The Pentagon's Wars
The Military's Undeclared War Against America's Presidents
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The Pentagon's Wars
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Narrated by:
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Ron Butler
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By:
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Mark Perry
About this listen
A gripping insider account of the clash between America's civilian and military leadership
The Pentagon's Wars is a dramatic account of the deep and divisive debates between America's civilian leaders and its military officers. Renowned military expert Mark Perry investigates these internal wars and sheds new light on the US military - the most powerful and influential lobby in Washington. He reveals explosive stories, from the secret history of Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to how the military plotted to undermine Barack Obama's strategy in Afghanistan, to show how internal strife and deep civilian-military animus shapes America's policy abroad, often to the nation's detriment.
Drawing on three decades of high-profile interviews, both on and off the record, Perry yields sobering judgments on the tenures of our nation's most important military leaders.
The Pentagon's Wars is essential listening for anyone seeking to understand the inner workings of the making of America's foreign policy.
©2017 Mark Perry (P)2017 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A book that does much to explain quirks of foreign policy, providing a military context for them-and one that makes one wonder who's really in charge." (Kirkus)
"When it comes to America's senior military leaders, Mark Perry has a gift for exposing the truth. The Pentagon's Wars is a historical narrative of enormous value to Americans trying to understand the disastrous military interventions of the last 25 years." (Colonel (ret.) Douglas Macgregor, US Army, PhD, author of Margin of Victory)
"In unflinching detail, Mark Perry takes us behind the scenes of America's often tense civil-military relationship. The public and the national security community will want to ponder carefully the implications of this fascinating and engaging narrative." (Richard H. Kohn, Professor Emeritus of History and Peace, War, and Defense, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; former Chief of Air Force History, USAF)
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5 out of 5 stars
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Concerning and hard to put down
- By Chris on 12-10-06
By: Bob Woodward
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The War Within
- A Secret White House History 2006-2008
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 221
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4 out of 5 stars 64
As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, Bob Woodward takes listeners deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial back channels, distrust, and determination within the White House, Pentagon, State Department, intelligence agencies, and U.S. military headquarters in Iraq.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Too short the story...
- By Mr. Miint on 10-21-08
By: Bob Woodward
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Duty
- Memoirs of a Secretary at War
- By: Robert M. Gates
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Robert M. Gates
- Length: 25 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,467
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,174
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,166
From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he'd long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Fighting Season
- By Cynthia on 01-28-14
By: Robert M. Gates
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Known and Unknown
- A Memoir
- By: Donald Rumsfeld
- Narrated by: Donald Rumsfeld
- Length: 30 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 604
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 404
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 405
A powerful memoir from the late former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history. Both a fascinating narrative and an unprecedented glimpse into history, Known and Unknown captures the legacy of one of the most influential men in public service.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inside view of five decades in politics
- By Brooks on 02-19-11
By: Donald Rumsfeld
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The Gamble
- General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 176
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 122
Fiasco, Thomas E. Ricks's #1 New York Times bestseller, transformed the political dialogue on the war in Iraq - The Gamble is the next news-breaking installment. Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Sure Bet
- By Joshua Kim on 06-10-12
By: Thomas E. Ricks
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Shadow Strike
- Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power
- By: Yaakov Katz
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 219
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 198
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Story5 out of 5 stars 198
On September 6, 2007, shortly after midnight, Israeli fighters advanced on Deir ez-Zour in Syria. Israel often flew into Syria as a warning to President Bashar al-Assad. But this time, there was no warning and no explanation. This was a covert operation, with one goal: to destroy a nuclear reactor being built by North Korea under a tight veil of secrecy in the Syrian desert. Shadow Strike tells, for the first time, the story of the espionage, military might and psychological warfare behind Israel’s operation to stop one of the greatest known acts of nuclear proliferation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Important Book!
- By Gerald J. Vogt on 05-10-19
By: Yaakov Katz
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The Insurgents
- David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 128
Based on previously unavailable documents and interviews with more than 100 key players, including General David Petraeus, The Insurgents unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the main insurgency is the one led at home by a new generation of officers - including Petraeus, John Nagl, David Kilcullen, and H. R. McMaster - who were seized with an idea on how to fight these kinds of "small wars" and who adapted their enemies' techniques to overhaul their own army.
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5 out of 5 stars
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How to fight a war and win
- By Chupuk on 05-03-16
By: Fred Kaplan
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Days of Fire
- Bush and Cheney in the White House
- By: Peter Baker
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 29 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 507
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 438
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 437
Theirs was the most captivating American political partnership since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger: a bold and untested president and his seasoned, relentless vice president. Confronted by one crisis after another, they struggled to protect the country, remake the world, and define their own relationship along the way. In Days of Fire, Peter Baker chronicles the history of the most consequential presidency in modern times through the prism of its two most compelling characters, capturing the elusive and shifting alliance of George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney as no historian has done before.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A balanced account of the W and Cheney White House
- By Scott on 11-15-13
By: Peter Baker
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Road to Disaster
- A New History of America’s Descent into Vietnam
- By: Brian VanDeMark
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 23 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story5 out of 5 stars 76
Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the stars of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Yet despite many words of analysis and reflection, no historian has been able to explain why such decent and previously successful men stumbled so badly. That changes with Road to Disaster. Historian Brian VanDeMark draws upon decades of archival research, his own interviews with many of those involved, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, who served as Defense Secretaries for Kennedy and Johnson.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Vietnam Veteran
- By Jim Rollins on 04-02-19
By: Brian VanDeMark
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My Country, My Life
- Fighting for Israel, Searching for Peace
- By: Ehud Barak
- Narrated by: Ehud Barak, Jonathan Davis
- Length: 20 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
In the summer of 2000, the most decorated soldier in Israel's history - Ehud Barak - set himself a challenge as daunting as any he had faced on the battlefield: to secure a final peace with the Palestinians. He would propose two states for two peoples, with a shared capital in Jerusalem. He knew the risks of failure. But he also knew the risks of not trying: letting slip perhaps the last chance for a generation to secure genuine peace. It was a moment of truth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Unbelievably Fantastic Book
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-18
By: Ehud Barak
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Fiasco
- The American Military Adventure in Iraq
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 785
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 423
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 419
The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.
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5 out of 5 stars
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History not Politics
- By Scott on 08-10-06
By: Thomas E. Ricks
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War on Peace
- The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
- By: Ronan Farrow
- Narrated by: Ronan Farrow
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,449
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,139
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,127
American diplomacy is under siege. Offices across the State Department sit empty while abroad, the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We're becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing account ranging from Washington, DC, to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, acclaimed journalist and former diplomat Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well Timed and Authoritative:
- By JC on 04-24-18
By: Ronan Farrow
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Directorate S
- The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 28 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,281
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,134
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,124
Resuming the narrative of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, best-selling author Steve Coll tells for the first time the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Slow At Times But Always Horrifying And Engaging
- By Gillian on 02-20-18
By: Steve Coll
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Confront and Conceal
- Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power
- By: David E. Sanger
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 214
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 181
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 180
Three and a half years ago, David Sanger’s book The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power described how a new American president came to office with the world on fire. Now, just as the 2012 presidential election battle begins, Sanger follows up with an eye-opening, news-packed account of how Obama has dealt with those challenges, relying on innovative weapons and reconfigured tools of American power to try to manage a series of new threats.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Sobering reminder on what the presidency requires
- By Marilyn on 09-03-12
By: David E. Sanger
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In My Time
- A Personal and Political Memoir
- By: Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Dick Cheney
- Length: 20 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 694
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 583
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 595
In his unmistakable voice and with an insider's eye on history, former Vice President Dick Cheney tells the story of his life and the nearly four decades he has spent at the center of American politics and power. In My Time is truly the last word about an incredible political era, by a man who lived it and helped define it - with courage and without compromise.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book
- By reader on 09-05-11
By: Dick Cheney, and others
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Arik
- The Life of Ariel Sharon
- By: David Landau
- Narrated by: Waler Dixon
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4 out of 5 stars 42
From the former editor in chief of Haaretz, the first in-depth, comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, the most dramatic and imposing Israeli political and military leader of the last forty years. The life of Ariel Sharon spans much of modern Israel’s history. A commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, Sharon participated in the 1948 War of Independence, played decisive roles in the 1956 Suez War and the Six-Day War of 1967, and is credited here with the shift in the outcome of the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Larger than Life Hero
- By Eugene Choong on 10-07-24
By: David Landau
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The General vs. the President
- MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 732
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 655
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 649
From master storyteller and historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur squared off to decide America's future in the aftermath of World War II.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Vivid Dramatic Accounting
- By Jean on 11-11-16
By: H. W. Brands
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88 Days to Kandahar
- A CIA Diary
- By: Robert L. Grenier
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 274
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 253
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Story4 out of 5 stars 251
In his gripping narrative, we meet General Tommy Franks, who bridles at CIA control of "his" war; General "Jafar Amin", a gruff Pakistani intelligence officer who saves Grenier from committing career suicide; Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's brilliant ambassador to the US, who tries to warn her government of the al-Qaeda threat; "Mark", the CIA operator who guides GulAgha Shirzai to bloody victory over the Taliban.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Honest conclusion based on practical realities.
- By rehman on 03-30-15