Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

I would highly recommend that Americans read this book. It's a slow, labourious read (I poked at it over a period of months, while reading other things in between), but it shows you how the CIA essentially created the conditions for the Taliban and al Qaeda. I do find myself wondering if they didn't see this coming at all, or if they did see it coming and simply thought it negligible compared with the threat of communism (which they were attempting to fight at the time). I do wish the author had elaborated on his statement that Taliban fighters wear eye-liner (or at least showed a picture), but apart from that, a difficult read, but an important one for Americans.