Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden

Coll's Pulitzer-winning history of the CIA in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion through September 10, 2001 is the essential account of how the world arrived at September 11. The failures are not those of villains but of institutions, incentives, and the limits of intelligence in a country that defeated every empire sent into it. The tragedy is structural. That makes it worse.