From the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City,
a riveting, intimate account of
America’s troubled war in Afghanistan.


About Little America

When President Barack Obama ordered the surge of troops and aid to Afghanistan, Washington Post correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran followed. He found the effort sabotaged not only by Afghan and Pakistani malfeasance but by infighting and incompetence within the American government: a war cabinet arrested by vicious bickering among top national security aides; diplomats and aid workers who failed to deliver on their grand promises; generals who dispatched troops to the wrong places; and headstrong military leaders who sought a far more expansive campaign than the White House wanted. Through their bungling and quarreling, they wound up squandering the first year of the surge.


A searing indictment of how President Barack Obama’s 2009 Afghanistan surge was carried out. . . . Solid and timely reporting, crackling prose, and more than a little controversy will make this one of the summer’s hot reads.”—Publishers Weekly starred review

  • About Rajiv

    Rajiv Chandrasekaran is a senior correspondent and associate editor of The Washington Post.

    From 2009 to 2011, he reported on the war in Afghanistan for The Post, traveling extensively through the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to reveal the impact of President Obama’s decision to double U.S. force levels.

    • About Rajiv ›

  • Also by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
    Imperial Life in the Emerald City

    The fullest, most intimate account of life in the Green Zone, the sheltered bubble where idealistic Americans planned the occupation while Iraq fell apart.

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