Afghanistan Declassified
A Guide to America's Longest War
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Afghanistan Declassified
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Narrated by:
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Neil Reeves
About this listen
Nearly 100,000 US soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan at the height of the campaign, fighting the longest war in the nation's history. But what do Americans know about the land where this conflict is taking place? Many have come to have a grasp of the people, history, and geography of Iraq, but Afghanistan remains a mystery.
Originally published by the US Army to provide an overview of the country's terrain, ethnic groups, and history for American troops and now updated and expanded for the general public, Afghanistan Declassified fills in these gaps. Historian Brian Glyn Williams, who has traveled to Afghanistan frequently over the past decade, provides essential background to the war, tracing the rise, fall, and reemergence of the Taliban. Special sections deal with topics such as the CIA's Predator drone campaign in the Pakistani tribal zones, the spread of suicide bombing from Iraq to the Afghan theater of operations, and comparisons between the Soviet and US experiences in Afghanistan.
To Williams, a historian of Central Asia, Afghanistan is not merely a theater in the war on terror. It is a primeval, exciting, and beautiful land; not only a place of danger and turmoil but also one of hospitable villagers and stunning landscapes, of great cultural diversity and richness. Williams brings the country to life through his own travel experiences - from living with Northern Alliance Uzbek warlords to working on a major NATO base.
The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press.
©2012 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2016 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Afghanistan
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 198
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For more than 2,500 years, the forbidding territory of Afghanistan has served as a vital crossroads not only for armies but also for clashes between civilizations. As a result of the United States' engaging in armed conflict with the Afghan regime, an understanding of the military history of that blood-soaked land has become essential to every American.
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Glass has reported extensively from the Middle East and travelled frequently in Syria over several decades. Here he melds together reportage, analysis, and history to provide an accessible overview of the origins and permutations defining the conflict, situating it clearly in the overall crisis of the region. His voice, elegant and concise, humane and richly informed, is a vital antidote to the sloganizing that shapes so much commentary and policy concerning the civil war.
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1 out of 5 stars
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The authors bias is insufferable.
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The Cold War's Killing Fields
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but Biased
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The Afghan Wars: History in an Hour
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- Length: 1 hr and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
Britain has invaded Afghanistan twice before in the nineteenth century. Both times tenacious Afghan fighters defended their country to humiliating British defeats. The Soviet Union also discovered what a tough enemy the Afghans are after nearly a decade of conflict from 1979 to 1989. When not fighting foreign invaders, Afghanistan was torn apart by Civil War from 1990 to 1996, resulting in victory for the Taliban.
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5 out of 5 stars
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informative
- By mosadiq on 11-20-15
By: Rupert Colley
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In the Graveyard of Empires
- America’s War in Afghanistan
- By: Seth G. Jones
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 158
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Story4 out of 5 stars 124
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.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting Book but- Worst Narrator Ever
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By: Seth G. Jones
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The Cage
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4 out of 5 stars 42
In the closing days of the 30-year Sri Lankan civil war, tens of thousands of civilians were killed, according to UN estimates, as government forces hemmed in the last remaining Tamil Tiger rebels on a tiny sand spit, dubbed "The Cage". Gordon Weiss, a journalist and UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka during the final years of the war, pulls back the curtain of government misinformation to tell the full story for the first time. Tracing the role of foreign influence as it converged with a history of radical Buddhism and ethnic conflict, The Cage is a harrowing portrait of an island paradise torn apart by war.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tragic and sobering
- By Tarindu on 10-28-15
By: Gordon Weiss
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Muqtada
- Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq
- By: Patrick Cockburn
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Whatever else the United States intended when it invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003, it was not to hand the country over to a 32-year-old militant cleric who fought against the U.S. presence from the start and was described by former Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer III as a "Bolshevik Islamist".
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5 out of 5 stars
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truth in an era of lies
- By NF ironman on 11-29-17
By: Patrick Cockburn
What listeners say about Afghanistan Declassified
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Akmal Noorzai
- 01-13-20
Inaccurate!!
So many errors, misinformation, in times biased to an extend that he is praising the warlords Dostum and Massoud while going against other warlords such as Hekmatyar. I would rather recommend Decent Into Chaos, Taliban, Ghost War, Directorate S, Afghanistan a Military and Cultural History. The author should rewrite the book and make it accurate. Wasted my money.
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