A review by johndiconsiglio
Directorate S by Steve Coll

3.0

An exhaustive—& exhausting—tome on the CIA’s mishandling of Afghanistan & Pakistan post-9/11. It’s the (long) diary of a trainwreck. American policymakers & spy chiefs discard one hapless plan after another. Pakistan’s ISI plays all sides against each other. And Afghanistan plods through never-ending wars. Coll, dean of Columbia Journalism School, plumbs an impressive breadth of sources. He shifts comfortably from the Oval Office to the Tora Bora caves. Excellent early & late. A morass in the middle. 800-pages is a long time to spend in the Panjshir.