Ghosts of Afghanistan : hard truths and foreign myths

';Fine modern history... [Steele] demolishes some Western myths about Afghanistan that betray short memories and government spin.' The Economist A masterful blend of graphic reporting, illuminating interviews, and insightful analysis.Ghosts of Afghanistanis the first account of Afghanistan's turbulent recent history by an independent eyewitness. Jonathan Steele, an award-winning journalist and commentator, has covered the country since his first visit there as a reporter in 1981. In Ghosts of Afghanistan, heturns a spotlight on the numerous myths about Afghanistan that have bedeviled foreign policy-makers and driven them to repeat earlier mistakes. Steele has conducted numerous interviews with ordinary Afghans, two of the country's Communist presidents, senior Soviet occupation officials, as well as Taliban leaders, Western diplomats, NATO advisers, and United Nations negotiators. Steele cautions that military victory will elude the West just as it eluded the Kremlin. Showing how and why Soviet efforts to negotiate an end to the war came to nothing, he explains how negotiations today could put a stop to the tragedies of civil war and foreign intervention that have afflicted Afghanistan for three decades. ';In this original look at the West's obsession with Afghanistan the ghosts include, of course, the inevitable innocents who fall in war but also the public myths, official lies and inconvenient truths that lie behind so much of the bloodshed there.' Seymour Hersh,The New Yorker ';Steele has covered events in Afghanistan for many years, and he skewers with palpable glee the myths and half-truths that are peddled by politicians, generals, official spokesmen, and too many commentators.' The Observer