This book was phenomenal at providing a lot of context around the war in Afghanistan. The clear arrangement and combination of varying perspectives shows just how complicated the situation became and how complicated it will continue to be. Well worth the time to read to understand the world of Afghanistan.

Sadly, this book does not contain a happy ending and is likely to have a sequel. US efforts in Afghanistan can be summed up as a decade and a half stalemate. The Taliban is resilient and enjoys safe harbor in Pakistan. The US cannot seem to decide what it wants to do and when it does have an approach, it isn’t unified and poorly resourced.