Great book so far. It provides a rich history of the struggles in Afghanistan prior to 9/11. It provides great insight into the mindset of the CIA, an organization that was created after WWII to make sure another Pearl Harbour doesn't ever happen again. The CIA was created to be watchful, suspicious, and yes, hawkish - by that I mean a take-it-to-them-before-they-take-it-to-us mentality. It was full of hawks at the time, yet arguably was not hawkish enough, because 9/11 happened. I'm not a big fan of the hawks, but there is a place for them in an intelligence agency such as the CIA. To complete later...