The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

Hardcover

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Overview

A Washington Post Best Book of 2021

The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock.

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: 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 become 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.

Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains “fast-paced and vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) revelation after 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 unvarnished 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. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground.

Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn’t know the name of his Afghanistan war commander—and didn’t want to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he had “no visibility into who the bad guys are.” His successor, Robert Gates, said: “We didn’t know jack shit about al-Qaeda.”

The Afghanistan Papers is a “searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials” (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781982159009
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: 08/31/2021
Pages: 368
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Craig Whitlock is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Afghanistan Papers. He has worked for the Post since 1998 as a foreign correspondent, Pentagon reporter, and national security specialist, and has reported from more than sixty countries. His coverage of the war in Afghanistan won the George Polk Award for Military Reporting, the Scripps Howard Award for Investigative Reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Freedom of Information Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for international reporting. He is also a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The Washington Post has built an unparalleled reputation in its coverage of American politics and related topics. The paper’s circulation, prominence, and influence continue to grow.

Table of Contents

Foreword xv

Part 1 A False Taste of Victory, 2001-2002

Chapter 1 A Muddled Mission 3

Chapter 2 "Who Are the Bad Guys?" 17

Chapter 3 The Nation-Building Project 29

Part 2 The Great Distraction, 2003-2005

Chapter 4 Afghanistan Becomes an Afterthought 43

Chapter 5 Raising an Army from the Ashes 55

Chapter 6 Islam for Dummies 67

Chapter 7 Playing Both Sides 77

Part 3 The Taliban Comes Back, 2006-2008

Chapter 8 Lies and Spin 91

Chapter 9 An Incoherent Strategy 103

Chapter 10 The Warlords 115

Chapter 11 A War on Opium 129

Part 4 Obama's Overreach, 2009-2010

Chapter 12 Doubling Down 145

Chapter 13 "A Dark Pit of Endless Money" 157

Chapter 14 From Friend to Foe 169

Chapter 15 Consumed by Corruption 183

Part 5 Things Fall Apart, 2011-2016

Chapter 16 At War with the Truth 199

Chapter 17 The Enemy Within 213

Chapter 18 The Grand Illusion 227

Part 6 Stalemate, 2017-2021

Chapter 19 Trump's Turn 241

Chapter 20 The Narco-State 253

Chapter 21 Talking with the Taliban 263

Epilogue 277

Acknowledgments 285

Note on Sources 291

Endnotes 295

Bibliography 333

Photo Credits 335

Index 337

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