Steve Coll's Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, and Soviets is revealing in details of the CIA's involvement in the evolution of the Afghanistan with the local population and the becoming of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the years before the September 11 attacks. The book can be "dry" at times; in the first 100 pages or so, but over all the information in provides on the historical side in very knowledgeable. Every 18-Student should be handed this book during the SFQC. It shows from the beginning, how the CIA's on-again, off-again engagement with Afghanistan and Pakistani ISI; during to after the end of the Soviet war. It shows how officials at Langley left with inadequate resources and intelligence to appreciate the emerging power of the Taliban. Coll also demonstrates how Afghanistan became a deadly playing field for international politics where Soviet, Pakistani, and U.S. agents armed and trained a succession of warring factions.
At the same time, the book, though opinionated, is not solely a critique of the agency but the it balances the accounts of CIA failures with the success and failures of stories. He shows how events from the eighties and nineties are now having the same impact as they did then as they do today. Great book on the historical part and have today's Warlords fought back against the Soviet, then fought for control after their departure, to have the Taliban and Al Qaeda provide the base line for the setup of the future.
Coll also provides a seeming insider's perspective on personalities like George Tenet, William Casey, and antiterrorism czar, Richard Clarke worked back then.
Look I don't really like to read 500(+) books but, Coll does it in the book. He keep me reading, in a way that makes the information easy to absorb, but really gives the reader a broad and deep understanding of just what was happening at all relevant levels of government and civilization, foreign and our own.
Get your highlighter out, and it's good to have you lap top handy so you can Goggle names and/or people Mr. Coll lists within the book. Think it as like covering American history; if you didn't know who or how President Washington or Lincoln looked like, or what they did. How can you talk about them with others. So many times lately American History comes up during discussions about the country your Operating in. SO you your History and find out about others. Like knowing who Najibullah or Mossoud for Afghanistan, or whatever country your working in.
Area Studies!!!
A good topic link is: The out-of-print U.S. Department of Defense publication by Lester Grau - The Bear Went Over the Mountain
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6453/afghanistan.html