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In the Graveyard of Empires
- America’s War in Afghanistan
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
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Publisher's summary
This definitive account of the American experience in Afghanistan is a political history of Afghanistan in the “Age of Terror” from 2001 to 2009, exploring the fundamental tragedy of America’s longest war since Vietnam. 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 brought the country to its knees.
After a brief survey of the great empires in Afghanistan, Seth G. Jones examines the central question of our own war: how did an insurgency develop? Following September 11, the United States successfully overthrew the Taliban regime. It established security throughout the country, and Afghanistan finally began to emerge from more than two decades of conflict. But Jones argues that, as early as 2001, planning for the Iraq War siphoned off resources and talented personnel, undermining the gains that had been made. After eight years, the United States had pushed al-Qaeda’s headquarters about one hundred miles across the border into Pakistan.
While observing the tense, often adversarial relationship between NATO allies in the Coalition, Jones introduces us to key figures on both sides of the war. Using important new research and integrating thousands of declassified government documents, Jones analyzes the insurgency from a historical and structural point of view, showing how a rising drug trade, poor security forces, and pervasive corruption undermined the Karzai government, while Americans abandoned a successful strategy, failed to provide the necessary support, and allowed a growing sanctuary for insurgents in Pakistan to catalyze the Taliban resurgence.
Examining what has worked thus far—and what has not—this serious and important book underscores the challenges we face in stabilizing the country and explains where we went wrong and what we must do to avoid the disastrous fate that has befallen many of the great world powers to enter the region.
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David Kilcullen is one of the world's most influential experts on counterinsurgency and modern warfare. A senior counterinsurgency advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq, his vision of war dramatically influenced America's decision to rethink its military strategy in Iraq and implement "the surge."Now, in The Accidental Guerrilla, Kilcullen provides a remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror.
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Not What I Expected
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Ghost Wars
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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.
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An Exceptional Accomplishment
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The end of the Cold War promised a new era of international peace. But instead, violence has proliferated across the globe, not in the form of a superpower arms race or a clash of armies, but in bitter local conflicts marked by terrorism, insurgency, and guerrilla warfare. Former Central Intelligence Agency director James Woolsey likened the post-Cold-War world to "a jungle full of snakes". The emergence of this new, potentially never-ending struggle has forced our military to reevaluate strategies or risk losing hearts, minds, and soldiers the world over.
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Some Lessons
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The Iran Wars is an absorbing account of a battle waged on many levels - military, financial, and covert. Jay Solomon’s book is the product of extensive in-depth reporting and interviews with all the key players in the conflict - from high-ranking Iranian officials to Secretary of State John Kerry and his negotiating team. With a reporter’s masterly investigative eye and the narrative dexterity of a great historian, Solomon shows how Iran’s nuclear development went unnoticed for years by the international community only to become its top security concern.
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In this sweeping, deeply researched book, Paul Thomas Chamberlin boldly argues that the Cold War, long viewed as a mostly peaceful, if tense, diplomatic standoff between democracy and communism, was actually a part of a vast, deadly conflict that killed millions on battlegrounds across the postcolonial world. For half a century, as an uneasy peace hung over Europe, ferocious proxy wars raged in the Cold War’s killing fields, resulting in more than 14 million dead - victims who remain largely forgotten and all but lost to history.
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Interesting but Biased
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Given how quickly its operations have achieved global impact, it may seem that the Islamic State materialized suddenly. In fact, al-Qaeda's operations chief, Sayf al-Adl, devised a seven-stage plan for jihadis to conquer the world by 2020 that included reestablishing the Caliphate in Syria between 2013 and 2016. Despite a massive schism between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, al-Adl's plan has proved remarkably prescient. In summer 2014, ISIS declared itself the Caliphate after capturing Mosul, Iraq - part of stage five in al-Adl's plan.
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Fantastic, thorough overview
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Using previously unpublished documents, Gold, the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, exposes how the deeply ingrained hatred that has provoked the new terrorism has its roots in Saudi Arabia's dominant religious creed, a radical Islamic offshoot known as Wahhabism.
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Clear and Concise
- By abelisar on 12-03-03
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The Longest War
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In The Longest War, Peter Bergen offers a comprehensive history of this war and its evolution, from the strategies devised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond. Weaving together internal documents from al-Qaeda and the U.S. offices of counterterrorism, first-person interviews with top-level jihadists and senior Washington officials, along with his own experiences on the ground in the Middle East, Bergen balances the accounts of each side.
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More Bush bashing..yes, but still worth reading.
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ISIS
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Initially dismissed by US President Barack Obama, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has shocked the world by conquering massive territories in both countries and promising to create a vast new Muslim caliphate that observes the strict dictates of Sharia law. In ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who have conquered territory equal to the size of Great Britain.
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Dunce Hat, Please...
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John Keegan, whom the New York Review of Books calls "the best historian of our day", now brings his extraordinary expertise to bear on perhaps the most controversial war of our time. In exclusive interviews with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, John Keegan has gathered information about the war that adds immeasurably to our grasp of its causes, complications, costs, and consequences.
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A Solid, Quick Overview
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What listeners say about In the Graveyard of Empires
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anthony West
- 08-12-21
Kinda heard everything before
Not a lot of new info and stops in 2009, the war continued on for another 9 years at the time of this writing. It’s a great read if you only have a small amount of info about Afghanistan/Taliban.
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- Jeff
- 01-07-13
Nice overview and macro look at Afghanistan
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes. In The Graveyard of Empires provides some thought provoking analysis on why the war the Afghanistan is so difficult and provides some solutions.
Have you listened to any of William Hughes’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No.
Any additional comments?
With Seth Jones' understanding of Afghanistan, I thought his analysis was excellent but his solution was weak. He is right about the lack of forces to take, hold and build infrastructure throughout Afghanistan. He is right about the US's distraction in Iraq which impacted Afghanistan. His solution is to put more pressure on Pakistan, create local defense forces using Afghani citizens and provide heavy assistance from the Afghan army and/or coalition forces when necessary. Security is vital to establishing a nation. I find his solution intriguing but incomplete. He also spent some time comparing different policies for defeating insurgent forces. Most insurgent forces in history have been defeated by law enforcement action as he states but the insurgents have grievances against their own government. Insurgents against an occupying army is more complex. Law enforcement actions would not work against the Taliban because the Afghanis are not loyal to the national government. They are loyal to whoever provides them with security.
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Overall
- Mark C
- 01-08-11
Interesting Book but- Worst Narrator Ever
Why are we fighting a war in Afghanistan? Hint: it has to do with Russia.
Listen to this book to hear some of the most hilarious French pronunciations ever. Difficult to even follow the gist of the narration. Get Legacy of Ashes instead- it's awesome.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Scott
- 04-13-15
Concise and persuasive
What did you like best about this story?
This is a tidy examination of Afghanistan with particular emphasis on 1) its history from the 1970’s through 2000’s and 2) the U.S. led war and counter insurgency efforts post-9/11. The book is critical of what might be characterized as waning US commitment once the Taliban had been displaced and the Iraq war commenced but the author’s arguments are rational rather than ideological which imparts a certain gravitas. Having been written in 2009 the book is somewhat dated but still resonant with the benefit of the intervening years affording the listener hindsight and a greater opportunity to form their own conclusions. In the end, this audiobook is a good overview of the perils of foreign adventurism in Afghanistan.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dennis D Brown
- 09-18-21
Good Background
This gives you a good look at the US history in Afghanistan. Helpful to understand what was lost in our recent withdrawal.
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- S. McClure
- 02-11-21
Overall viewpoint 2001-2008Afghanistan
The author provided good information throughout the book about the Afghanistan overall perspective from 2001 to 2008 with brief overall history of the region. Points were made throughout several chapters and sometimes I felt that I had already heard the same information in earlier chapters.
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