In the Graveyard of Empires America's War in Afghanistan [Paperback]

After the swift defeat of the Taliban in 2001, American optimism has steadily evaporated in the face of mounting violence; a new war of a thousand cuts has now brought the country to its knees.A useful and generally lively account of what can go wrong when outsiders venture onto the Afghan landscape.This is a serious work that should be factored in as a new policy in Afghanistan evolves.Seth G. Joness book provides a vivid sense of just how paltry and misguided the American effort has been.&[An] excellent book.How we got to where we are in Afghanistan.[Zeroes] in on what went awry after Americas successful routing of the Taliban in late 2001.A blueprint for winning in a region that has historically brought mighty armies to their knees.Offers a valuable window onto how officials have understood the military campaign.Seth Jones . . . has an anthropologists feel for a foreign society, a historians intuition for long-term trends, and a novelists eye for the telling details that illuminate a much larger story. If you read just one book about the Taliban, terrorism, and the United States, this is the place to start.A timely and important work, without peer in terms of both its scholarship and the authors intimate knowledge of the country, the insurgency threatening it, and the challenges in defeating it.A deeply researched and well-analyzed account of the failures of American policies in Afghanistan,Seth Jones has combined forceful narrative with careful analysis, illustrating the causes of this deteriorating situation, and recommending sensible, feasible steps to reverse the escalating violence.A definitive account of the American experience in Afghanistan from the rise of the Taliban to the depths of the insurgency.