Rating: 
Summary: Astounding
Review: A chilling tale that every American should know, but does not. Excellent in depth exploration of the subject in question. A must read for anyone interested in such affairs.
Rating:
Summary: A good reason to read non fiction
Review: Since it appears that the U.S. is inexorably involved in this part of the world - a CNN commentator and former general predicted recently that the current war on terror was unlikely to end in our lifetime - I have departed from my usual reading habit of serious fiction and forced myself into a brave new world of non fiction, consuming Ghost Wars (Coll), Against All Enemies (Clarke) and Plan of Attack (Woodward) over the past few weeks. Of the three, I found Coll's the most interesting, immersing myself in the detailed account of mid level CIA operatives, Washington bureaucrats and policy makers focused on the South Asia region, bracketed in time from the take over of the American embassy in Pakistan and the narrow avoidance of massive American casualties at the hands of Muslim extremists in 1979, up to but short of 9/11.Having no expertise in the region, it's difficult to evaluate the accuracy of Coll's account. However, his narrative appears remarkably free of partisan finger pointing as Coll faults Robin Raphel, Clinton's assistant secretary of state for South Asia, for her relative inexperience and naiveté as she serves as apologist for the Taliban while working to keep the U.S. neutral in the Afghan civil war, while highlighting Hillary Clinton's important role in defending women's rights and increasing awareness among the American people of the dangers posed by that regime. Bill Clinton, himself, is shown in both positive and negative aspects as he recognizes relatively early on the dangers that Muslim terrorism poses for the homeland, while at other times, notably in an early meeting in 1993 with Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar and Saudi spy chief Prince Turki, he conducts a "typical Clinton session, more seminar than formal meeting," asking his guests' opinions of where US foreign policy should go, leaving the Saudi's confused, "He's asking us?" Overall, I came away from the book more convinced than ever that America's historic desire to disengage from the world will not be a successful strategy in a post 9/11 world. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we walked away from Afghanistan, redirecting American aid to Africa, and for long stretches had no CIA personnel located in that country. Our counter terrorism efforts were largely administered through untrustworthy clients like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, who diverted American resources to their own ends. When faced with overwhelming evidence that Osama bin Laden had planned and executed major terrorist attacks against Americans and our embassies late in Clinton's term of office, we had few military options because we had little ability to project American power into this remote area of the globe. In 1999, we had 60,000 American soldiers stationed in Germany facing a non existent Soviet threat,. but lacked the strength to take out a few terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Perhaps the most important contribution of this book is remind America citizens that the world is indeed a much smaller place than it once was, and ocean barriers provide significantly less security than they have in the past.
Rating:
Summary: Ghost Wars and a wilderness of mirrors
Review: The elusiveness of Bin Laden and the failures of the US government to get him is the theme of this great book. Coll has produced a masterpiece of investigative journalism. His book is amply documented and footnoted. However, some of his crucial interviews are left anonymous or unattributed and the identities of these sources would be very valuable to an evaluation of the overall history of this period. Coll paints a broad and detailed picture of intelligence operations from the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR up to the attacks upon the World Trade Center in 2001, and he clearly shows how the US effort to defeat the USSR in that country, eventually led to the rise of Bin Laden and Muslim radicalism. The United States and Saudi Arabia gave huge amounts of government largesse to fund the radical Muslims, who did all the fighting and dying to defeat the Communists. Too much credit is given to Reagan for "defeating" Soviet Communism and little is said about the actual people who died for the Muslim cause of defeating the infidels. Also, little is said about the law of unintended consequences, wherein the rise of the radical Muslim mentality was originally fostered via the US strategy by Reagan and his CIA chief William Casey. So in this connection, Bin Laden and 9/11 is a form of "blowback". The picture painted by Coll of intelligence agents trying to get Bin Laden is curious indeed, since the effort to track him and corner him was very good at times, yet when he could have been caught or killed, the agents backed out or the intelligence agencies seemed paralyzed to follow through. This seems like a fruitful area of study for further books searching for the real truth of this secret history. Coll's book addresses the usage of the funds to finance the radical groups fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, however, not much hard information is offered to show exactly who siphoned money to Bin Laden and how much was diverted to his groups(s). The unspoken assumption is that Pakistan's intelligence service, (ISI) was responsible for this diversion. In addition, it seems the author implies the US did not really know which groups were receiving US funds. This is a murky subject area which further research would clarify and make accessible to the American people. I recommend this book to those interested in this sordid and ironic period of US history. The book is long but well worth the read, since it will impart much enlightenment about CIA behavior and the reader will be armed with a better understanding of what must be done to avoid this kind of catastrophe again.
Rating:
Summary: A tangled web
Review: First off, let me say this was one of the best written narratives I have read in a long time. Coll has taken an obviously complex and murky (not to mention the hinderances that security places on his writing)subject and has clearly laid out the evolution of Bin Laden's rise, and how CIA and the US security establishment dealt with the enigma that we now commonly refer to as UBL.
Coll's access to senior CIA and Reagan/Bush I/Clinton/Bush II officials provides a stunning level of access to the reader. I would note (and Coll has published an update after the 9/11 commission published its report and noted in the appendix that much of what he wrote was vindicated by the commission's report) much of what he wrote has been proven to be right on the mark.
I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the Pentagon's Special Ops role. I believe that based on the CIA-centric focus of the book, a bit of inter-governmental sniping is evident, and the Pentagon, which is made out to be a slow-moving, lumbering, obstructionist entity, may in fact have been a more willing player than is laid out in this book. I would have also like to have seen a comment about the Khobar Towers bombing, and potential links to the UBL issue.
His handling of Massoud was right on target, and what he writes of the persona of Massoud can be seen today in the posters that are plastered around Afghanistan of his picture. A truly larger than life individual who played a central role in the saga of Afhganistan.
I read this book in a couple of days...it was that well written, and that much of a page turner. I can only hope that Coll writes a post-9/11 book that continues where he left off.
Rating:
Summary: "Déjà vu all over again."
Review: Afghanistan seems to be less a country than a battlefield. Armies have been marching through the Hindu Kush from time immemorial, and it seems like anyone who was anyone has left footprints: Darius the Great, Alexander the Great, Ghengis Khan, Tamerlane, Babur; and the countries led by less recognizable names - the British, the Russians, the Russians and the British, the Russians again, and now the Americans. Not to mention the almost constant internal strife between clans and warlords, most recently the Taliban and the Northern Alliance as represented by Osama bin Laden, and Ahmad Shah Massoud.
Steven Coll takes a relatively small piece of history, from the Russian invasion of 1979 to September 10, 2001, and tells an absolutely remarkable story of the high level skullduggery of the CIA, its Pakistani counterpart - the ISI, the Russian's KGB, and the Saudi intelligence agency. This is a briskly paced story of individuals and nations lying down with dogs and waking up with the fleas of lies compounded by lies, crosses, double-crosses, extortions, and murders - individual and mass.
"Ghost Wars..." is the scorecard you need to identify the players and the plays, and what's remarkable is that Mr. Coll, with a wealth of detail, keeps it all moving as an exciting read.
If you really want to know what led up to 9/11 with the info behind the headlines, this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!!!
Review: Steve Coll has provided an important piece of recent history with this book. If anyone is interested in the back story to the 9/11 terror attacks, this is the place to begin.
Coll's book is divided into three parts. The first section retells the history of the CIA in supplying assistance to forces battling Russians following the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. In collaboration with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the CIA provided money and weapons to the anti-Soviet mujahideen. With their cooperation, these forces, a combination of Arab Islamist and nationalist Afghans, were able to drive the Soviets and liberate Afghanistan.
The second part of the book cancers the five years following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, when the Americans lost interest in Afghanistan while Pakistan and Saudi Arabia continued to heavily support Islamist forces against nationalist elements in that country. If the US had a policy at this time it was to defer to their friends the Saudis and Pakistanis.
The final third of the book deals with the last part of the 1990s, when analysts in the White House and the CIA were first beginning to grasp the danger Islamist forces in Afghanistan posed to the US. Many of these analysts warned the government about the need to support such people as Ahmed Shah Massoud against the growing Taliban movement in Afghanistan. These Cassandra's were largely ignored because other priorities such as nuclear proliferation and peace talks between India and Pakistan always ranked higher on the agenda, until the 1998 embassy bombings and the 2000 Cole attack. Even then, disagreements between different government entities continued to hamper the Clinton administration, until the 2000 election came and went and an administration that viewed states, and not terrorist organizations, as a graver threat to US national security. The book ends on September 10, 2001, with the assassination of Massoud and a confusion in the US government as to what to do next.
Coll is incredibly balanced in his review of this time period. Having worked in the DC area for many years as a reporter and editor with the Washington Post, he understands the complexities of the decision making process in something as vast as the US Federal government. This is where the strength of the book lies: he presents a complex situation in a clear and succinct way. This is a valuable book.
Rating:
Summary: Best Pre-9-11 history book yet!
Review: Steve Coll has gone out of his way to write such a well researched and interesting novel about the events leading up to the 9-11 attacks. This should be used as a history coursebook for schools that teach terrorism or 9-11 studies. I have learned so much from reading this book. It can be a bit much, though, because of its length and the amount of important characters in the world that have played a role that has led up to this event. But keep with it, and take your time. Well worth the money. Its not Republican or Democrat, but a truly un-partisan view on the war on terrorism, which contrary to what some people think, has been going on now for many years.
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Summary: Exactly the kind of book journalists are supposed to write!
Review: Listening to the news coverage of 9/11 still left a lot of questions unanswered (at least for me). How did the US support of the mujahideen in the 80's metastisize into the Taliban and al Qaeda? Why did the CIA direct its support to the Islamic fundamentalists instead of more moderate secular Afghan rebels? How did the Taliban come out of nowhere to almost take over the entire country in such a short time span? Given the Taliban's human rights' record, why didn't the US move to isolate and marginalize them before 2001? The answers to all these questions and more can be found in Steve Coll's book. (Incidentally, all of the above questions can be answered in a single word: Pakistan. To understand why Pakistan is the answer, read the book.)
Ghost Wars is a comprehensive account of the involvement of the CIA, US policy makers, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan. While it is impossible for a layman to assess the accuracy of his work, Coll has done extensive research and shows the sources of his information in extensive footnotes. It appears to be a balanced and nonpartisan effort to thoroughly research the events and describe them as best he could to inform the general public. Writing with 20/20 hindsight, Coll indicates which policies were misguided, which decisions were misjudgments, and when missteps in leadership occurred. However, he engages in equal opportunity criticism and avoids pinning blame all on a single scapegoat. And, he also presents the successes of US policymakers and agents. In addition, he does a good job to present both sides of controversial issues so that the reader can understand why a clearly flawed decision (in hindsight) seemed reasonable and understandable at the time.
In summary, it not the most exciting and dramatic book to read, but it is extremely helpful to becoming a well informed citizen and understanding the actions of the US government in Afghanistan. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Well done treatment of a complex subject
Review: I spent time in Afghanistan and in Washington in the 1980s. I knew many of the people and was familiar with many of the events covered in this book. It is, by and large, accurate. There are errors of detail and places where the author have been misled by his sources, but these do not detract from the overall value.
However, keep in mind that this is basically the story of how US intelligence was involved in Afghanistan. It is NOT the story of Afghanistan. The sad part is that US intelligence never understood much of the story -- which is why our policies were disastrous in the past and may be so again in the future. So, with that caveat, this book can be recommended, even to old Afghanistan hands.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive
Review: Coll has received the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. This substantial book demonstrates his talent. From the Afgan-Soviet war to 9/11, he tells the story of Afghanistan in a clear, straight-forward manner. Hard to put it down.
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