The ever growing literature on the US occupation of Afghanistan can be divided into different themes. One major theme is to explain why nation-building and defeating Taliban was a failure. Malkasian’s book fits into that theme by introducing a new explanatory factor. Malkasian argues that Afghan identity and Islam have played a major role in mobilising the Taliban. Based on years of working in Afghanistan and studying all the literature that was produced by Western authors, Malkasian concludes that the US backed government in Afghanistan was never capable of inspiring and motivating people to fight like the Taliban. The author explains how opposition to foreign occupation is one of the core tenets of Afghan identity and how the Taliban were capable utilising that to recruit and inspire men to fight for their cause.