title: The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014
author:  Carlotta Gall 
description: "A valuable contribution to a hefty body of work on the American war in Afghanistan that has become stale and somewhat hackneyed. It provides a raw, unvarnished and important look at one of the darkest and least understood parts of the Afghan war.Ms. Gall, a reporter for The New York Times in Afghanistan and Pakistan for more than a decade, beginning shortly after Sept. 11, is in an extraordinary position to write this important and long overdue book." --<b><i>The New York Times</i></b>
zlib_text: #  US Nation-Building in Afghanistan
  
  Why has the US so dramatically failed in Afghanistan since 2001? Dominant
  explanations have ignored the bureaucratic divisions and personality conflicts
  inside the US state. This book rectifies this weakness in commentary on
  Afghanistan by exploring the significant role of these divisions in the US’s
  difficulties in the country that meant the battle was virtually lost before it
  even began. The main objective of the book is to deepen readers’ understanding
  of the impact of bureaucratic politics on nation-building in Afghanistan,
  focusing primarily on the Bush administration. It rejects the ‘rational actor’
  model, according to which the US functions as a coherent, monolithic agent.
  Instead, internal divisions within the foreign policy bureaucracy are
  explored, to build up a picture of the internal tensions and contradictions
  that bedevilled US nation-building efforts. The book also contributes to the
  vexed issue of whether or not the US should engage