United States of America

Dear Dr Friedman

Having read your informative work ‘AMERICA’S SECRET WAR’, I deemed it necessary to write to bring to your knowledge that contrary to your claim saying: “Ismail Khan was a more important Shiite warlord (page 156), the current cabinet minister and former governor of Herat is a Sunni Muslim.

There have been many world-known military figures such as Gen Eisenhower, Gen de Gaulle and Colonel Nasser who have played a remarkable part in the war for the freedom of their people, liberation of their country and the world at large. General Ismail Khan has played a similar role first in the war against the Soviet occupiers and later against the hidebound and foreign-guided Taliban. It is not fair to call a patriot who has devoted the best years of his life to the defence of Afghanistan and keeping its independence, a warlord. He was an Afghan army officer and it was his duty and responsibility to defend the country and its independence.

I had written to Bob Woodward of The Washington Post concerning this misconception several years ago and enclose a copy of a piece in The Economist earlier this year for your satisfaction. Whatever label some quarters put on Ismail Khan for their political ends, the patriot Afghans and Afghanistan hold him in high esteem and he will be remembered as an industrious and well-disciplined leader.

Yours sincerely

Atamurad Aimaq (Mr)