• 

  In the Graveyard of Empires: America’s War in Afghanistan , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 789min

  This definitive account of the American experience in Afghanistan is a political history of Afghanistan in the “Age of Terror” from 2001 to 2009, exploring the fundamental tragedy of America’s longest war since Vietnam. After the swift defeat of the Taliban in 2001, American optimism has steadily evaporated in the face of mounting violence; a new “war of a thousand cuts” has brought the country to its knees.After a brief survey of the great empires in Afghanistan, Seth G. Jones examines the central question of our own war: how did an insurgency develop? Following September 11, the United States successfully overthrew the Taliban regime. It established security throughout the country, and Afghanistan finally began to emerge from more than two decades of conflict. But Jones argues that, as early as 2001, planning for the Iraq War siphoned off resources and talented personnel, undermining the gains that had been made. After eight years, the United States had pushed al-Qaeda’s headquarters about one hundred miles across the border into Pakistan.While observing the tense, often adversarial relationship between NATO allies in the Coalition, Jones introduces us to key figures on both sides of the war. Using important new research and integrating thousands of declassified government documents, Jones analyzes the insurgency from a historical and structural point of view, showing how a rising drug trade, poor security forces, and pervasive corruption undermined the Karzai government, while Americans abandoned a successful strategy, failed to provide the necessary support, and allowed a growing sanctuary for insurgents in Pakistan to catalyze the Taliban resurgence.Examining what has worked thus far—and what has not—this serious and important book underscores the challenges we face in stabilizing the country and explains where we went wrong and what we must do to avoid the disastrous fate that has befallen many of the great world powers to enter ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: William Hughes. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/blak/003936/bk_blak_003936_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

  • Shop: Audible
  • Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping

• Sazerac Blues (eBook, ePUB)

  First in an all-new suspense series! Here's an excerpt: Around the sides of the thick brown leather, Ash O'Malley made out a fleshy chin and thinning, brown hair threaded with gray covered in a thin layer of dirt and debris. She back-pedaled along the narrow strip of the path shed just traipsed down, losing her balance as she registered her boot print on the poor man's now-crushed his nose. She made a noise that sounded somewhere between a gag and a scream as she clutched her chest. This could not be happening. Not today. Then, his image clicked in her mind. She recognized the man, and her midsection rolled, pitched, and somersaulted over itself. She rose from her rump and crab-crawled, her hands plopping into her own footfalls, clearly visible next to several other tracks in the boggy soil. The man…the obviously dead man was Dr. Cockcroft, director of the Audubon Society. And now she'd stepped on her dead almost boss. "Nope, this cannot be happening," she whispered. She closed her eyes and pinched herself. A soft breeze brushed her overheated skin and the faint sounds of sluggish water siphoned through the tangled thoughts careening through Ash's head, bringing a much-needed stillness. She forced herself to look at the scene in front of her. Dr. Cockcroft lay half-buried in a slight ditch just off the pathway. Besides his trodden face-she winced and suppressed the urge to gag-he was bruised and bloody. Like he'd fallen from a great height. And his scalp, mangled…Ash stumbled even as her gaze searched out more potential cottonmouths. Seeing none, she gave in to her desire and fell forward to retch up the gumbo she'd eaten that morning-the gumbo she'd saved so she'd have a good meal to start her day.She kicked her feet into the dirt, struggling for purchase before she shot back the way she'd come, not unlike a sprinter. She fumbled for her phone, dirt and grit coating her hip as she struggled to pull it from her pants pocket.Her fingers shook but she managed to press 9-1-1. Her breath broke in a sob as the operator answered."A-a b-body. There's a dead body."She slid down the mangrove's trunk, heedless of its short, painful barbs digging through her blouse and into her skin. Her butt hit the boggy soil and harder roots and she winced, unable to take her eyes off the man. Ash forced herself to listen to the dispatcher's questions. She ignored the faint hum of gathering insects as they closed in around her sweat-drenched form. She closed her burning, too-dry eyes, unwilling to watch the bugs land on Dr. Cockcroft's exposed face. Ash understood the circle of life but that didn't mean she wanted to witness it this close up. She gave her location, head bent, forehead to her knees, phone mashed to her ear. Her fingertips tingled and her body felt heavy, biological responses to the scare. She stared at a leaf, a perfect specimen, and wondered idly if she was going into shock.

  • Shop: buecher
  • Price: 4.49 EUR excl. shipping
• 

  Wrath of the Titans

  Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson star once again as gods at war in WRATH OF THE TITANS, under the direction of Johnathan Liebesman. A decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kaken, Perseus (Worthington) the demigod son of Zeus (Neeson) is attempting to live a quieter life as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year old son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and the Titans. Dangerously weakened by humanity's lack of devotion, the gods are losing control of the imprisoned Titans and their ferocious leader, Kronos, father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus, Hades (Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston). The triumvirate had overthrown their powerful father long ago, leaving him to rot in the gloomy abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon that lies deep within the cavernous underworld. Perseus cannot ignore his true calling when Hades, along with Zeus godly son, Ares (Edgar Ramrez), switch loyalties and make a deal, with kronos to capture Zeus. The Titans strength grows stronger as Zeus remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth. Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon's demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen gob Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind.

  • Shop: odax
  • Price: 14.46 EUR excl. shipping

---

---