This books traces the origin of Taliban and how it evolved, grew and bounced back to become such a powerful organization that despite spending billions of dollars and carrying out an almost two decade long military campaign, nations with the most powerful militaries in the world had to make an embarrassing retreat and strike a deal with the Taliban.  This book also talks about the role played by Pakistan and its spy agency ISI and how the western forces got caught in their own web by not reading the writing on the wall which was always there.