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Ghost Wars
- The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 26 hrs and 48 mins
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Resuming the narrative of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, best-selling author Steve Coll tells for the first time the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
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Great but I wish there was supplementary material
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Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: Defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off-course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives.
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Why an Author Should Not Narrate Their Own Work
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- Length: 28 hrs and 30 mins
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Overall
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Great but I wish there was supplementary material
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Blackwater
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The Afghanistan Papers
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Publisher's Summary
Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2005
Lionel Gelber Prize
New York Times Notable Book
The explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan.
With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of Bin Laden, and the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998.
What the critics say
“Certainly the finest historical narrative so far on the origins of al Qaeda in the post-Soviet rubble of Afghanistan . . . Ghost Wars provides fresh details and helps explain the motivations behind many crucial decisions.”—The New York Times Book Review
“The CIA itself would be hard put to beat his grasp of global events . . . Deeply satisfying.”—The New York Review of Books
“A well written, authoritative, high-altitude drama with few heroes, many villains, bags of cash, and a tragic ending—one that may not have been inevitable.”—The Washington Post
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What listeners say about Ghost Wars
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ansel
- 2021-10-11
fascinating stuff
while its long and complicated, i never had trouble getting into it. its hard for me tell, but it seemed unbiased and objective, and presented the events clearly but with enough color that it wasnt dry. the only reason i gave four stars is that because a story with this scope and breadth of characters, if one is really to get a firm grasp, and the effort would be well spent, a list of the men and women involved and a brief description of their role and the dates of their involvement is absolutely necessary. that being said, the narrator did a great job of consistently pronouncing, or mispronouncing i cant tell, Arabic Afghani Pakistani Uzbek etc names throughout the book so there was no added confusion. what an unlucky country!
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-11-06
Fascinating
Very informative and detailed description of everything that happened behind the scenes. Well read by author
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- william gary irwin
- 2020-10-25
Honest and informative
Author had no agenda, just gave the facts which is rare these days, and adds value to the book.
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3 people found this helpful
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- A
- 2022-02-19
great book for specific audience
this book is really good if you are interested in the story of politics and intelligence leading up to 9/11. due to the level of detail it might not be best suited for a general audience, though. that said of the books I've read on 9/11 this is def at the top. it is really interesting how Coll tells the story without talking about the actual events of the day. also the focus on ending it with Massoud's death is sad but the perfect way to finish this part of the story.
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- Fahd Baba
- 2022-11-14
Lose the accent
Great story. But the narrator does accents when quoting ethnic people. The accent is super bad and it’s distracting more than anything.
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