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 | The Whole Picture

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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
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highly recommended

this will blow your socks off! great book

I probably have never been so depressed about the world after reading this excellent (with good footnotes) account of our CIA/FBI & 'State dept' dealings with terrorism. Very depressing but all sides get hammered here. No partisan hack, (the author) for sure.
RIVITING!!!! He gets inside some of the incidents. Couldn't recommend it highly enough!
barb

The Whole Picture

I found Steve Coll's account of pre 9/11 not only as comprehensive as one could probably get, but he pulls this massive feat off by keeping you turning the pages. Hats off. Ghost Wars is an absorbing must read, laid out in a way one can grasp the complex connections of our post cold war world.

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Excellent! Well researched, well written, worth the time

Ghost Wars is a very long read. The reading is fast because it is well written but the book is simply long in length. It is very well researched and it never lost my attention. I now have a better understanding of the history of that part of the world. Overall a very impressive book. Highly recommended!

What an unlucky country

This is a superb book and at 738 pages it is a long read and full of information and facts but if the reader can stick it out it is well worth it. Plenty of notes and an impressive bibliography ensure the reader it has been well researched.

The first chapter starts with the attack on the USA consulate by an angry mob in Pakistan in 1979, where the Pakistan military is slow to respond and eventually no one is held accountable leading to much bitterness in the consulate, as the USA Government bends over backwards to accommodate the Pakistan Govt. This trend happens often throughout the next couple of decades leading up to 2001.

This is essentially an excellent account of the history of the CIA in Afghanistan from 1978 until 09/11, with information about the Saudi and Pakistan Intelligence Services involvement in Afghanistan and the cooperation, double dealings and mistrust between the three agencies as each sought to impose their agenda on Afghanistan. However they all agreed that the Soviets had to be booted out of Afghanistan. As one CIA operative said in the early days of the Soviet Union occupation, we will supply weapons in Afghanistan to kill Soviet soldiers; a measure of revenge for Soviet Union involvement in Vietnam of course, of course!!. However this strategy eventually backfires somewhat years later as some USA supplied Stinger missiles end up with the Taliban and other anti USA groups! (including probably Iran of all countries, what kind of deadly game the USA played here). Ironically Gorbachev, before the Soviet withdrawl from Afghanistan tried to warn the USA of the clear danger of Islamic fundamentalist and sought USA co-operation, but was ignored.

Coll also provides an excellent account of the history of the Taliban, Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the unsung hero of Afghanistan Ahmed Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance. It is ironic that Massoud saw the threat of Islamic terrorism and Arab jihadists in Afghanistan many years before 09/11 and pleaded for USA help against the Taliban but was brushed off with little assistance as the CIA and the USA Government failed to grasp the significance of what was happening in Afghanistan. As the CIA allowed the Pakistan intelligence to distribute most of the money and weapons supplied by the USA, Massoud unfortunately obtained little of it as the Taliban was favored by Pakistan! Alas the USA rarely challenged Pakistan or Saudi policy in Afghanistan and missed the opportunity of working with Massoud who was a natural ally against Al Qaeda. Were the CIA and USA leaders asleep at the wheel in foreign policy on Afghanistan for too many years? The author thinks so.

With so many competing interests in the world on USA foreign policy l can empathize with it on how difficult the situation in Afghanistan was to manage and make decisions about. Clinton finally saw the threat of Al Qaeda and Bin Laden and did his best to eliminate him but the book mentions several lost opportunities that went begging as the author implies that Clinton was not up the task of forcing the Pentagon to pursue military options, but it is easy to be critical after the event. A few USA officials, notably from the State Dept did see the danger in the CIA policy and action in Afghanistan but their views did not prevail

Coll states that the bells were ringing loud and clear in the months before 09/11 that an attack on US citizens was imminent.

Australian troops over the last two months been involved in their most intense fierce battles since the Vietnam War in search and destroy missions of the Taliban in the Chora district of Southern Afghanistan, with USA airborne fire support. The battle still goes on!

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Great book

This is a great book. Another great example of a prize winning book making a complex subject matter approachable. If you're like me and read a lot of history books, you have no doubt come across those that are just cumbersome. You can get good info from them, but it is like pulling teeth! One minor thing the author does is repeatedly remind you of who people are (e.g. position in gov't) so that you aren't repeatedly flipping back and forth.

Much of the book focuses on the Soviet invasion of Afganistan. I think that just can't be avoided because that set the stage for the rise of the Taliban, our relatoinship w/ Pakistan, etc.

Nothing is included on the events of 9/11, so if you want that go elsewhere. If you've read other books like this (e.g. Charlie Wilson's War) you'll find this interesting to see the same characters revisited from different angles.

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