The American War in Afghanistan

Download The American War in Afghanistan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197550797
Total Pages : 601 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The American War in Afghanistan by : Carter Malkasian

Download or read book The American War in Afghanistan written by Carter Malkasian and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book Winner of 2022 Lionel Gelber Prize The first authoritative history of American's longest war by one of the world's leading scholar-practitioners. The American war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, is now the longest armed conflict in the nation's history. It is currently winding down, and American troops are likely to leave soon but only after a stay of nearly two decades. In The American War in Afghanistan, Carter Malkasian provides the first comprehensive history of the entire conflict. Malkasian is both a leading academic authority on the subject and an experienced practitioner, having spent nearly two years working in the Afghan countryside and going on to serve as the senior advisor to General Joseph Dunford, the US military commander in Afghanistan and later the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Drawing from a deep well of local knowledge, understanding of Pashto, and review of primary source documents, Malkasian moves through the war's multiple phases: the 2001 invasion and after; the light American footprint during the 2003 Iraq invasion; the resurgence of the Taliban in 2006, the Obama-era surge, and the various resets in strategy and force allocations that occurred from 2011 onward, culminating in the 2018-2020 peace talks. Malkasian lived through much of it, and draws from his own experiences to provide a unique vantage point on the war. Today, the Taliban is the most powerful faction, and sees victory as probable. The ultimate outcome after America leaves is inherently unpredictable given the multitude of actors there, but one thing is sure: the war did not go as America had hoped. Although the al-Qa'eda leader Osama bin Laden was killed and no major attack on the American homeland was carried out after 2001, the United States was unable to end the violence or hand off the war to the Afghan authorities, which could not survive without US military backing. The American War in Afghanistan explains why the war had such a disappointing outcome. Wise and all-encompassing, The American War in Afghanistan provides a truly vivid portrait of the conflict in all of its phases that will remain the authoritative account for years to come.

Understanding War in Afghanistan

Download Understanding War in Afghanistan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NDU Press
ISBN 13 : 016088831X
Total Pages : 141 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (68 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Understanding War in Afghanistan by : Joseph J. Collins

Download or read book Understanding War in Afghanistan written by Joseph J. Collins and published by NDU Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text aims to provide military leaders, civil servants, diplomats, and students with the intellectual basis that they need to begin to prepare for further study of or an assignment in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan Papers

Download The Afghanistan Papers PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1982159014
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Afghanistan Papers by : Craig Whitlock

Download or read book The Afghanistan Papers written by Craig Whitlock and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Washington Post Best Book of 2021 ​The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock. Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives. Distracted by the war in Iraq, the US military become mired in an unwinnable guerrilla conflict in a country it did not understand. But no president wanted to admit failure, especially in a war that began as a just cause. Instead, the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations sent more and more troops to Afghanistan and repeatedly said they were making progress, even though they knew there was no realistic prospect for an outright victory. Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains “fast-paced and vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) revelation after revelation from people who played a direct role in the war from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government’s strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground. Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn’t know the name of his Afghanistan war commander—and didn’t want to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he had “no visibility into who the bad guys are.” His successor, Robert Gates, said: “We didn’t know jack shit about al-Qaeda.” The Afghanistan Papers is a “searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials” (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.

Afghanistan

Download Afghanistan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 0786722630
Total Pages : 394 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Afghanistan by : Stephen Tanner

Download or read book Afghanistan written by Stephen Tanner and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over 2,500 years, the forbidding territory of Afghanistan has served as a vital crossroads for armies and has witnessed history-shaping clashes between civilizations: Greek, Arab, Mongol, and Tartar, and, in more recent times, British, Russian, and American. When U.S. troops entered Afghanistan in the weeks following September 11, 2001, they overthrew the Afghan Taliban regime and sent the terrorists it harbored on the run. But America's initial easy victory is in sharp contrast to the difficulties it faces today in confronting the Taliban resurgence. Originally published in 2002, Stephen Tanner's Afghanistan has now been completely updated to include the crucial turn of events since America first entered the country.

Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond

Download Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801459303
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond by : Abdulkader H. Sinno

Download or read book Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond written by Abdulkader H. Sinno and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-15 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "After we had exchanged the requisite formalities over tea in his camp on the southern edge of Kabul's outer defense perimeter, the Afghan field commander told me that two of his bravest mujahideen were martyred because he did not have a pickup truck to take them to a Peshawar hospital. They had succumbed to their battle wounds. He asked me to tell his party's bureaucrats across the border that he needed such a vehicle desperately. I double-checked with my interpreter that he was indeed making this request. I wasn't puzzled because the request appeared unreasonable but because he was asking me, a twenty-year-old employee of a humanitarian organization, to intercede on his behalf with his own organization's bureaucracy. I understood on this dry summer day in Khurd Kabul that not all militant and political organizations are alike."—from Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond While popular accounts of warfare, particularly of nontraditional conflicts such as guerrilla wars and insurgencies, favor the roles of leaders or ideology, social-scientific analyses of these wars focus on aggregate categories such as ethnic groups, religious affiliations, socioeconomic classes, or civilizations. Challenging these constructions, Abdulkader H. Sinno closely examines the fortunes of the various factions in Afghanistan, including the mujahideen and the Taliban, that have been fighting each other and foreign armies since the 1979 Soviet invasion. Focusing on the organization of the combatants, Sinno offers a new understanding of the course and outcome of such conflicts. Employing a wide range of sources, including his own fieldwork in Afghanistan and statistical data on conflicts across the region, Sinno contends that in Afghanistan, the groups that have outperformed and outlasted their opponents have done so because of their successful organization. Each organization's ability to mobilize effectively, execute strategy, coordinate efforts, manage disunity, and process information depends on how well its structure matches its ability to keep its rivals at bay. Centralized organizations, Sinno finds, are generally more effective than noncentralized ones, but noncentralized ones are more resilient absent a safe haven. Sinno's organizational theory explains otherwise puzzling behavior found in group conflicts: the longevity of unpopular regimes, the demise of popular movements, and efforts of those who share a common cause to undermine their ideological or ethnic kin. The author argues that the organizational theory applies not only to Afghanistan-where he doubts the effectiveness of American state-building efforts—but also to other ethnic, revolutionary, independence, and secessionist conflicts in North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond.

The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan

Download The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Verso Books
ISBN 13 : 1839768177
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (397 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan by : Tariq Ali

Download or read book The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan written by Tariq Ali and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The occupation of Afghanistan is over, and a balance sheet can be drawn. These essays on war and peace in the region reveal Tariq Ali at his sharpest and most prescient. Rarely has there been such an enthusiastic display of international unity as that which greeted the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Compared to Iraq, Afghanistan became the “good war.” But a stalemate ensued, and the Taliban waited out the NATO contingents. Today, with the collapse of the puppet regime in Kabul, what does the future hold for a traumatised Afghan people? Will China become the dominant influence in the country? Tariq Ali has been following the wars in Afghanistan for forty years. He opposed Soviet military interven- tion in 1979, predicting disaster. He was also a fierce critic of its NATO sequel, Operation Enduring Freedom. In a series of trenchant commentaries, he has described the tragedies inflicted on Afghanistan, as well as the semi-Talibanisation and militarisation of neighbouring Pakistan. Most of his predictions have proved accurate. The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold brings together the best of his writings and includes a new introduction.

The Taliban at War

Download The Taliban at War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190092394
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Taliban at War by : Antonio Giustozzi

Download or read book The Taliban at War written by Antonio Giustozzi and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction --The collapse of the Emirate and the early regrouping, 2002-4 --The apogeum of the Quetta Shura, 2005-9 --The emergence of alternative centres of power to Quetta --The crisis of the Quetta Shura 2009-13 --The Taliban's tactical adaptation --Organisational adaptation --The troubled comeback of the Quetta Shura 2014 --Conclusion.The impossible centralisation of an anti-centralist movement --Epilogue.

Afghanistan at War

Download Afghanistan at War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1598847600
Total Pages : 626 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (988 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Afghanistan at War by : Tom Lansford

Download or read book Afghanistan at War written by Tom Lansford and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering wars and conflicts of Afghanistan from the modern founding of the country in the 1700s to the contemporary struggle with the Taliban, this single-volume reference analyzes the causes and results of Afghanistan's wars and examines leading political and military figures, weapons, and tactics. Afghanistan has been embroiled in war and conflict throughout the latter part of the 20th century as well as the current millennium, but due to its location at the crossroads of Central Asia, Afghanistan has also endured repeated conquests throughout its turbulent earlier times. Examining Afghanistan's long military history through this book will enable readers to grasp the wider sociopolitical history of the country; appreciate the impact of these wars on Southwest Asia and superpowers such as Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States; and understand why Afghanistan remains a controversial battleground today. The alphabetically organized entries examine the major wars and conflicts of Afghanistan from the modern founding of the country during the Durrani Dynasty in the 1700s through the contemporary struggle with the Taliban. The book spotlights the role of key individuals in starting, pursuing, or ending conflicts, as well as their broader contributions to—or negative impact on—Afghanistan and the international arena. The work also presents essays that examine key subtopics such as weapons, tactics, ethnic groups, religion, and foreign relations. This allows the reader—whether a student, scholar, or member of a nonacademic audience—to examine a topic in depth and see how the event, figure, or movement fits into the broader history of Afghanistan.

Love & War in Afghanistan

Download Love & War in Afghanistan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Seven Stories Press
ISBN 13 : 1583229752
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (832 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Love & War in Afghanistan by : Alex Klaits

Download or read book Love & War in Afghanistan written by Alex Klaits and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Love and War in Afghanistan presents true stories of fourteen ordinary men and women living in Northern Afghanistan. In a quarter-century of uninterrupted war, the people of Afghanistan have endured foreign invasions, ethnic strife, a fundamentalist Islamic totalitarian regime, and the unending crossfire of rival warlord factions. The country remains an object of fascination for journalists, academics, and filmmakers from around the world. In the midst of it all it is a startlingly powerful experience to discover, here, the voices of the Afghan people themselves. Young lovers who elope against the wishes of their kin; a mullah whose wit is his only defense against his armed captors; a defector from the Soviet army; a woman who is forced to stand up to gangsters in Tajikistan—their dramatic stories emerge in their own unforgettable words. Whether in the sudden awakening of mercy in a Taliban militiaman, the lingering contempt of a woman for her husband’s first wife, the pain and confusion of flight into exile, or the resourcefulness of a child who must provide for an entire family, the real focus of these narratives is the strength of solitary individuals faced daily with their own vulnerability. Men, women, orphans, widows, widowers, Tajiks, Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Turkmens, schoolteachers, mullahs, former Taliban, mujahideen, big brothers, little sisters, captive wives, lovers in flight: Love and War in Afghanistan tells their stories, putting human faces onto a country torn by war.

Afghanistan's Endless War

Download Afghanistan's Endless War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295801581
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (958 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Afghanistan's Endless War by : Larry P. Goodson

Download or read book Afghanistan's Endless War written by Larry P. Goodson and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Going beyond the stereotypes of Kalashnikov-wielding Afghan mujahideen and black-turbaned Taliban fundamentalists, Larry Goodson explains in this concise analysis of the Afghan war what has really been happening in Afghanistan in the last twenty years. Beginning with the reasons behind Afghanistan’s inability to forge a strong state -- its myriad cleavages along ethnic, religious, social, and geographical fault lines -- Goodson then examines the devastating course of the war itself. He charts its utter destruction of the country, from the deaths of more than 2 million Afghans and the dispersal of some six million others as refugees to the complete collapse of its economy, which today has been replaced by monoagriculture in opium poppies and heroin production. The Taliban, some of whose leaders Goodson interviewed as recently as 1997, have controlled roughly 80 percent of the country but themselves have shown increasing discord along ethnic and political lines.

Understanding the War in Afghanistan

Download Understanding the War in Afghanistan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1620874822
Total Pages : 165 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (28 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Understanding the War in Afghanistan by : Joseph J. Collins

Download or read book Understanding the War in Afghanistan written by Joseph J. Collins and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2013-02 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A professor of strategy at the National War College in Washington, D.C., describes the people and culture of Afghanistan and discusses the forces at work, including the Taliban and September 11, that lead up to the decade-long conflict there. Original.

The Arabs at War in Afghanistan

Download The Arabs at War in Afghanistan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 1849045941
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (49 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Arabs at War in Afghanistan by : Mustafa Hamid

Download or read book The Arabs at War in Afghanistan written by Mustafa Hamid and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-16 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A former senior mujahidin figure and an ex-counter-terrorism analyst cooperating to write a book on the history and legacy of Arab-Afghan fighters in Afghanistan is a remarkable and improbable undertaking. Yet this is what Mustafa Hamid, aka Abu Walid al-Masri, and Leah Farrall have achieved with the publication of their ground-breaking work. The result of thousands of hours of discussions over several years, The Arabs at War in Afghanistan offers significant new insights into the history of many of today's militant Salafi groups and movements. By revealing the real origins of the Taliban and al-Qaeda and the jostling among the various jihadi groups, this account not only challenges conventional wisdom, but also raises uncomfortable questions as to how events from this important period have been so badly misconstrued.

The Wrong War

Download The Wrong War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN 13 : 0812980905
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (129 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Wrong War by : Bing West

Download or read book The Wrong War written by Bing West and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER In this definitive account of the conflict, acclaimed war correspondent and bestselling author Bing West provides a practical way out of Afghanistan. Drawing on his expertise as both a combat-hardened Marine and a former assistant secretary of defense, West has written a tour de force narrative, rich with vivid characters and gritty combat, which shows the consequences when strategic theory meets tactical reality. Having embedded with dozens of frontline units over the past three years, he takes the reader on a battlefield journey from the mountains in the north to the opium fields in the south. A fighter who understands strategy, West builds the case for changing course. His conclusion is sure to provoke debate: remove most of the troops from Afghanistan, stop spending billions on the dream of a modern democracy, and insist the Afghans fight their own battles. Bing West’s book is a page-turner about brave men and cunning enemies that examines our realistic choices as a nation.

Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Download Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479836265
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by : Beth Bailey

Download or read book Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan written by Beth Bailey and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-12-18 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 Investigates the causes, conduct, and consequences of the recent American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Understanding the United States’ wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is essential to understanding the United States in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond. These wars were pivotal to American foreign policy and international relations. They were expensive: in lives, in treasure, and in reputation. They raised critical ethical and legal questions; they provoked debates over policy, strategy, and war-planning; they helped to shape American domestic politics. And they highlighted a profound division among the American people: While more than two million Americans served in Iraq and Afghanistan, many in multiple deployments, the vast majority of Americans and their families remained untouched by and frequently barely aware of the wars conducted in their name, far from American shores, in regions about which they know little. Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan gives us the first book-length expert historical analysis of these wars. It shows us how they began, what they teach us about the limits of the American military and diplomacy, and who fought them. It examines the lessons and legacies of wars whose outcomes may not be clear for decades. In 1945 few Americans could imagine that the country would be locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union for decades; fewer could imagine how history would paint the era. Understanding the U.S. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begins to come to grips with the period when America became enmeshed in a succession of “low intensity” conflicts in the Middle East.

Our Latest Longest War

Download Our Latest Longest War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022626579X
Total Pages : 387 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Our Latest Longest War by : Aaron B. O'Connell

Download or read book Our Latest Longest War written by Aaron B. O'Connell and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American and Afghan veterans contribute to this anthology of critical perspectives—“a vital contribution toward understanding the Afghanistan War” (Library Journal). When America went to war with Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, it did so with the lofty goals of dismantling al Qaeda, removing the Taliban from power, remaking the country into a democracy. But as the mission came unmoored from reality, the United States wasted billions of dollars, and thousands of lives were lost. Our Latest Longest War is a chronicle of how, why, and in what ways the war in Afghanistan failed. Edited by prize-winning historian and Marine lieutenant colonel Aaron B. O’Connell, the essays collected here represent nine different perspectives on the war—all from veterans of the conflict, both American and Afghan. Together, they paint a picture of a war in which problems of culture, including an unbridgeable rural-urban divide, derailed nearly every field of endeavor. The authors also draw troubling parallels to the Vietnam War, arguing that ideological currents in American life explain why the US government has repeatedly used military force in pursuit of democratic nation-building. In Afghanistan, as in Vietnam, this created a dramatic mismatch of means and ends that neither money, technology, nor weapons could overcome.

War Against the Taliban

Download War Against the Taliban PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1408822342
Total Pages : 410 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis War Against the Taliban by : Sandy Gall

Download or read book War Against the Taliban written by Sandy Gall and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-02-19 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive analysis of the current Afghanistan War yet published, by bestselling writer and legendary war reporter Sandy Gall

Television and the Afghan Culture Wars

Download Television and the Afghan Culture Wars PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252052439
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Television and the Afghan Culture Wars by : Wazhmah Osman

Download or read book Television and the Afghan Culture Wars written by Wazhmah Osman and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Portrayed in Western discourse as tribal and traditional, Afghans have in fact intensely debated women's rights, democracy, modernity, and Islam as part of their nation building in the post-9/11 era. Wazhmah Osman places television at the heart of these public and politically charged clashes while revealing how the medium also provides war-weary Afghans with a semblance of open discussion and healing. After four decades of gender and sectarian violence, she argues, the internationally funded media sector has the potential to bring about justice, national integration, and peace. Fieldwork from across Afghanistan allowed Osman to record the voices of many Afghan media producers and people. Afghans offer their own seldom-heard views on the country's cultural progress and belief systems, their understandings of themselves, and the role of international interventions. Osman analyzes the impact of transnational media and foreign funding while keeping the focus on local cultural contestations, productions, and social movements. As a result, she redirects the global dialogue about Afghanistan to Afghans and challenges top-down narratives of humanitarian development.