The 9/11 Wars

JASON BURKE

The 9/11 Wars

ALLEN LANE
an imprint of
PENGUIN BOOKS

Contents

  
List of Illustrations

  
Acknowledgements

  
Maps

  
Introduction

PART ONE
Afghanistan, America, Al-Qaeda: 2001–3

  1  The Buddhas

  2  9/11, Before and After

  3  War in Afghanistan

  4  The Calm before the Storm

PART TWO
Escalation: 2003–4

  5  War in Iraq I: Threats, Falsehoods and Dead Men

  6  War in Iraq II: Losing It

  7  Al-Qaeda and the 9/11 Wars

PART THREE
Europe, the Darkest Days: 2005–6

  8  The 9/11 Wars Reach Europe

  9  Bombs, Riots and Cartoons

PART FOUR
Iraq and the Turning: 2005–7

10  The Awakening

11  The Turning

PART FIVE
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Al-Qaeda: 2008

12  Afghanistan Again

13  Pakistan

14  Another Country: FATA

PART SIX
Endgames: 2009–11

15   The 9/11 Wars: Europe, the Middle East, Iraq

16  ‘AfPak’ 2009–10

17   The End of the First Decade

  
Illustration

  
Conclusion: The 9/11 Wars

  
Notes

  
Select Bibliography

To Anne-Sophie and to Victor

List of Illustrations

  1
. Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 2001

  2
. George W. Bush

  3
. Osama bin Laden

  4
. Ruins of the World Trade Center, September 11, 2001

  5
. US airstrikes against Taliban at Tora Bora, December 2001

  6
. Bali bomb aftermath, October 2002

  7
. London anti-war march, February 2003

  8
. The Iraq War – toppling a Saddam Hussein statue

  9
. An Iraqi caught in a US raid

10
. Shia followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, demonstrating

11
. Murals on a Tehran street

12
. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

13
. The Madrid train bombing, March 2004

14
. The 7/7 attacks in London, 2005

15
. Protests in Gaza, 2005

16
. Burning bus in Toulouse, 2005

17
. Jordanian suicide bomber, November 2005

18
. Vigil in Amman, 2005

19
. Blair’s final visit to troops in Iraq, May 2007

20
. Blast walls being manufactured in Kabul

21
. Benazir Bhutto with Hamid Karzai

22
. The Taj Hotel, Mumbai, on fire, November 2008

23
. British troops in an Afghan poppyfield

24
. Afghan National Army recruits, Kabul

25
. Pakistani troops in Bajaur

26
. Captain José Vasquez, Logar, 2009

27
. Protestors in Tahrir Square, Cairo, 2011

28
. Anti-Mubarak demonstrators praying over an Egyptian flag

Endpages: Taliban marching through a village (
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad / Guardian
)

All images reproduced with the permission of Corbis except for
9
, copyright © Jason Howe, and
20
,
24
,
25
and
26
, copyright © Jason Burke.

MAP 1

Map 1: South-west Asia and North-east Africa

MAP 2

Map 2: Afghanistan and Pakistan