The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014

The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014 is a 2014 book by Carlotta Gall. In the book, she argues that the United States and its allies have been focused on stopping the terrorist activities of al-Qaeda and its Taliban supporters in Afghanistan, but that focus should have instead have been on antagonistic forces in Pakistan. Her reasoning is that the Taliban exists and Osama bin Laden was able to survive for so long (and Mullah Omar continues to be a fugitive) because Pakistan's corrupt government and the people at the ISI, Pakistan's clandestine security service, provide aid to these terrorists.

Gall argues, using quotes from the area's leaders, that the U.S. should have fought al-Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan instead of going to war in Iraq in 2003.