88 Days to Kandahar: A CIA Diary

The &quot;first&quot; Afghan War, a CIA war in response to 9/11, was directed by the CIA Station Chief in Islamabad. It put Hamid Karzai in power in 88 days. &quot;If you want an insider's account of the first American-Afghan War, you can't do better than this ... Important reading to understand where we are today&quot; (<i>Library Journal</i>) .<br><br>From his preparation of the original, post-9/11 war plan, approved by President Bush, through to &quot;final&quot; fleeting victory, Robert Grenier relates the tale of the &quot;southern campaign,&quot; which drove al-Qa'ida and the Taliban from Kandahar, its capital, in an astonishing eighty-eight days.<br> <br>&quot;With his ringside seat as the senior agency official stationed closest to Afghanistan, Grenier is able to describe meeting by meeting, sometimes phone call after phone call, how events unfolded&quot; (<i>The New York Times</i>) . In his gripping account, we meet: General Tommy Franks, who bridles at CIA control of &quot;his&quot; war; General &quot;Jafar Amin,&quot; 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-Qa'ida threat; and Hamid Karzai, the puzzling anti-Taliban insurgent, a man with elements of greatness, petulance, and moods.<br> <br>With suspense and insight, Grenier details his very personal struggles and triumphs. <i>88 Days to Kandahar</i> is &quot;an action-packed tale, rich in implication, of the post-9/11 race to unseat the Taliban and rout al-Qaida in Afghanistan&quot; (<i>Kirkus Reviews</i>) .