bolo121

Just heard of Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner on the CIA and thinking of asking my friend to get it for me.
Is it any good?

Got a pdf copy from my friend here is an extract from the introduction

History, Edward Gibbon wrote in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Em-
pire, is "little more than the register of crimes, follies, and misfortunes of
mankind." The annals of the Central Intelligence Agency are filled with
folly and misfortune, along with acts of bravery and cunning. They are
replete with fleeting successes and long-lasting failures abroad. They are
marked by political battles and power struggles at home. The agency's
triumphs have saved some blood and treasure. Its mistakes have squan-
dered both. They have proved fatal for legions of American soldiers and
foreign agents; some three thousand Americans who died in New York,
Washington, and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001; and three thou-
sand more who have died since then in Iraq and Afghanistan. The one
crime of lasting consequence has been the CIA's inability to carry out its
central mission: informing the president of what is happening in the
world.