Publisher's Synopsis
In the popular imagination, Afghanistan is often regarded as the site of intractable conflict, the American war against the Taliban a perpetually hopeless quagmire. But as Anand Gopal demonstrates in this chronicle, top Taliban leaders were in fact ready to surrender within months of the US invasion of Afghanistan, renouncing all political activity and submitting to the new government. Effectively, the Taliban ceased to exist - yet the American forces were not ready to accept such a turnaround. Driven by false intelligence from corrupt warlords and by a misguided conviction that Taliban members could never change sides, the US instead continued to press the conflict, resurrecting the insurgency that persists to this day.
