my recommendation list for anyone looking for an introduction to understanding elite politics in the Afghanistan surge years.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening insight into the recent history, politics, and power of war-torn Afghanistan through the lens of the Karzai family. Partlow provides a fascinating, in-depth account of the personalities and relationships that shaped the country for good and for ill.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has glowing reviews here, but I cannot recommend it to anyone who is not deeply invested, and perhaps already well-informed, about the past two decades of Afghanistan's history. The book has no clearly defined scope or thesis; the narrative jumps around indiscriminately in time and theme, breaking up action and making it difficult to piece together a coherent story about either the Karzais or Afghanistan; it is absolutely choked with facts and details that made it impossible for me to see the forest, if there even is one, from the trees. Ultimately, it came across like a hastily-assembled collection of dispatches from Kabul that an editor thought could be packaged and sold as a history of the Karzai family. This last feature - the title - was the most disappointing. There is no core Karzai family story here, which would have been a book I would read. The Karzais are heavily involved in Afghanistan, so they feature prominently, but so do American generals and ambassadors. These other cast members sometimes star for entire chapters as the Karzais are momentarily left unmolested in their palaces and compounds. It was very difficult to slog through this book and I eventually skip-read it until calling uncle.

[Wes F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read--I gave this 4-1/2 stars in my Reading Log. Partlow does an excellent--and I feel very fair--assessment of Karzai's presidency, investigating in detail all the connected relatives who are necessarily part of the Karzai story. If you want to know more about how America's largesse to Afghanistan has been wasted and pilfered--by the millions & millions of dollars--this book has a good inside scoop. It's a sad tale of greed, bribery, cultural illiteracy & ignorance, political cowardice & hubris, and gives one just a slice of perspective into the complications of a place like Afghanistan, where so many people, unfortunately, shoot themselves in their own foot to the detriment of the collective population who eke out a living on $1/day. May God continue to have mercy on the peoples of this incredible country.

[Christine B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of good info in here, but it suffers from too much detail and not enough argument. I didn't finish the last few chapters. Might be good as a reference.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read an advance copy. Very interesting but requires commitment to read it all.

[Steve Kohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not an account of battles fought on the ground. (For that, let me suggest "The Outpost," by Jake Tapper.) We do learn, though, about battles at the other end of the spectrum, between our Ambassador and President Karzai.

Mostly, though, we learn about the war through the prism of the remarkable Karzai family.

Hamid Karzai appears to not be a bad man. Indeed, unlike many in his family, he was incorruptible. But a flawed leader, he was not the George Washington his country needed. (I'm tempted to say not the Josef Stalin his country needed, but that would be a bridge too far.)

This superb book could use a few maps and more photos, but the wonderful writing makes up for these minor faults.

Imperative reading for those of us who served there.

But all of us in the West, and especially in America, need to think of this book the next time we see a young man or woman with burn injuries or prosthetic limbs. When we're signing a check to pay our taxes. Why our forces are still in a country, more than 15 years as this review is written, that mostly wants us out.

"Mostly," as the book shows (the Kabul Bank fiasco, especially), because a few very much want us, with our fire hoses spraying dollars, to stay.

[Leonor Rangel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want an all points of view novel of the US occupation of Afghanistan, this is a treat. Being a novice of history, I found a better commentary of the myriad of difficult personalities and issues that surrounded the war effort than I could ever have read in a school textbook or news.

While the title calls the occupation a disaster, and there are a number of reasons for this, I would question that word if only because the first transfer of power occurred that did not involve death or diposal at the end of Kharzi's presidential term. While not a perfect transfer, it offers a new template for which the Afghan people to base their future.

[Nate Rabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous book. I’ve lived and worked in the region for many years and we all knew how screwy Afghanistan was even if we lived Afghans. This book gives incredible insight and exposure to one of recent time’s most momentous events, the American quagmire in Afghanistan pust 9/11. A real page turner written with balance but empathy for Hamid Karzai perhaps the oddest ban to be a major leader. Well done!

[Octavia B. Sithole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible account of the most complicated affair!

This is the most riveting account of the Afghan war. It is by no means a complete account of all the strife the Afghan people have endured throughout history, but it is the most detailed and most recent.

I highly recommend this book to all political conflicts zealots. It will give you a rare perspective on what happened in Afghanistan.

The author's prose is also magnificent. It flows well and easy to read.

[Andrew Tollemache · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting tale of how the Karzai family (and Hamid Karzai in particular) went from being key assets and allies in the US plans to build a post-Taliban Afghanistan to being a major pain in the asss

[Camilla Roper · Rating 5 out of 5]

The former bureau chief of The Washington Post writes about the Afghan war and the powerful Karzai family. Not fiction, but a piece of research by a respected journalist. Tough to read, tough to see how this family affected the Afghan war and the U.S., but worth the time.

[Emran Feroz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, but it's not really a Karzai biography in my opinion. The author talked with several members of the Karzai family, but he still didn't get Afghanistan and the post-2001 system.

[Jacob Mize · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some context, I'm extremely interested in both Middle Eastern history and current events. I'm still a bit of a novice, but found this book incredibly detailed (but not overly so), with great insight of the inner workings of Karzai's government and complex family ties. Partlow is not overly critical of either US president's administration but focuses more on Karzai's actions and evolving relationship with the US throughout the Afghanistan war. For anyone who wants to better understand the complex politics of Afghanistan and the tribal culture engrained within the foundation of the newly formed Afghan government, this is a great book that never grows stale while reading.

[Najib Asmaty · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to the book at the end Karzai himself has come out clean and not directly involved in any kind of corruption.... a little hard to believe. Yes, as a head of state you don't directly deal, but the way he protect his corrupt allies and ruined a very good chance building good relations with US does say something.

[Ejaz Ahmad Malikzada · Rating 4 out of 5]

A masterpiece about the Karzais...

[Diane]

From the Christian Science Monitor: "Partlow’s valuable new book, A Kingdom of Their Own: The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster, enables its readers to understand Afghanistan better – or, at least as well as the author does. It also offers a compelling portrait of former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his ambitious and oft-mystifying family – a number of whom had thrived in America and elsewhere only to return home after 9/11 to do exponentially better in an Afghanistan awash in American dollars. Partlow may not succeed in answering all the questions surrounding the Karzai family, but he at least offers a nuanced understanding of this very intriguing clan and their deeds." (From 2009 to 2012, Partlow reported from Afghanistan as the Washington Post’s Kabul bureau chief.)

[Phil Polishuk]

Never finished it. Too dense given the topic.