The untold story of Hamid Karzai's dramatic rise to the presidency of Afghanistan and the problems he and his country face In 2004, Hamid Karzai was elected president in Afghanistan's first-ever democratic election. Today, criticized for indecisiveness and targeted for assassination by extremists, President Karzai struggles to build on the country's modest post-Taliban achievements before civil unrest undermines his government. Now, author Nick Mills draws on months of candid personal interviews with the charismatic Afghan president to offer a revealing portrait of the figure known to millions by his familiar uniform of karakul cap and long green chappan. Timely and compelling, Karzai tells the fascinating story of a unique leader with a keen intellect, a natural gift for storytelling, and a presidency in peril.

Serving as the president of Afghanistan from 2001-2011, Hamid Karzai remains a controversial figure in Afghani politics and around the world. Some view Karzai as a puppet of U.S. interests, as he was appointed to the Interim Administration and charged with governing Afghanistan shortly after the U.S. invasion of the country in 2001. Karzai's grip on power remained in place for the next decade. This compelling biography tracks the polarizing career of Hamid Karzai. Chapters discuss his childhood, driving out Soviet forces and the Taliban, and his uncertain future.

With a secondhand motorcycle, the support of a few powerful tribesmen and a good friend in the CIA, the unknown Hamid Karzai willed himself to power as the new hope of Afghanistan. Acclaimed journalist Bette Dam chronicles the astonishing rise of Afghanistan's U.S.-backed leader from obscurity to one of the most influential figures in the global war on terror. Following the 2001 toppling of the Taliban, a fragile Afghanistan was on the brink. Karzai, armed with a recipe for victory came within inches of helping the U.S. declare victory in the war on terror. But sentiments run high in post-9/11 America, and the desire for revenge derailed an early chance at peace. As U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, and power is handed to a new president, Karzai's legacy remains one of betrayal, mistrust, and missed opportunities.

The untold story of Hamid Karzai's dramatic rise to the presidency of Afghanistan and the problems he and his country face In 2004, Hamid Karzai was elected president in Afghanistan's first-ever democratic election. Today, criticized for indecisiveness and targeted for assassination by extremists, President Karzai struggles to build on the country's modest post-Taliban achievements before civil unrest undermines his government. Now, author Nick Mills draws on months of candid personal interviews with the charismatic Afghan president to offer a revealing portrait of the figure known to millions by his familiar uniform of karakul cap and long green chappan. Timely and compelling, Karzai tells the fascinating story of a unique leader with a keen intellect, a natural gift for storytelling, and a presidency in peril.

The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post. The United States went to Afghanistan on a simple mission: avenge the September 11 attacks and drive the Taliban from power. This took less than two months. Over the course of the next decade, the ensuing fight for power and money—supplied to one of the poorest nations on earth, in ever-greater amounts—left the region even more dangerous than before the first troops arrived. At the center of this story is the Karzai family. President Hamid Karzai and his brothers began the war as symbols of a new Afghanistan: moderate, educated, fluent in the cultures of East and West, and the antithesis of the brutish and backward Taliban regime. The siblings, from a prominent political family close to Afghanistan’s former king, had been thrust into exile by the Soviet war. While Hamid Karzai lived in Pakistan and worked with the resistance, others moved to the United States, finding work as waiters and managers before opening their own restaurants. After September 11, the brothers returned home to help rebuild Afghanistan and reshape their homeland with ambitious plans. Today, with the country in shambles, they are in open conflict with one another and their Western allies. Joshua Partlow’s clear-eyed analysis reveals the mistakes, squandered hopes, and wasted chances behind the scenes of a would-be political dynasty. Nothing illustrates the arc of the war and America’s relationship with Afghanistan—from optimism to despair, friendship to enmity—as neatly as the story of the Karzai family itself, told here in its entirety for the first time.

Afghanistan′s president speaks to the West about his country′s ongoing struggle to achieve peace, prosperity, and democracy In this important book, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai writes passionately about his country in an attempt to build a bridge of understanding with America, the West, and the world at large. From the perspective of his personal and political life, he illuminates what Afghanistan has gone through to achieve today′s fledgling democracy, why the defeat of the Taliban was important, what the process of democratization has meant for Afghanistan, why long-term international support is needed for further progress, and what the experience of Afghanistan teaches us about the struggle for peace and stability in the wider world, including the Middle East. President Karzai addresses his ongoing efforts to disarm and demobilize Afghan warlords and his proposals to address poppy cultivation and combat the heroin trade. He discusses the progress Afghanistan has made as well as the areas that are still lacking, such as security, electricity, clean water, and proper health care. The struggle to build a fully healthy and democratic Afghanistan is far from over, Karzai warns, and stresses that aid, support, and understanding from the West is more crucial than ever. Hamid Karzai (Kabul, Afghanistan) is descended from a distinguished family of Afghan tribal leaders. He played key roles in the jihad against the USSR and the fight to oust the Taliban. He became Afghanistan′s first elected president in 2004. Nick Mills (Cumberland, ME) is a Boston University journalism professor and international media trainer. He first met Mr. Karzai in 1987 in Peshawar, Pakistan, and later worked in President Karzai′s press office in Kabul.

Since December 2004, Hamid Karzai has been president of Afghanistan. This book gives an authoritative and balanced account of this man who is the first post-Taliban leader of his country. Written in an engaging yet journalistic style, readers will learn about not only Karzai and his country, but the delicate dynamics of the Middle East today.