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The Operators
- The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
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Publisher's summary
In June 2010, Michael Hastings published an article in Rolling Stone that made headlines around the world: In “The Runaway General”, he reported on a week he spent in Europe with General Stanley McChrystal, the revered soldier in charge of the war in Afghanistan.
McChrystal and his staff's unguarded remarks about the White House, our allies, and the conduct of the war led President Obama to order McChrystal to the Oval Office, where he was fired unceremoniously. While Hastings' reporting won him a prestigious Polk award and led to two Pentagon investigations, there is much more to his story than the indiscretions of Stanley McChrystal.
In The Operators, Hastings, formerly the Baghdad bureau chief for Newsweek, takes the listener behind the diplomatic façades to paint a picture of nation-building gone awry. Hastings also takes us on patrol missions in Afghanistan, where he is embedded with American troops, and witnesses firsthand the madness, horror, and existential contradictions of Afghanistan.
The Operators combines the acute reportage of a Sebastian Junger with the mad energy of a Michael Herr - it is the painful, powerful tale of a war that can never and will never be won.
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A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
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A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
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State of Denial
- Bush at War, Part III
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
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Bob Woodward examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to the Congress, and often to themselves in State of Denial. Woodward's third book on President Bush is a sweeping narrative from the first days George W. Bush thought seriously about running for president, through the recruitment of his national security team, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the struggle for political survival in the second term.
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Concerning and hard to put down
- By Chris on 12-10-06
By: Bob Woodward
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The Reluctant Spy
- My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror
- By: John Kiriakou, Michael Ruby
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Long before the waterboarding controversy exploded in the media, one CIA agent had already gone public. In a groundbreaking 2007 interview with ABC News, John Kiriakou called waterboarding torture - but admitted that it probably worked. This book, at once a confessional, an adventure story, and a chronicle of Kiriakou's life in the CIA, stands as an important, eloquent piece of testimony from a committed American patriot.
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Fascinating Read about the CIA
- By Nancy on 05-13-10
By: John Kiriakou, and others
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A Kingdom of Their Own
- The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster
- By: Joshua Partlow
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Fabulous
- By Charles S. on 10-23-23
By: Joshua Partlow
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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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Left of Boom
- How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda
- By: Douglas Laux, Ralph Pezzullo
- Narrated by: Mike Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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On September 11, 2001, Doug Laux was a freshman in college, on the path to becoming a doctor. But with the fall of the Twin Towers came a turning point in his life. After graduating, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency, determined to get himself to Afghanistan and into the center of the action. Through persistence and hard work, he was fast-tracked to a clandestine operations position overseas. Dropped into a remote region of Afghanistan, he received his baptism by fire.
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Too Censerord to be Enjoyable
- By Nathan on 08-26-16
By: Douglas Laux, and others
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I Lost My Love in Baghdad
- A Modern War Story
- By: Michael Hastings
- Narrated by: Michael Hastings
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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At age 25, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a 21st-century reporter: cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, and translators.
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Sad story...
- By kathryn on 01-01-09
By: Michael Hastings
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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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The Assassins' Gate
- America in Iraq
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 19 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The Assassins' Gate, so dubbed by American soldiers, is the entrance to the American zone in the city of Baghdad. In 2003, the United States blazed into Iraq to depose dictator Saddam Hussein. But after three years and unknown thousands killed, that country faces an escalating civil war and an uncertain fate. How did it get to this point?
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Highly Recommended
- By Drapeau on 02-01-07
By: George Packer
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The Finish
- The Killing of Osama bin Laden
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From Mark Bowden, internationally best-selling and acclaimed author of Black Hawk Down and the preeminent chronicler of the actions of our military and special forces writing today, comes an intensely gripping account of the hunt for and elimination of Osama bin Laden. With unprecedented access to key sources and his great gift for storytelling, Bowden takes us inside the rooms where decisions were made and on the ground where the action unfolded.
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Listen to No Easy Day...much better
- By JMM on 10-20-12
By: Mark Bowden
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It Worked for Me
- In Life and Leadership
- By: Colin Powell
- Narrated by: Colin Powell
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
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It Worked for Me is filled with vivid experiences and lessons learned that have shaped the legendary career of the four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. At its heart are Powell's "Thirteen Rules" - such as "Get mad, then get over it" and "Share credit" - that introduce his principles for effective leadership: conviction, hard work, and, above all, respect for others. A natural storyteller, Powell offers warm and engaging parables with wise advice on succeeding in the workplace and beyond.
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It worked for me too.
- By Ian on 06-04-12
By: Colin Powell
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What listeners say about The Operators
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DP SINGHA
- 06-17-15
One of the BEST Books Ever written on AFGHAN War .
This is one of the Most HONEST, REAL INSIGHT. ....Ever Presented on :
- HOW the HIGHER Up's i.e.
-Whitehouse, Pentagon, the Top General's and Diplomats played their role , their decision making process and WHAT motivated them to Act like they did -and- WHY...
Although -I completely DIS-AGREE...With the WaY this Journalist/Author handled....
-the -Gen. Stanley McChrystal Affair !
2 Other Books -come to -My mind of
-Equal Brilliance :
-WAY OF THE KNIFE -and-
THE WRONG ENEMY....
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- Neil
- 03-02-12
You can't get in trouble if you don't say it
Would you listen to The Operators again? Why?
No...too depressing.
Any additional comments?
We never should have invaded Iraq. This story...proves we never EVER should have invaded Afghanistan either. What a mess...what...a...mess. Those poor families who lost loved ones to this stupid conflict that had nothing to do with what happened on 9/11. Sad...really sad.
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5 people found this helpful
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- DS
- 06-20-15
WHERE ARE OUR GREAT GENERALS
Unlike the 1940's, today's military elite are not our best and most honorable. The War on Terror is an ill-conceived failure. This should have been an intelligence lead, law enforcement effort. We did not learn the lessons of Vietnam and we continue to invest our lives and treasure pursuing futile nation building f**k ups. Such crap. Thank you Michael Hastings, the truth is in short supply in today's media and the American public owe you a debt of gratitude for your truth telling.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Andrew
- 04-19-15
Good stuff, very enjoyable.
It was well written. It had great facts and is probably one of the reasons he is not with us today.
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- Professor
- 01-04-13
VERY INTERESTING STORY
Somehow all the news and articles passed without touching me, so when I began this book all the facts were totally new to me.
I have to say that I'm at a loss for words, I'm not sure what I think about all of this, but I have no doubt that everybody should read it.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Suzanne E. Bott, PhD
- 08-25-21
Reading this again during 2021 Afghan withdrawal
Incredible story about the folly of war and how we got it so terribly wrong.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-13-22
One of the finest books about the Afghanistan War
I finished it all in one sitting. It was compelling, funny, and sad. The Afghanistan War was a faceless, goal less, monster. A black hole we threw bodies and money into. Michael Hastings recognized that, and expressed it beautifully in this book. Highly recommend, and it goes great as a companion piece to The Afghanistan Papers.
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- MJ Stengel
- 08-01-12
Ever wonder why the military distrust the press?
Would you consider the audio edition of The Operators to be better than the print version?
I did not read the print version, however the audio was well worth the listen
Who was your favorite character and why?
I liked the portrayal of General Mc Chrystal. It is unfortunate that no matter how hard Hastings tries to gloss over his despicable betrayal of Mc Chrystal and his staff, he still comes off as a deceptive worm and makes it impossible for embedded reporters in the future to get honest answers. I'm sure Hastings is proud he got one of America's greatest generals and heroes fired. Obviously no deception is below his moral.
What about Lloyd James’s performance did you like?
The narrative was excellent and well spoken.
If you could give The Operators a new subtitle, what would it be?
"How to worm your way into someone's trust and then betray him"
Any additional comments?
Although the story was extremely informative, I do not believe the author's betrayal of McChrystal can be justified. Obviously Hastings is attempting to be another Woodward and Bernstein, and comes off more as a Keith Olbermann
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1 person found this helpful
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- sayNOtoMOMjeans
- 06-05-17
different perspective on GWOT
this was a really interesting perspective on the middle years of americas war on terror with focus on generals McCrystal and Petraeus.
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- Michael Friedman
- 01-13-15
A fine writer
An excellent account of Mr. Hastings' experiences with General McCrystal and the War in Afghanistan. Mr. Hastings was a fine reporter and this is far better than his posthumous novel which was, after all, unfinished. He died way too young.
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2 people found this helpful