Thus are individuals caught up in the unceasing machinations of warring empires. The personal/political nexus results in tragedy for David when he finally discovers the fate of Zameen, shot by a local warlord, Gul Rasool, with the backing of the CIA, which thought she might be an enemy agent. In the world of espionage, where principles come a distant second to expendability and deniability, Zameen's fate feels as arbitrary as the alliances that have led to it. We learn that Gul Rasool has ended up a valuable U.S. ally in the war on terror in Afghanistan simply because he made himself available to U.S. troops when they arrived—with large cash incentives—in the invasion of 2001 and at the same time made sure that a rival warlord was temporarily incapacitated and therefore ended up on the "other side."

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 410