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August in Kabul, America's last days in Afghanistan, Andrew Quilty

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

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index present

non fiction

August in Kabul

bibliography

Andrew Quilty

America's last days in Afghanistan

Told through the eyes of witnesses to the fall of Kabul, Walkley awardwinning journalist Andrew Quilty's debut publication offers a remarkable record of this historic moment. As night fell on 15 August 2021, the Taliban entered Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. After a 20year conflict with the United States, its Western allies and a proxy Afghan government, the Islamic militant group once aligned with al Qaeda was about to bury yet another foreign foe in the graveyard of empires. And for America, the superpower, this was yet another foreign disaster. As cities and towns fell to the Taliban in rapid succession, Western troops and embassy staff scrambled to flee a country of which they had lost control. To the world, Kabul in August looked like Saigon in 1975. August in Kabul is the story of how America's longest mission came to an abrupt and humiliating end, told through the eyes of Afghans whose lives have been turned upside down: a young woman who harbours dreams of a university education; a presidential staffer who works desperately to hold things together as the government collapses around him; a prisoner in the notorious Bagram Prison who suddenly finds himself free when prison guards abandon their post. Andrew Quilty was one of a handful of Western journalists who stayed in Kabul as the city fell. This is his firsthand account of those dramatic final days

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