The Afghan Solution: The Inside Story of Abdul Haq, the CIA and How Western Hubris Lost Afghanistan - Hardcover

A timely reminder of the roads not taken and strategic options left unexplored. The cumulative effect constitutes a compelling indictment of state-building through external imposition. This book blends personal insights with a prof-essional detachment and will appeal to the analyst, policymaker, practitioner and, not least, the decision-makers of tomorrow: the students of today. -- Dr Graeme Herd, The Geneva Centre for Security Policy By far the best account of Afghanistan during the period that I have read. It combines the pace of a page-gripping thriller with the insights of a piece of travel writing and political journalism at their best. -- Conor Foley, author of The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism went to War I was in direct contact with Abdul Haq in the days immediately following 9/11. His tragic story is a microcosm of where we have gone wrong in Afghanistan. -- Lord Paddy Ashdown, Liberal Democrat leader 1988 - 1999 Vital reading for everyone who truly wants to understand this tragic conflict. -- Peter Oborne, Political Editor, DaTelegraphily Telegraph This insightful, animated volume ... draws on previously unpublished, uniquely qualified Afghan and foreign sources to tell the story of Abdul Haq's tragic death, the legacy he has left behind, and its applicability to the present and to the future. -- Peter Tomsen, author of The Wars of Afghanistan and former US Ambassador to the Afghan resistance 1989-92 A devastating indictment of the intelligence and strategic failures that have led us into the current tragedy in Afghanistan. -- William Pfaff A deeply-reported, well-argued and deftly-written account of the opportunities not taken ... based on the author's own deep knowledge of Afghanistan. -- Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring War Between America and Al Qaeda

Published in time for the tenth anniversary of the Afghan war, this explosive book exposes how the West lost its chance to rout the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan.In late 2001, a group of Afghan tribal leaders met to plan how to topple the Taliban. Within weeks the plan was in tatters, thwarted by the West, and the group's leader, Abdul Haq, assassinated by the Taliban. Lucy Morgan Edwards's investigation into Haq's tragic mission led her to Taliban ministers, warlords, spies and two American Republican brothers who financed Haq's venture.Based on the author's own experience of the war in Afghanistan, this book reveals how a solution to the war was lost and why it matters today.