Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, explores 9-11 and the Pearl Harbor Effect. Why was American napping before 9-11? How did the intelligence community, the career bureaucrats, and our elected official fail?
Coil provides a long and detailed view of this, starting with the American support of Islamic fighters in the Afghan Soviet War, to our period of negligence of Afghanistan following the end of the Cold War, to the heat up in terrorist attacks in the 90s.
Coil shows that it was not just one event or moment that the US missed in the buildup the 9-11, but many. The first Bush was not aware of the Afghan Civil War, Clinton was too cautious and spellbound by legal niceties in attempting to kill bin Ladin, and the second Bush came too late to the party. At first he ignored the threat, only taking it up in the summer of 2001, when the planes operation was well underway.
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