Kindle
$4.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Paperback
$11.64
Kindle Price: $4.99

Save $6.65 (57%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $13.65

Save: $6.16 (45%)

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Scott Horton
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan Kindle Edition

by Scott Horton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 349 ratings
See all formats and editions
"In Fool's Errand, Scott Horton masterfully explains the tragedy of America's longest war and makes the case for immediate withdrawal. I highly recommend this excellent book on America's futile and self-defeating occupation of Afghanistan." -- Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    319 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    August 27, 2017
  5. File size
    12866 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
Next page
Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An incisive, informative analysis of the Afghan fiasco and how we got there, scrubbed clean of propaganda and disinformation. Horton captures the situation very well indeed. I much enjoyed reading it." -- Eric S. Margolis, author of War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet and American Raj: Liberation or Domination? Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World

"Scott Horton's Fool'sErrand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan is a brilliant achievement and a great read. I recommended it to the faculty at the Army Command and General Staff College to be part of the course work. It's that important." -- Col. Douglas Macgregor, U.S. Army (ret.), author of Warrior's Rage: The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting

"Why is the United States still fighting in Afghanistan? In this timely new book, Scott Horton explains why America's longest war is strategically misguided and why getting out would make the United States safer and advance America's broader national interests. Even readers who do not share Horton's libertarian world-view are likely to find themselves nodding in agreement: the war in Afghanistan has indeed become a 'fool's errand.'" -- Stephen M. Walt, professor of international affairs, Harvard University, author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

"Scott Horton's Fool's Errand is a deeply insightful and well-informed book on America's longest war, explaining why it remains as unwinnable as it ever was. It appears at an importantmoment as the Trump administration considers once again reinforcing failure." -- Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the Independent, author of TheAge of Jihad: Islamic State and the Great War for the Middle East

"A lot of people think of the war in Iraq as the bad war, but Afghanistan as the good and justifiable war. That convenient view does not survive Scott Horton's careful and incisive demolition." -- Thomas E. Woods Jr., author of Nullification: How to ResistFederal Tyranny in the 21st Century and Rollback:Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse

About the Author

Scott Horton is director of The Libertarian Institute at LibertarianInstitute.org, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio for Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, host of the Scott Horton Show podcast from ScottHorton.org and author of Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan and editor of The Great Ron Paul: The Scott Horton Show Interviews 2004-2019. Horton has conducted more than 5,000 interviews since 2003. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, investigative reporter Larisa Alexandrovna Horton.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07566KR46
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Libertarian Institute (August 27, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 27, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 12866 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 319 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 349 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Scott Horton

Scott Horton

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Scott Horton is director of The Libertarian Institute at LibertarianInstitute.org, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio for Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and host of the Scott Horton Show podcast from ScottHorton.org. He has conducted more than 5,600 interviews since 2003. He is the author of Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism (2021), Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan (2017) and editor of The Great Ron Paul: The Scott Horton Show Interviews 2004–2019 (2019). He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Larisa Alexandrovna Horton.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
349 global ratings
The most important book from the most important voice on the most important issue of our time
5 Stars
The most important book from the most important voice on the most important issue of our time
Scott Horton brings clarity to the most pressing issue of our time, endless war.The book is well researched. It is well (densely, meticulously) foot-noted and documented. The author is clear and cogent in making the case that it is time to end the wars in Afghanistan. He brings us up to speed on how we got here and why we must change course. The US is over-extended fighting for both sides in conflict after conflict. We are actively creating future problems and blowback by misguided and immoral foreign policy actions today.Why does this book matter?We, the people, must wake up and come to understand the the role that our own government's actions have played in setting the world on fire. We can't continue to shoulder shrug, and allow this to continue for another year, another decade, the rest of the century. That is where we are headed if we don't all come together to demand that our government allow us and the rest of the world to live in peace. We owe this not only to ourselves and the world's citizen's, but to our children and grandchildren.We simply cannot continue to shoulder-shrug, plod along with our "real life" day to day existences wholly oblivious or purposely ignorant of the murder & destruction of hundreds of thousands of others' real lives wrought by our government in our names.Follow Scott Horton and his work. Go to his site at the Libertarian Institute. Read his book. Buy it for your friends. Donate. Join the call for peace.Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

MarketSmartLee
5.0 out of 5 stars The most important book from the most important voice on the most important issue of our time
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2017
Verified Purchase
Scott Horton brings clarity to the most pressing issue of our time, endless war.

The book is well researched. It is well (densely, meticulously) foot-noted and documented. The author is clear and cogent in making the case that it is time to end the wars in Afghanistan. He brings us up to speed on how we got here and why we must change course. The US is over-extended fighting for both sides in conflict after conflict. We are actively creating future problems and blowback by misguided and immoral foreign policy actions today.

Why does this book matter?
We, the people, must wake up and come to understand the the role that our own government's actions have played in setting the world on fire. We can't continue to shoulder shrug, and allow this to continue for another year, another decade, the rest of the century. That is where we are headed if we don't all come together to demand that our government allow us and the rest of the world to live in peace. We owe this not only to ourselves and the world's citizen's, but to our children and grandchildren.

We simply cannot continue to shoulder-shrug, plod along with our "real life" day to day existences wholly oblivious or purposely ignorant of the murder & destruction of hundreds of thousands of others' real lives wrought by our government in our names.

Follow Scott Horton and his work. Go to his site at the Libertarian Institute. Read his book. Buy it for your friends. Donate. Join the call for peace.
 Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan
Customer image
MarketSmartLee
5.0 out of 5 stars The most important book from the most important voice on the most important issue of our time
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2017
Scott Horton brings clarity to the most pressing issue of our time, endless war.

The book is well researched. It is well (densely, meticulously) foot-noted and documented. The author is clear and cogent in making the case that it is time to end the wars in Afghanistan. He brings us up to speed on how we got here and why we must change course. The US is over-extended fighting for both sides in conflict after conflict. We are actively creating future problems and blowback by misguided and immoral foreign policy actions today.

Why does this book matter?
We, the people, must wake up and come to understand the the role that our own government's actions have played in setting the world on fire. We can't continue to shoulder shrug, and allow this to continue for another year, another decade, the rest of the century. That is where we are headed if we don't all come together to demand that our government allow us and the rest of the world to live in peace. We owe this not only to ourselves and the world's citizen's, but to our children and grandchildren.

We simply cannot continue to shoulder-shrug, plod along with our "real life" day to day existences wholly oblivious or purposely ignorant of the murder & destruction of hundreds of thousands of others' real lives wrought by our government in our names.

Follow Scott Horton and his work. Go to his site at the Libertarian Institute. Read his book. Buy it for your friends. Donate. Join the call for peace.
[[ASIN:B07566KR46 Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan]]
Images in this review
Customer image
Customer image
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Pimmermen
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wake Up Call for Foreign Policy Analysis and Geopolitical Thought
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2017
Verified Purchase
Scott Horton's Fool's Errand is an excellent account of the US war in Afghanistan. It is a perfect length, thoroughly sourced, and engrossing enough to hold the attention of the average american. Far and away the most important point Scott makes is that attempting to build Afghanistan into a modern nation state is impossible because objectively speaking there is no such thing. In international relations, a "nation" is commonly defined as a group of people with a collective identity, shared culture, language, history, socioeconomic structure, and political aspirations. By definition then, Afghanistan is not a nation, and certainly cannot be made into a nation state in the modern sense of the term. It is also questionable whether an Afghan state should be the preferred outcome for the 10+ ethnicities that encompass the meaningless borders of Afghanistan. The global era of the nation state has been an era of total war. Clearly then, the nation state is not the final stage in human political development (if there is such a thing), and certainly not something worth foisting upon people halfway around the world.

Scott also makes clear that even from a geostrategic standpoint, staying in Afghanistan makes no sense. World history post 2000 has made abundantly clear that wars are no longer won by superior military capability and ability to hold territory. In fact, as perverse as the incentives of nation states are, it is doubtful whether competent leaders even see territorial acquisition as the ultimate goal, as opposed to economic influence. Recent cyber attacks have made clear that the future will belong to the state that dominates cyberspace (technology), after all what good are computer guided missiles, tanks, airplanes, and even rifles, if they can be rendered useless by hacking. "The Great Game" is no longer afoot in the 21st Century. It should be clear for states, whether benevolent or benign, security seeker or revisionist, or the global superpower itself, the definition of power is rapidly evolving, and only states that realize and cease this opportunity will survive and dominate.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Michael R. Maharrey
5.0 out of 5 stars "They hate us because of our freedom
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2017
Verified Purchase
I did some traveling late last week and had the opportunity to finish Scott Horton's book "Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan."

Two words of advice. 

Read. It.

Seriously, this book is a must-read, especially if you still believe the "War on Terror" is somehow protecting and furthering American interests.

Many people who are skeptical of Iraq still buy into the war in Afghanistan. After all, it was the "good war," launched to punish the people who flew planes into American buildings on 9/11. But Horton strips away the propaganda and offers a convincing argument that U.S. forces could have accomplished that goal, and been in and out of Afghanistan within months. Instead, the war turned into an impossible nation-building mission and a military occupation that ultimately gave rise to the insurgency America continues to battle more than 15 years later. 

He also mercilessly smashes many of the myths surrounding the war, such as, "They hate us because of our freedom." "We have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here," and "If we pull out now, Afghanistan will become a safe-haven for terrorists."

I have been skeptical of the war in Afghanistan for a while, but really more on a gut level, sensing intuitively that U.S. foreign policy is often at odds with itself. Horton proves it in spades. Even I was shocked at how often decisions made by U.S. policymakers undermine stated objectives and goals. 

I've met Scott, and appeared a number of times on his radio show. If you've ever listened to him, you know he's an intense and passionate individual. You might get the impression that his book would be an extended emotional plea. It's not. It's seriously one of the most meticulously documented, carefully laid out works I've ever read. Some of the pages are literally half filled with footnotes. Scott's work will stand up to the most intense academic scrutiny.

There was a time in my life when I embraced every U.S. foreign policy intervention. It's only recently that I've come to realize that the same people who've made a disaster out of domestic policy also run the foreign policy. In this day and age, it's hard to get information about U.S. wars that isn't steeped in government propaganda.That's why so many people support the wars without reservation.

Horton pulls the curtain away and reveals an ugly truth most Americans haven't faced.

We need more Hortons.  
42 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

James Boudreau
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening account of the war in Afghanistan. A ...
Reviewed in Canada on October 10, 2017
Verified Purchase
Eye opening account of the war in Afghanistan. A must read for someone who wants to understand the insanity of the war there. Excellently researched and written.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Skully69er
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and very interesting read
Reviewed in Canada on February 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book contains a wealth of information and highly referenced. Excellent and very interesting read!
3 people found this helpful
 Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report