Descent into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia
By Ahmed Rashid
Allen Lane £25, 544 pages
FT Bookshop price: £20

In October 2001, just weeks after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, most of the world was united in backing US military action against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and its allies in al-Qaeda. It was seen as a justified response to the terrible destruction of the World Trade Center in New York.