The war in Afghanistan has become the most complex foreign policy problem the United States has ever faced, spreading into Pakistan and involving the conflicting interests of Russia, India, China and Iran. Written as a companion to Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald's widely acclaimed book Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story, Crossing Zero focuses on the nuances of the Obama administration's evolving military and political strategy, the people implementing it, and the long-term consequences for the United States and the region. "Fitzgerald and Gould have consistently raised the difficult questions and inconvenient truths about western engagement in Afghanistan. While many analysts and observers have attempted to wish a reality on a grim and tragic situation in Afghanistan, Fitzgerald and Gould have systematically dug through the archives and historical record with integrity and foresight to reveal a series of misguided strategies and approaches that have contributed to what has become a tragic quagmire in Afghanistan. I suspect that many of their assessments while presently viewed as controversial and contentious, will eventually be considered conventional wisdom.
"A ferocious, iron-clad argument about the institutional failure of American foreign policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Daniel Ellsberg
"Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould have seen the importance of the Great Game in Afghanistan since the early 1980's. They have been most courageous in their commitment to telling the truth, and have paid a steep price for it. Their views have never been acceptable to mainstream media in our country, but they deserve accolades. If only our establishment had listened to them."
Oliver Stone
"Crossing Zero is much more than a devastating indictment of the folly of U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan. Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould demonstrate that the U.S. debacle in Afghanistan is the predictable climax of U.S. imperial overreach on a global scale. Like their earlier work documenting the origins of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan during the Cold War, Crossing Zero deserves
Selig S. Harrison, co-author of Out of Afghanistan: The Inside Story of the Soviet Withdra
