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Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001–2016

 21.95

by Steve Coll

The explosive, New York Times bestselling first-hand account of America’s secret history in Afghanistan

Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001–2016

From the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the acclaimed Ghost Wars, this is the full story of America’s grim involvement in the affairs of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2016. In the wake of the terrible shock of 9/11, the C.I.A. scrambled to destroy Bin Laden and his associates.

The C.I.A. had long familiarity with Afghanistan and had worked closely with the Taliban to defeat the Soviet Union there. A tangle of assumptions, old contacts, favours and animosities were now reactivated. Superficially the invasion was quick and efficient. But Bin Laden’s successful escape, together with that of much of the Taliban leadership, and a catastrophic failure to define the limits of NATO’s mission in a tough, impoverished country the size of Texas, created a quagmire which lasted many years.

At the heart of the problem lay ‘Directorate S’, a highly secretive arm of the Pakistan state which had its own views on the Taliban and Afghanistan’s place in a wider competition for influence between Pakistan, India and China, and which assumed that the U.S.A. and its allies would soon be leaving.

About the Author

Steve Coll is dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. His major books include Private Empire, The Bin Ladens and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars. He is a staff writer on The New Yorker.

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Weight 0.5 kg
Dimensions 12.9 × 3.5 × 19.8 cm

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