Jonathan Steele is the former chief foreign correspondent for the Guardian. He has won numerous journalistic awards, and he has twice been named International Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards. A regular broadcaster on the BBC and CNN, Steele has written several books on international affairs. He lives in London.
Praise for Ghosts of Afghanistan:
"Steele has covered events in Afghanistan for many years, and he
skewers with palpable glee the myths and half–truths that are
peddled by politicians, generals, official spokesmen, and too many
commentators." —The Observer
"With the debate raging over whether to negotiate with the Taliban,
or continue to slaughter its leadership in night raids in the hope
of forcing a weakened movement to the table later, the author notes
the grip of history on US military decision–making." —The
Telegraph
"In this original look at the West's obsession with Afghanistan the
ghosts include, of course, the inevitable innocents who fall in war
but also the public myths, official lies and inconvenient truths
that lie behind so much of the bloodshed there. In a riveting
chapter, Steele also puts to rest the notion that America had no
choice but to go to war after Osama bin Laden's orchestration of
the 9/11 attacks." —Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker
"Ghosts of Afghanistan is the best single book on the inter–related
US policy crisis in Afghanistan and Pakistan and should be read by
all students of foreign affairs." —Selig S. Harrison, author of Out
of Afghanistan: The Inside Story of the Soviet Withdrawal
"Jonathan Steele provides an astute and powerful analysis of
Afghanistan's recent history. As a correspondent who witnessed many
of the key events at first–hand, his account is enriched by
insights from Afghans from across the political arena, which both
contribute to an understanding of the country's turbulent history
and help to demolish some of the prevailing myths. This work raises
important questions about the purpose and effectiveness of ten
costly years of international engagement in Afghanistan, and should
be required reading for those planning the imminent transition to
full Afghan control." —Jolyon Leslie, author of Afghanistan: The
Mirage of Peace
"Drawing on more than three decades of reporting from and on
Afghanistan, Jonathan Steele offers the best account yet of why, in
ignoring the lessons of the Soviet intervention, the Americans are
condemned to make many of the same mistakes. He explodes the key
myths about the Russians' record. He shows, quietly, how the only
sane solution is the one Gorbachev adopted almost from the moment
he took power: involve all the internal parties, including the
insurgents, and the regional powers in brokering peace. A brilliant
and disturbing book by one of the most acute and best informed
contemporary observers of Afghanistan." —Sherard Cowper–Coles,
British Ambassador to Kabul 2007–2009 and Foreign Secretary's
Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan 20092011
"Jonathan Steele is a thirty–year veteran of the twists and turns
of foreign involvement in Afghanistan. His simple and compelling
central premise is a frustratingly circular story of how the
foreigners, Russians or Americans and their British and other
allies, never seem to learn that Afghans are their own people. The
author is word–weary and war–weary in his account of outsiders'
Afghan myths but he does not allow this to get him, or the reader,
down. He offers a sparely written, fast paced indictment of the
follies of Afghan's foreign occupiers." —Mark Malloch Brown, former
United Nations Deputy Secretary–General
"Few journalists have been on the ground in Kabul from the early
days of a more–than–thirty–year war. In Ghosts of Afghanistan
Jonathan Steele provides fascinating detail of memorable meetings
and moments over the past three decades, boldly challenging widely
held views of Afghanistan's turbulent history from Soviet to
American involvement. This is essential reading at a time when the
West is pondering the legacy of its intervention and trying to find
a way forward." —Lyse Doucet, BBC
"Throughout history Afghanistan has shown the foolishness of great
powers trying to order the world after their own lights. Time and
again, invaders have tried, and retreated in bloody defeat. Today
NATO, far away from its supposed theatre of concern, is making even
worse mistakes than the Russians did in the 1980s. With a
thirty–year experience of reporting assignments in Afghanistan
no–one has studied this extraordinary country more closely than
Jonathan Steele, nor charted so meticulously how outside
intervention has worsened internal discord. His is a sobering essay
on the empire of folly." —Simon Jenkins, author of Thatcher & Sons:
A Revolution in Three Acts
"Jonathan Steele has covered the sweep of thirty years of history
in Afghanistan and chronicled the lessons of first the Russian, and
then the American–led occupations. They are lessons President Obama
and his allies have still not fully grasped. This excellent book is
a painfully honest account of successive unwinnable wars. It is the
text book Mr Obama and others will need if Afghanistan is ever to
be left to find its own peace and prosperity." —Jon Snow, Channel 4
News (UK)
"This book is a gripping history of the wars in Afghanistan
explaining why successive outsiders have consistently got things so
wrong. It is, at the same time, an intensely moving account of how
that history was experienced by individual Afghans whom Jonathan
Steele encountered in more than thirty years of reporting those
wars." —Mary Kaldor, Professor of Global Governance, London School
of Economics
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