Anand Gopal

Following three Afghans -- a Taliban commander, a U.S.-backed warlord, and a housewife trapped in the middle of the fighting -- this narrative reveals the workings of America's longest war and the truth behind its prolonged agony.

Prologue 1PART ONE?1. The Last Days of Vice and Virtue 5?2. The Battle for Tirin Kot 28?3 The War from Year Zero 50?4. The Sewing Center of Khas Uruzgan 73PART TWO?5. No One Is Safe from This 101?6. To Make the Bad Things Good Again 118?7. Black Holes 132PART THREE?8. Election Day 151?9. The Far End of the Bazaar 169PART FOUR?10. Back to Work 183?11. The Tangi 199?12. No-Man's-Land 215PART FIVE?13. Stepping Out 239?14. The Leader 251Epilogue 268?A Note on Sources 277?Notes 279?Acknowledgments 291?Index 295

Told through the lives of three Afghans, the stunning tale of how the United States had triumph in sight in Afghanistan-and then brought the Taliban back from the deadIn a breathtaking chronicle, acclaimed journalist Anand Gopal traces in vivid detail the lives of three Afghans caught in America's war on terror. He follows a Taliban commander, who rises from scrawny teenager to leading insurgent; a US-backed warlord, who uses the American military to gain personal wealth and power; and a village housewife trapped between the two sides, who discovers the devastating cost of neutrality.Through their dramatic stories, Gopal shows that the Afghan war, so often regarded as a hopeless quagmire, could in fact have gone very differently. Top Taliban leaders actually tried to surrender within months of the US invasion, renouncing all political activity and submitting to the new government. Effectively, the Taliban ceased to exist-yet the Americans were unwilling to accept such a turnaround. Instead, driven by false intelligence from their allies and an unyielding mandate to fight terrorism, American forces continued to press the conflict, resurrecting the insurgency that persists to this day. With its intimate accounts of life in war-torn Afghanistan, Gopal's thoroughly original reporting lays bare the workings of America's longest war and the truth behind its prolonged agony. A heartbreaking story of mistakes and misdeeds, No Good Men Among the Living challenges our usual perceptions of the Afghan conflict, its victims, and its supposed winners.