Summary

Whitlock begins Chapter Eight: Lies and Spin by describing the scene of a suicide bombing at Bagram Air Base that took place while the Vice President, Dick Cheney, was in the vicinity on a surprise visit. The breach of security is an embarrassment to US occupation forces. The Taliban publicly claimed responsibility for the attack and indicated that Cheney was their intended target, much to the humiliation of the Bush administration. This segues into a broader reflection on the increasing resilience of the resistance to the US occupation of Afghanistan. 2006, Whitlock comments, was a miserable year for the occupation, as suicide attacks against their military positions had increased to five times what they had been in the year 2005 and roadside bombings of convoys had doubled. This coincided with stolid reticence on the part of Pervez Musharraf to put...