Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion...

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September ... | Steve Coll | Great book

books:

Ghost Wars: The Se...

	Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September ... Steve Coll Penguin (Non-Classics), 2004 - 738 pages average customer review:based on 140 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Ghost wars

Tremendous book. Reads at times like a great adventure/thriller fiction novel. Steve Coll has really hit the mark with this book. Clearly there has been exhaustative research made on the subject and Coll's personal experiences have made this a thoroughly enjoyable experience to the reader. The CIA's changing roles post and pre coldwar are certainly significant enough to influence history in that region. The effects of this agency's regional / foreign policy through different administrations continue to be a major factor in world politics well into the coming future.

for more information click here

Great book

This book was really interesting and engaging to read, not boring at all. It did a lot to also help explain the development of terrorism and Middle East politics. I encourage anyone to read it.

An important history lesson

I use this book in my Master's class. The student who choses it always groans over the size of the book, the amount of difficult names, and the complexity of the details. However, when they give their report to the class, they are enthused by the book, recommend the book for all to read, and the class comes away with a much clear knowledge that the world is a much more complex place than they realized. It is very difficult to teach young people that most of the world is different than the United States. Cultures, religions, core values, political systems, geographic makeup and so forth is not the same. Cell phones don't exist. And if they did, they wouldn't work. This book does a wonderful job making it not only real but chilling real.

for more information click here

Exhaustive and Comprehensive

This is one of those books that you'll read, and take away a lot from afterwards. Steve Coll writes with authority and confidence about a number of aspects of the United States' involvement in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion til 9/11. He covers many aspects of the war, from the war in Afghanistan, the subsequent civil war, and negotiations with and between such actors as the CIA, US Defense and State Department, various Afghan groups, and the Pakistani army and government. From spies with suitcases of cash meeting their contacts in the Pakistani countryside to cruise missiles hitting Osama's compound, the book covers every aspect of the conflict itself. From the CIA and the Air Force arguing over who should control and pay for the Predator drones that were used to look for Osama, to Pakistan's various coups and the Taliban's indifference to outside opinion, Coll also pays considerable attention to the political events behind the actual conflicts.

This is a long, involved book that has a huge amount of information in it. It's detailed, carefully written, and very comprehensive. The tone of the book, while somewhat serious and scholarly, isn't really biased in any particular direction. The author, for instance, pays a great deal of attention to Ahmed Shah Massoud, but he doesn't sugarcoat his portrait of Massoud, making clear that he was partially responsible for the Mujaheddin Government's fall in the mid-90s, and also noting that he financed his movement with heroin sales to Russia and Europe. He examines each of these issues dispassionately and carefully, looking at every angle he can think of.

If I have a criticism of the book it's the lack of conclusion. The author appears to want to let history speak for itself, and avoids judgments. This is in some ways good: we're probably not going to be able to make this sort of judgment about the Clinton or Bush administration for years, not objectively anyway. But the book starts in the Carter administration, and even there he presents a narrative of what happened without comment. He also often tells you both sides of the story, recounting first the State department's view of the CIA's reluctance to do something, then giving you the CIA's version of events, so that you're unsure which side he's on, let alone which side the facts are. It's a bit unsettling, though perhaps that's because the events themselves are unsettled, too.

I enjoyed this book, learned a great deal from it, and apart from its length would recommend it. It's relatively well-written and very informative.

for more information click here

Well researched and thorough

Whatever your political view this is a good read and in great detail of our CIA's involvement in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the 80s and 90s. It provides much of the complex story leading up to 911. I believe it to be an objective work with no agenda other than getting the facts out.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

products you might be interested in