Peter Bergen - The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda

Praise for The Longest War

The Longest War is ambitious both in scope and aims you need to understand al-Qaida, and Bergen, with this detailed, serious, scrupulously fair, perceptive, and sometimes startling work has made a significant contribution to us doing exactly that.

Jason Burke, The Guardian

The Longest War is by far the best and most comprehensive book on the conflict so far.

Christina Lamb, Sunday Times

A grippingly important work that belongs on the shelf alongside The Looming Tower and Ghost Wars.

The Daily Beast

The Longest War is his history of a daunting subject that succeeds where other books have failed. Thats because the author was one of the few people onto al-Qaeda years before the instant experts cropped up. And he is still there watching, long after most of those so-called experts packed it in and moved on.

Colin Freeze, The Globe and Mail

For years, I tried to read every new novel about how 9/11 affected our lives. Some were very thoughtful, but I always came away unsatisfied, feeling that the authors had worked hard but had somehow fallen short. As I read the stunning first section of Peter L. Bergens new book on the war between the United States and al-Qaeda, I realized I had been looking in the wrong genre. None of the novels were as effective or moving as The Longest War, which is a history of our time. The Longest War is one of the most important accounts on the subject to appear in years. But be warned: You will read it and weep.

Thomas E. Ricks, The New York Times Book Review

A revelatory, pull-no-punches history of the War on Terror, from before 9/11 to the present day. One of the deepest and most disturbing investigations of one of the defining issues of our era.

Kirkus, starred review

Drawing on vast firsthand knowledge of the region and mining a huge stock of primary and secondary material, including his own interviews with combatants, the books depth of detail and breadth of insight make it one of the more useful analysis of the ongoing conflict.

Publishers Weekly, starred review

In The Longest War Bergen attempts to provide us with an overarching narrative of the first ten years of the epic struggle that resulted from the 9/11 attacks, and he does an admirable job of it.

Christian Caryl, The Washington Monthly

[A] readable and well-reported appraisal

The Economist

The Longest War is a useful synopsis of the struggle weve come to call the war on terror, and he chronicles it with the keen eye of an experienced journalist and on-the-ground observer. Bergen, who actually has interviewed bin Laden and is the author of two books on him, gives a particularly good view of al-Qaedas operative behaviorits much more bureaucratic than you might imagineas well as a gripping re-creation of what went wrong at Tora Bora, the last opportunity the U.S. had to apprehend or kill bin Laden.

Los Angeles Times

When the War on Terror is consigned to the history books, one name will dominate as the steady, clear-eyed chronicler of that period. Peter Bergen was among the first to note the rise of al-Qaeda, and he is still on the case. The Longest War is a vital and essential account of the central conflict of our times.

Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Peter Bergen has long since established himself as Americas most authoritative and insightful analyst on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and time and again has given the nation an unblinking glimpse into the mind of the enemy. Now, with The Longest War, he has performed perhaps his greatest public service with what is certainly the finest comprehensive history of the war on terror yet written. Weaving together the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the broader anti-terror campaigns of Bush and Obama, he does something nearly impossible. He explains how we got here from 9/11.

James Risen, author of State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration

Peter Bergen has produced a masterful definitive assessment of al-Qaeda and America since September 11rich with new details, elevated by careful analysis, and quickened by riveting characters and stories. This is essential reading.

Steve Coll, two-time Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens

Peter Bergens The Longest War is indispensable history. Authoritative and ambitious, it provides a damning account of the fitful fight against Islamic terrorism that every American should read.

Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals

Also by Peter L. Bergen

The Osama bin Laden I Know Holy War, Inc.

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

Attributed to Plato

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Copyright 2011 by Peter Bergen

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

First Free Press trade paperback edition June 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bergen, Peter L.

The longest war : the enduring conflict between America and al-Qaeda /Peter L. Bergen. 1st Free Press hbk. ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. War on Terrorism, 20012009. 2. TerrorismUnited StatesPrevention. 3. TerrorismPrevention. 4. Iraq War, 2003- 5. Qaida (Organization) I. Title.

HV6432.B46 2011

909.83'1dc22

2010015268

ISBN 978-0-7432-7893-5

ISBN 978-0-7432-7894-2 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-4391-6059-6 (ebook)

Afghanistan and Pakistan

Iraq and the wider Middle East

For Tresha with all my love.