Three new books stand out against the backdrop of events of this month: First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11, by Toby Harnden; The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War, by Craig Whitlock, of The Washington Post, based on a secret 2015 government study obtained by the Post after a three-year legal battle; and After the Apocalypse: America’s Role in a World Transformed, by Andrew Bacevich. Harnden is a veteran British journalist. He is, I think, substantially correct about the beginnings of the American misadventure in Afghanistan. The CIA knew what it was…