| | |  | Interior Design Books | Home » » Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 | | | | | | | Description: | | To what extent did America’s best intelligence analysts grasp the rising threat of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and firsthand accounts by key government, intelligence, and military personnel both foreign and American, Coll details the secret history of the CIA’s role in Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and the failed efforts by U.S. forces to find and assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780143034667
• Condition: New
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Steve Coll | | Paperback:
| 738 pages | | Publisher:
| Penguin (Non-Classics) | | Publication Date:
| December 28, 2004 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0143034669 | | Package Length:
| 8.1 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.6 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 179 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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 How Afghanistan is StructuredJul 29, 2010
A must read book. If you have any questions regarding Afghanistan read this book. It gives you full details on how we became involved in that reigon of the World and a true understanding why we should remain their until the Mission is accomplished.The book explains why the afghan warlords do not trust the Americans and also how deeply we were involved in the Afghan - Russian War. It explains the role that the surrounding countries played during that period of time.If you read this book you should definately follow it up by reading "JAWBREAKER" by Gary Berntsen and Ralph Puzzullo.These two books should answer any questions you had are may have regarding America's position in that reigon.
great work, but reads like a textbookJul 23, 2010
as a 2 time Afghanistan veteran (and leaving for my 3rd very soon) this book had my vested interest. its a rather shocking, absolutley true, story of how America itself gave rise to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
if you are looking for light reading, this is not for you. it is massive and in depth. in many spots it reads like a textbook. it is a endurance test to finish the drier portions.
reccomended.
 Ghost wars reviewMay 20, 2010
An extremely well written book detailing the Cia's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan from the Soviet Invasion to September 2001. Well researched and intense.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Deep in Research, Shallow in ThinkingApr 21, 2010
Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001" uses exhaustive research to analyze how Afghanistan could have been saved, bin Laden killed, and 9/11 prevented. This is a narrative threaded together loosely mainly from hearsay and speculation, so many "what ifs". In the end, I learned very little from this book, and I recommend Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower" instead.
This ponderous 588-page book (which because there's so much information and research packed into each page feels more like a 1,000 page book) begins with CIA director William Casey's crusade to destroy the Soviet empire in Afghanistan by first romanticizing and then arming some very nasty Afghan warlords. Reading the CIA's campaign to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan, I couldn't help but think that America was by the time of Reagan much more ideological than the Soviet Union. Americans permitted their ideological obsessions to cloud their realpolitik thinking, arming an enemy of the enemy only to create a spectacularly unstable threat.
Did America really have to arm Afghan fanatics like the mentally unstable and psychotic Gulbuddin Hekmatyar? Why would it be in America's best interest to push the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan? And even if it were did it really justify working with a sinister and ruthless organization like the Pakistani intelligence service, and propelling a tinpot third world dictatorship like Pakistan into a global player?
Steve Coll does not ask these questions, and for the last third of this book he painstakingly focuses on a pointless question: Why did America not seize the countless opportunities to kill bin Laden? Coll blames the Clinton administration's lack of will and resolve (they were a bunch of cowardly politicians), the infighting inside the CIA, and the tunnel vision that discounted the importance of Afghanistan after the Soviets left. He talks so much about missed opportunities, and is clearly frustrated by the bureaucratic incompetence (the CIA was ordered to capture bin Laden but to avoid trying to assassinate him and creating collateral damage) of it all that he misses the larger point: killing bin Laden may not have prevented 9/11, and would most probably not have prevented America's war on terror and military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden may be the public face of Islamic terrorism, but he is not the mastermind and the financier of international terrorism that Coll makes him out to be, and indeed Lawrence Wright points out that bin Laden is more of a marketing genius than he is an operations genius in "The Looming Tower."
Moreover, Coll refuses to contemplate the counterfactual. What if bin Laden had been killed? Because bin Laden lives there is a growing ignominy towards Islamic terrorism in the Muslim world, but if he had died then any and all attacks on American soil would have been justified.
Another reason to question Coll's analysis and presentation of the facts is that he's biased towards Prince Turki, the Saudi intelligence chief, and Ahmed Massoud, the Northern Alliance leader who was assassinated by Al-Qaeda operatives right before 9/11. Turki comes across as a cosmopolitan and sophisticated intelligence chief, and his role in helping the Pakistani intelligence service and the Taliban is marginalized (Turki must have been eternally grateful for this sympathetic treatment, and must have gone of his way to help Coll to write "The Bin Ladens"). In Coll's narrative, Massoud is simply a saint forced to be a cunning and savvy politician by his circumstances. Coll had great hope for Massoud's role in Afghanistan, but if Massoud could not even defeat the Taliban (who, if the journalist Ahmed Rashid is to believed, would have issues tying shoelaces) then how could he possibly govern Afghanistan? It's expedient to turn a marytr into a saint, but if Massoud had lived then chances are the world would have been very disappointed in him.
Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars" is a disappointing and misleading read.
Great book for a great price...Mar 22, 2010
The book arrived very fast and was packaged with great care. The book was in good condition precisely as described on Amazon and included a politely written note about the age, condition and origin of the book followed by a brief description about the person selling the book and seller's hope for customer satisfaction. Overall, a great experience getting the book we wanted at a great price and condition.
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