Summary of the Book Ghost Wars is possibly the most authentic and illuminating account of the fiasco of the United States in stopping bin Laden. The book probes into the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency, when the Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan. Coll has collected facts and figures from CIA officers, US officials, their Afghan associates, and foreign spymasters including Bill Casey and George Tenet. He recounts how a section of Afghans protested against the Soviet invasion, and how the CIA began providing the rebels with monetary support and arms at the right point of time. The reason behind this was that the US wanted the Soviets to remain as far away from Central Asia as possible because it was wealthy in terms of oil. They even financed training camps at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Osama bin Laden was one of the people who got trained in this process. Although America left Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew, it had already equipped the militants with weapons. What remained a great surprise was why America didn’t do anything to stop Pakistan from letting Taliban flourish in its own land. In the meanwhile, the anxiety of nuclear-armed Pakistan picking a battle with nuclear-armed India also persisted. Ghost Wars reveals the drama within the US government concerning the security of the nation. Coll asserts that the U.S. politicians and military frontrunners were well aware for several years about Islamic fanaticism causing shocking penalties for the US. It even took years to just track down bin Laden. Coll has taken more than ten years to write this book, patiently explaining the history. His comprehensive research and captivating narrative in this book won him the esteemed Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in the year 2005.
About Steve Coll Steve Coll is an American journalist and author. He was born in 1958. In the year 1980, Coll completed his graduation with English and History majors from the Occidental College in Los Angeles. He eventually started working at The New Yorker, The Post, and The Washington Post. Coll is currently the CEO and President of the NGO, New America Foundation. His book Eagle on the Street is based on his own Pulitzer Prize winning account of the SEC’s battle with Wall Street. His work The Bin Ladens won him the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for nonfiction. Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power was honoured with the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Steve Coll has also been the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award in the year 2000 for his outstanding coverage of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Some of the other notable books written by Coll are The Deal of the Century: The Breakup of AT
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