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Lucy Morgan Edwards' new book, The Afghan Solution
Lucy Morgan Edwards visited the department 13 June 2012.
Lucy Morgan Edwards visited the department to speak on her book, The Afghan Solution: The Inside Story of Abdul Haq, the CIA and how Western hubris lost Afghanistan (2011).
From her website:
Lucy Morgan Edwards wrote 'The Afghan Solution' in an attempt to show a counter-narrative to the prevailing wisdom on the post 9/11 war in Afghanistan: in particular to illuminate to a western audience how the war could have been avoided, to show how the decisions made by western policymakers' (whose effects were witnessed first hand by the author) have led to the present situation and to present an alternative, Afghan led, blueprint for peace. The book takes the reader to Afghans who tell the much of the story themselves, both men and women. However the central theme of the book is Edward's investigation into a major Afghan-led plan for toppling the Taliban: a plan which existed - both pre and post 9/11, which had buy-in from Commander Massoud, Abdul Haq, the ex King and a pan-Afghan group of Tribal leaders and senior Taliban themselves, but which depended on the West 'not' bombing the country.
Using never-before published information, many interviews with those familiar with the peace plan and what she witnessed and heard herself, she exposes why western intelligence agencies ignored this opportunity and proceeded to pit the West into an un-winnable war. Her book, which also follows her own narrative and reads like a thriller, exposes complicity and incompetence by the West's military/intelligence/political and even media establishment.
Date: 23 April 2012