A Kingdom of Their Own
The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster
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Narrated by:
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P. J. Ochlan
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By:
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Joshua Partlow
About this listen
The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.
The United States went to Afghanistan on a simple mission: avenge the September 11 attacks and drive the Taliban from power. This took less than two months. Over the course of the next decade, the ensuing fight for power and money - supplied to one of the poorest nations on earth, in ever-greater amounts - left the region even more dangerous than before the first troops arrived.
At the center of this story is the Karzai family. President Hamid Karzai and his brothers began the war as symbols of a new Afghanistan: moderate, educated, fluent in the cultures of East and West, and the antithesis of the brutish and backward Taliban regime. The siblings, from a prominent political family close to Afghanistan's former king, had been thrust into exile by the Soviet war. While Hamid Karzai lived in Pakistan and worked with the resistance, others moved to the United States, finding work as waiters and managers before opening their own restaurants. After September 11, the brothers returned home to help rebuild Afghanistan and reshape their homeland with ambitious plans. Today, with the country in shambles, they are in open conflict with one another and their Western allies.
Joshua Partlow's clear-eyed analysis reveals the mistakes, squandered hopes, and wasted chances behind the scenes of a would-be political dynasty. Nothing illustrates the arc of the war and America's relationship with Afghanistan - from optimism to despair, friendship to enmity - as neatly as the story of the Karzai family, told here in its entirety for the first time.
©2016 Joshua Partlow (P)2016 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Best-selling author Robert Lacey tells us what happened in the Middle East's oil-rich powerhouse---while we weren't looking.
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Inside the Kingdom
- By Ibrahim on 03-19-10
By: Robert Lacey
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The Unraveling
- High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq
- By: Emma Sky
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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When Emma Sky, an intrepid young British woman, volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, she had little idea what she was letting herself in for: a tour that would last over a decade, longer than that of any senior military or political official. As the only adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk and the closest confidante to US General Odierno, Sky was valued for her controversial voice and outsider's point of view.
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Inspiring memoir; irritating narration
- By Amazon Customer on 09-17-16
By: Emma Sky
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Into the Hands of the Soldiers
- Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
- By: David D. Kirkpatrick
- Narrated by: David D. Kirkpatrick
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Egypt has long set the paradigm for Arab autocracy. It is the keeper of the peace with Israel and the cornerstone of the American-backed regional order. So when Egyptians rose up to demand democracy in 2011, their 30 months of freedom convulsed the whole region. Now a new strongman, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is building a dictatorship so severe some call it totalitarian. The economy sputters, an insurgency simmers, Christians suffer, and the Israeli military has been forced to intervene. But some in Washington - including President Trump - applaud Sisi as a crucial ally.
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may get better, but presentation is off putting
- By Fruggs on 08-28-18
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Killing a King
- The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel
- By: Dan Ephron
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin remains the single most consequential event in Israel's recent history and one that fundamentally altered the trajectory for both Israel and the Palestinians. Killing a King relates the parallel stories of Rabin and his stalker, Yigal Amir, over the two years leading up to the assassination, as one of them planned political deals he hoped would lead to peace - and the other plotted murder.
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Tragic history well presented.
- By Mmday on 02-28-16
By: Dan Ephron
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Charlie Wilson's War
- The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
- By: George Crile
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Charlie Wilson's War is the untold story behind the last battle of the Cold War and how it fueled the rise of militant Islam. George Crile tells how Charlie Wilson, a maverick congressman from east Texas, conspired with a rogue CIA operative to launch the biggest, meanest, and most successful covert operation in the agency's history.
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The REAL Story of the Middle East and the CIA
- By Dale on 08-24-04
By: George Crile
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War on Peace
- The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
- By: Ronan Farrow
- Narrated by: Ronan Farrow
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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American diplomacy is under siege. Offices across the State Department sit empty while abroad, the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We're becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing account ranging from Washington, DC, to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, acclaimed journalist and former diplomat Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history.
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Well Timed and Authoritative:
- By JC on 04-24-18
By: Ronan Farrow
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The Road Not Taken
- Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam
- By: Max Boot
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In chronicling the adventurous life of legendary CIA operative Edward Lansdale, The Road Not Taken definitively reframes our understanding of the Vietnam War. In this epic biography of Edward Lansdale (1908-1987) best-selling historian Max Boot demonstrates how Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and mind" diplomacy, first in the Philippines, then in Vietnam. It was a visionary policy that, as Boot reveals, was ultimately crushed by America's giant military bureaucracy.
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An honest look at Vietnam Nam and USA
- By Catherine on 01-16-18
By: Max Boot
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Little America
- The War within the War for Afghanistan
- By: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
- Narrated by: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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When President Barack Obama ordered the surge of troops and aid to Afghanistan, Washington Post correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran followed. He found the effort sabotaged not only by Afghan and Pakistani malfeasance, but by infighting and incompetence within the American government: a war cabinet arrested by vicious bickering among top national security aides; diplomats and aid workers who failed to deliver on their grand promises; and generals who dispatched troops to the wrong places.
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Easily Confused with Vietnam
- By Chris Reich on 07-12-12
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The Burning Shores
- Inside the Battle for the New Libya
- By: Frederic Wehrey
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The death of Colonel Muammar Qadhafi freed Libya from 42 years of despotic rule, raising hopes for a new era. But in the aftermath, the country descended into bitter rivalries and civil war, paving the way for the Islamic State and a catastrophic migrant crisis. In a fast-paced narrative that blends frontline reporting, analysis, and history, Frederic Wehrey tells the story of what went wrong.
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amazing yet painful book
- By Ghassan Tranesh on 09-20-18
By: Frederic Wehrey
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Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
- The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa
- By: Jason Stearns
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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At the heart of Africa is Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, bordering nine other nations, that since 1996 has been wracked by a brutal and unstaunchable war in which millions have died. And yet, despite its epic proportions, it has received little sustained media attention. In this deeply reported book, Jason K. Stearns vividly tells the story of this misunderstood conflict through the experiences of those who engineered and perpetrated it.
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First book I've found that explains DRC
- By Amazon Customer on 09-09-17
By: Jason Stearns
What listeners say about A Kingdom of Their Own
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- frank
- 12-03-16
Well worth the listen
This book is very interesting. The author tells a compelling story of the Karzai family, and their struggles with America post 9/11.
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- Daniel Sanchez
- 12-15-17
Very good explanation into Afghanistan
The book explains well key players to the Afghani war and why the war was a failure. From the reasons it failed to why we stayed. Great listen even with the long length.
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- WAYNE YUNGHANS
- 12-08-19
MUCH MORE THAN A "KARZAI STORY"
this outstanding, insightful, and detailed account it's much more than the story of the Karzai family, It is the story of Afghanistan itself since the US invasion. I have read over 60 books on Afghanistan and, this rakes as one of the best. It gave me insights beneath the veil into the inner workings in personalities behind major events and decisions in that country. Highly recommended, I will read it a second time.
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- Charles S.
- 10-23-23
Fabulous
Never knew any of this stuff/ could not stop listening to this well told bizarre tale.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-03-16
Fact more interesting than fiction
This is a great account of the intricacies of global politics, and most of all, the over arching story of the mess in Afghanistan beginning even before 9/11. This was a interesting book for anyone interested in a new perspective of the Afghan war from the perspective of the family and their relations to the US. Really enjoyed it!! A true testament to the adage, fact is stranger than fiction.
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- Joseph C.
- 06-08-17
Shockingly accurate
As someone who spent a great deal of time working with Afghan reconstruction I found this book to be shockingly true and insightful to the nature of Afghanistan while also far more illuminating than I thought possible, given my previous experience. I would recommend this as a sort of modern day "Ugly American".
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