Afghanistan: a reading list
A compilation of the best books on Western interventions in Afghanistan, past and present
Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. By Steve Coll. Penguin Press; 784 pages; $35
In “Ghost Wars”, which won the Pulitzer prize for general non-fiction in 2005, Mr Coll examined how the CIA’s manoeuvres against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s inadvertently led to the rise of Osama bin Laden (he helped fund the American-allied mujahideen before establishing al-Qaeda in 1988). “Directorate S”, Mr Coll’s follow-up, looks at American efforts in the wake of the September 11th attacks to vanquish al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and the murky role of Pakistan’s intelligence services. Mr Coll describes his masterful tome as “a humbling case study in the limits of American power”.
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