The Afghanistan Papers

Good read. A glimpse into the mess that's Afghanistan. Candid stories make for a compelling story.

Overall, I find this to be an excellent book. For one, Craig Whitlock divided the 20 years into several sections, each of which dealt with a separate phase of the war. This made it easy to follow the narrative.Also, I give Craig Whitlock full marks for organizing the material efficiently, and for writing in such an engaging style.Clearly, the Americans went in without a game plan. I don't think they have a game plan even now, as they pulled out.Why the 4-stars? For all its good points, Craig's book is aimed at one thing - proving the Americans did not have a strategy. While this may be entirely true, a balanced book would have pointed out the good parts of the American strategy and operations.

Many declassified papers and interviews to clean up the muddied water created in last 20 years of US in Afghanistan. An Eye opener.Very well researched book. Kudos to the author.

The Afghanistan Papers is a shocking account of what went wrong in the USA’s 20 year-long war against the Taliban and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan. The groundbreaking investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public, year after year, about America’s longest war, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock.This book is based on files that Whitlock and his newspaper managed to obtain after long legal battles with the US government. The sources include memos and interviews of senior defense staff, generals, politicians, intelligence agents, diplomats, and contractors from both the US and NATO countries. Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains startling revelation from people who played a direct role in the war, from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In a straightforward language, they admit that the US government’s strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government.Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: to defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives. Distracted by the war in Iraq, the US military became mired in an unwinnable guerrilla conflict in a country it did not understand. But no president wanted to admit failure, especially in a war that began as a just cause. Instead, the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations sent more and more troops to Afghanistan and repeatedly said they were making progress, even though they knew there was no realistic prospect for an outright victory.The book covers all the reasons that lead the Afghanistan War to a colossal failure that should have been ended years ago. From the missed opportunities of diplomacy in 2001 to the lack of a clear strategy or goal for the war or even the lack of understanding of Afghanistan as a country and its culture. The failed campaigns to destroy the poppy and drug trade and the rampant corruption of the new Afghan government and its police and army and the nexus with corrupt contractors, this book covers it all in excruciating detail.Overall, The Afghanistan Papers is a grim account of criminal incompetence and a never-ending cycle of lies and failure, which lead to even worse failures. Coincidentally, this book was published right around the time US troops withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took over the country in a matter of days. If you ever wondered, what went wrong for the US in Afghanistan, this book is a timely read.

Highly recommend.This book along with Steve Colls’s, Directorate S and The Achilles Trap provide a comprehensive picture of the inability of presidents and generals to understand the nature of the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq and develop a coherent strategy.Each book highlights how an initial rush to vengeance in Afghanistan and Iraq resulted in Iran, Pakistan and others exploiting American’s long-term involvement for strategic gains.The parallels to the mistakes made in Vietnam are uncanny. American leaders of the future would be wise to remember that the enemy gets a vote in the outcome.

The first account to make sense of this futile war, and why Afghanistan was Vietnam 2.0. A worthwhile read for anyone.

Really well researched evidence based account of the war on terror in Afghanistan from a US perspective. Based largely on information given during “lessons learned” exercises and obtained through freedom of information requests, this outlines what happened on the ground according to the people that were actually there in one capacity or another.Really good overview of the 20 years without spin or favour. Brilliant.

What an amazing compilation of information from various sources strung together like a colorful quilt. Beware: this book might make you mad about the repeated mistakes and incompetence, but if we refuse to acknowledge past mistakes, we are doomed to keep repeating them. Should be required reading for US leaders.

Un ouvrage très riche basé sur des documents officiels de première main longtemps inaccessibles. Page après page, on voit le manque de vision stratégique, et même de bon sens de base, des militaires et des politiques impliqués dans la conduite de cette guerre américaine inutilement longue et cruelle pour les populations civiles afghanes. On pourrait reprendre la formule de Georges Clémenceau: "la guerre est une chose trop sérieuse pour être laissée aux militaires", si ce dernier n'avait pas aussi un palmarès odieux en matière de visions stratégiques aux conséquences désastreuses.