Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan - eBook

"Rajiv Chandrasekaran has done it again. Like Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Little America is a beautifully written and deeply reported account of how a divided United States government and its dysfunctional bureaucracy have foiled American efforts abroad . . . A brilliant and courageous work of reportage."
            -Linda Robinson, The New York Times Book Review
 
"Fascinating and fresh . . . Chandrasekaran is a superb reporter and graceful writer whose individual vignettes, focused on military and civilian misfires, are on-target and often mortifying."
            -Max Boot, The Wall Street Journal
 
"Brilliant . . . Only a journalist with Chandrasekaran’s experience and skill could tell this extraordinarily complicated story with such clarity."
            -June Thomas, Newsday
 
"Sharp and subtle . . . Enormously informative . . .  Little America does not disappoint."
            -Bill O’Leary, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
 
"A thoughtful guide to President Obama’s ’good war’ [and] a devastating indictment of a dysfunctional war machine . . . Chandrasekaran’s expose is a stark warning to rethink how America uses its power."
            -Robert D. Crews, San Francisco Chronicle
 
"What makes Little America so compelling is the breadth and carefulness of Chandrasekaran’s reporting . . . A scalding and in-depth critique of U.S. policy and performance in Afghanistan."
            -Tony Perry, Newark Star-Ledger
 
"Chandrasekaran’s apt portrayal of the Afghan perspective and on-the-ground tensions makes the book a must for policy shapers and voters alike."
            -Hamed Aleaziz, Mother Jones
 
"Chandrasekaran draws vivid sketches of how Karzai and his family and their allies operate as a gang of looters, frustrating every attempt to create an honest government that could confront their Taliban enemy . . . The reader gets a keen sense of the chaos that reigns among the Americans and their allies."
            -Neil Sheehan, Washington Post
 
"A must-read account . . . Little America is the best work yet in addressing our military-diplomatic campaign in Afghanistan and the dysfunction that stymies it."
            -Peter J. Munson, Small Wars Journal
 
"Searing . . . Solid and timely reporting, crackling prose, and more than a little controversy will make this one of the summer’s hot reads."
            -Starred review, Publishers Weekly
 
"Clearheaded . . . Well-researched and compelling . . . Chandrasekaran captures the absurdity of a bumbling bureaucracy attempting to reengineer in its own image a society that is half a world away . . . A timely, convincing portrait of an occupation in crisis."
            -Kirkus
 
"Drawing on interviews with key participants and three years of first-hand reportage, Chandrasekaran delivers a bracing diagnosis of the problem."
            -Booklist