Taliban: The Unknown Enemy Book

Introduction 13

Part I

1 The Tank of Islam: Kandahar, 1994 23

2 The Army of Orphans: Peshawar, 1996 37

3 'Try Not to Hurt the People!': Kabul, 1996-1998 72

4 The Government that Might Have Been, 1998-2000 101

5 The Al-Qaida Hijack, 1999-2001 121

6 Surviving the Daisycutters, 2001-2003 145

7 Like a Jam-jar to a Swarm of Wasps: The Insurgency Explodes, 2003-2009 168

Part II

8 The McChrystal Plan: Sawing Wood with a Hammer 195

9 'This One, This Is the Big One': Mullah Zaeef and the Prospects for Peace' 213

10 The Trouble with President Karzai 249

11 Getting Rich Quick in Tajik Kabul 259

12 Not Black and White, But Grey: Hizb-i-Islami and the Afghan Parliament 282

13 How to Talk to the Taliban 309

14 In the Jalalabad Fief of Shirzai 326

15 The Taliban of Chak 354

Postscript 383

Notes 389

Bibliography 396

Picture Credits 399

Index 403