In the Line of Fire

I highly recommend Pervez Musharraf's memoir In the Line of Fire. When reading someone's memoirs the reader has to keep in mind that those words are written from one person's perspective on events throughout that person's life. That is what President Pervez Musharraf's In the Line of Fire is - this individual's perception on the way he sees things and the events he participated in. For what it's worth I'm glad I now have a good understanding about why Western-styled democracy doesn't really work in Pakistan. If a nation is half illiterate (48%) and people cannot read or write, they won't be able to understand or debate the issues. For a nation that is still very feudalistic with tribal loyalties and clan loyalties and with an elaborate caste and sub-caste system as described by President Musharraf, then democracy won't work. When the Bhuttos claimed they were "democratizing" the nation, they didn't do it - they copied off the Soviets where they removed private ownership of all businesses and everything was under the control of the government. This is socialism. President Musharraf also stated that the movie Blackhawk Down featured only American troops in the battle in Somalia. Interesting how the movie producers neglected to mention that other countries had sent troops in, and that it was the Malaysians and the Pakistanis who helped rescue the trapped crew from the Blackhawk helicopter after it was shot down inside Mogadishu, not American forces, as we were all led to believe. Perhaps the President revealed too much about how they tracked down those who were involved in the suicide bombings in the assassination attempts on his life. Now perhaps the planners or plotters will think twice about trying any future assassinations because eventually they will get caught. But here is something for would-be assassins or terrorists to ponder if they ever have a chance to read this review: even if you do succeed in blowing up one another, using robots or technogical devices, and shattering infrastructure, evidence can be gathered at crime scenes and others who were involved will eventually be found. As far as President Musharraf removing A. Q. Khan from his position and placing him under house arrest, the Pakistani people may need to take a hard look at the countries he sold the technology to - countries that are considered by the West as rogue nations and are very dangerous. I understand that when Bhutto and A. Q. helped establish Pakistan's top-secret weapons program for the nation, it placed Pakistan on an even footing with its neighbor India and, more importantly, with Israel. It is one thing to develop a nuclear weapons program for your own country's use and protection - it's quite another to sell that technology to very dangerous countries such as Iran and North Korea. And A. Q. Khan should be thankful that the most punishment he got was house arrest because what he did was very treasonous behavior; in many countries treason carries a p

I believe that Mushy did a pretty good job explaining his point of view. The early years sections (1940's and 50's) were awesome. Mushy gives the reader a wonderful Insight on the turbulent birth of Pakistan. His advancement through the ranks of military was most interesting, I loved reading about his rebellious personality. Mushy does an excellent job at explaining the scale of challenges that Pakistan faces, it's limited resources, the tremendous pressure from the West and yet he delivered on every thing that he promised. Mushy takes us step by step from the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, involvement of CIA to create the Jihad movement, creation of an Arab army to fight the Russians. Pull back of USA from Afghanistan without a plan. Creation of Al-Qaeda. The horrible events of 911. The aftermath and the tough choices he had to make as head of the state. All is all an excellent job and Mushy gets two thumbs up.

I got this book around 12:00 pm. Once I started reading, it was impossible for me to put it down. I finished it in three sittings. This book is a wonderful insight to the man that we know as Pervez Musharraf, The General. I as a pakistani am grateful that he has allowed us to get to know the child, the youngman, the adult and then the man who would grow up to lead our nation from the depths of despair, darkness and failure to a new awakening of hope, oppurtunity and success. A man who would lead the nation from the front, a man who had the common sense to make the right decisions at the darkest hour. He is the man who rose in stature against every calamity and disaster that has hit the nation and has so far taken the nation out of the black hole of death, despair and destruction. At least, the nation knows that the light at the end of the tunnel is not the headlights of an onrushing train but of a better future in the coming years and I thank Pervez Musharraf from the bottom of my heart. The reaction from some of the readers reminds me that, a man is known by the enemies he keeps and if Musharraf was a nobody, these indians would not be screaming their heads of in despair.

The book written by Mr. President is simply GREAT and in my opinion he wants to portray Pakistan's vision to be an important global player yet improving the internal outlook by providing a brief background on Pakistan and its history thru this book. After Quaid, he had to make most difficult decisions which does not hamper the Pakistan's international outlook yet controlling the internal issues and improving on those gradually. Yet there is lot to cover but all he needs is support from within and foreign investments to provide jobs for his nation.