Rating: 
Summary: Objective and necessary
Review: A short 'review' and note of appreciation here as I'll leave it to others to discuss the contents. With all the hand wringing and partisanship going on the wake of 9-11, this book arrives at a most welcome time. Unlike the the others coming out now (on both sides) you probably won't hear this book discussed on your favorite talk radio outlet. Coll -writing without an agenda and for grown ups- gives the reader credit for digesting facts and making up his/her own mind. With all the noise lately I, for one, found such a researched and thorough approach most welcome and most informative.
Rating: 
Summary: Culpability all the way back to President Carter
Review: While the 9/11 commission attempts to spread the blame for the US attacks across two administrations, Ghost Wars clearly underlines how the world we live in today was forged by so many ambitious, well-intentioned (but incredibly myopic) cold warriors from the 70's and 80's. To get an even better perspective, readers should tackle Leebaert's "The Fifty Year Wound" (another massive tome unfortunately) in advance. The two volumes certainly compliment each other and bridge some obvious gaps. I was a little perplexed by some of the previous reviewer's comments regarding the need for additional editing. Unlike Leebaert's volume (which I agree could have been gone over a couple more times), Ghost Wars read like a thriller. I ripped through this book in a couple of days. I can't recall a single chapter that did not hold my attention thoroughly. I actually enjoyed the "inside the Beltway " elements - they helped to humanize what might otherwise make for dry historical reading.
Rating:
Summary: A very important Book
Review: .
This is one of the most important books I have read in a very long time. It is an amazing eye-opener and is required reading for anybody who wants to understand the terrorist threat we face. This is the only book I have ever read that truly frightened me. After reading it, I can't help but feel this was inevitable the minute the Soviets fell. "Petro Dollar Islam" simply moved from the "Godless heritics" to the next enemy, the Infidels of the United States of America. I tell you, with all the money and support they have, we better get serious or we are in for an even bigger disaster!
Rating:
Summary: Eye Opener
Review: I had read The Taking of Getty Oil and naturally gravitated to this title. Coll writes with conviction and though sometimes some of the passages were a tad laborious, I found it very comprehensive and worth the purchase.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Better Post 9-11 Histories
Review: Coll provides a highly detailed, well written account of the history of the CIA and United States in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to 9/11. Without going into a lot of detail in this review-let me say that I would highly recommend this work for anyone who is interested in how we came to the point we are in Afghanistan post-9/11, and how we inadvertently provided Bin Laden fertile ground for a successful terrorist operation. Frankly, after reading this account, I became empathetic toward the CIA, Clinton and those in his administration, and the Pakistani and Saudi governments. Clearly their positions and actions lead to the rise of the Taliban. While lots of mistakes and maybe some shortsightedness existed among these players-they were all dealing with intricate and sensitive internal political issues that drove their decisions, or in the case of the United States, lack of action, in post-Soviet Afghanistan. While Bin Laden would likely have existed without the safe haven he found in Afghanistan, his ability to train and draw followers so freely and with impunity is partially "blowback" from actions take by the CIA, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia during the Soviet-Afghan war as money and weapons poured into the country. There is also a lot of information about Ahmed Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance. It's interesting to speculate how more assistance to Massoud might have thwarted or overthrown the Taliban and as a result push Bin Laden into less favorable circumstances. But given Massoud's failure as a political leader in his first opportunity, the brutality of his troops, and being an ethnic minority in his country, again one can empathize with why the United States was reluctant to pin their hopes on him. If you are trying to decide which of the very large number of books about Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Bin Laden are worth reading-this is one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Ponderous "inside the Beltway" yawn
Review: I fancy myself something of a foreign policy maven, who's waded few quite a few ponderous tomes that few ordinary readers would stomach. Yet even I found it difficult to stick with this overweight, almost agonizingly dull "treatise" on the history of the Afghan rebels and Bin Laden's subsequent anti-US vendetta. Up front, the author doesn't bother to give many any sign posts about where he's headed; he just sort of launches into the story, expecting us to stay patiently along for the whole ride. He has lots of cute "inside the Beltway" details about which CIA station agent thought what about which mujehadin faction, but there are not a lot of revelations here, especially per pound. He's pretty kind to people like "Bill" Casey, former head of the CIA -- not spending much time on the fellow's "darker" side. He also doesn't provide much of a perspective on the broader strategic context, tunnelling right in from the start on Afghanistan, and largely leaving to one side the important "context" in countries like Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Without an editor, of course, that would have made it an even longer book. But perhaps because he IS an editor, Mr. Coll didn't need one. The book also adopts, in places, a kind of breezy idealization of certain Afghan rebels like Massoud, with barely disguised sneers at the bloody Soviet Army, evidently some of the "bad guys." These days, with the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan in a situation that bears some resemblance to that of the Soviets -- down to the attempted reform of Islamic values, the creation of new governments and a surrogate army -one wonders if a somewhat more balanced perspective might not be deserved. Finally, even the footnotes are a waste of time, many of them just referring to confidential interviews in general without even a time or a place. In short -- unless you are required to read this book for some reason, or need a doorstop, just skim it in the bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: Who edits the managing editor ?
Review: Despite favorable reviews, one might ask: who dared to edit this tome ? Seemingly no one. Coll is like a draftsman; heavy on detail, good red lines, straight right angles but weak on telling a good tale and moving the story along for the general reader. The reader does not need to know of all the feuds between the Afghan tribes and the CIA and the State Department. A David Halberstam would have knocked this book off in 350 pages, Coll takes another 125 weighty pages to tell the same story. The Washington set may call it the definitive history of the CIA's involvement in the Afghan War but it is questionable if the general reading public will wade through the book to the end.
Rating:
Summary: Pakistan
Review: A good read. However, far too Pakistan-centric on how events unfolded in Afghanistan. Certainly Pakistan played a major role, but not to the exclusive extent implied in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Blowback
Review: The mess created in Afghanistan aleady shook the world. Islamic Extremism in one hand, AQ Khan's Nucler Proliferation on the other end --Watch out for Pakistan ! Its blowback time !
Rating:
Summary: It wasn't Bush, it was the CIA
Review: How did we get in so much trouble in the international scene? Just why do people in the Middle East hate America so badly? This book answers these questions and many more, in great detail. It will be an eye-opener for the average American, some hard truth to swallow, but all the more necessary. The real truth is that the CIA got us in trouble, with programs it started years ago. Bush didn't get us in trouble. He's just belatedly trying to mop up the mess. This is what happens when any intelligence agency uses another country as a playground. Eventually, the playthings learn what we know and turn our own knowledge against us.
| 
