Few reporters have covered Afghanistan as intrepidly and humanely as Edward Girardet. In this gripping personal account, Girardet delivers a story of that nation's resistance fighters, foreign invaders, mercenaries, spies, aid workers, Islamic extremists and others who have defined Afghanistan's last thirty years of war, chaos and strife. Over thirty years Girardet's encounters with key figures - including Ahmed Shah Massoud, the famed "Lion of Panjshir" assassinated by al-Qaeda two days before 9/11, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Islamic extremist supported by the US during the 1980s only to become one of today's most anti-Western insurgents, and Osama bin Laden - shed extraordinary light on the personalities who have shaped the nation, and its current challenges, from corruption and narcotics trafficking to selfish regional interests. Killing the Cranes provides crucial insights into why the West's current involvement has turned into such a disaster, not only rekindling a new insurgency, but wasting billions of dollars on a recovery process that has shown scant success.