There is a line about how any “accomplishments on Kashmir” were due to Kargil but no explanation of what these accomplishments might be. The two assassination attempts on Musharraf are narrated in detail without a word on the military personnel who were charged with involvement in the plots and some of whom have been convicted and condemned to death.

Musharraf also fails to tell us why Pakistan supported Afghanistan’s Taliban regime and attributes the entire failed policy of that era to “wanting to change them (the Taliban) from within.” But more significantly he raises serious questions about Pakistan’s reliability as an ally in the global war against terrorism from the US point of view.

In Chapter 20 of his book titled, One day that changed the World, Musharraf says nothing about joining the war against terrorism on the basis of the immorality of terrorism. According to him, his decision was based on a calculus of Pakistan’s military disadvantage. When Musharraf says “I war-gamed the United States as an adversary,” he seems to be suggesting that if, in his calculation, Pakistan could have fought the US and won, he could have chosen that option. That is hardly a point that would win Pakistan — or Musharraf — any long-term friends in the US.

There are other assertions in Musharraf’s book that generate more heat than light. Musharraf blames Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for the break up of Pakistan in 1971, conveniently ignoring the fact that Pakistan was then under military rule and Bhutto, the elected leader of West Pakistan, was not installed into any position of power until after the Pakistan army surrendered to Indian and Bangladesh forces on December 16, 1971.

... contd.