Almost ten years before Osama bin Laden was killed, the United States had the
opportunity of a decade to decapitate the organization that so ruthlessly enacted the
deadliest foreign attack on American soil in the nationų history. Battles raged across
Afghanistan in the 102 days following September 11, from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul to Tora
Bora. Yet bin Laden escaped while al Qaeda and the Taliban endured the initial onslaught.

In 102 Days of War, Yaniv Barzilai takes the reader from meetings in the White House to the
most sensitive operations in Afghanistan to explain how Americaų enemies survived 2001.
Using a broad array of sources, including interviews with top-level U.S. officials at every level
of the war effort, Barzilai concludes that the failure to kill bin Laden and destroy al Qaeda at
the Battle of Tora Bora was not only the result of a failure in tactics but, more importantly,
the product of failures in policy and leadership.

102 Days of War provides novel information and a new level of understanding about the
opening campaign of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Informed citizens and military historians
alike will find compelling this vivid and relevant narrative.