What went wrong in Afghanistan? As America’s longest war draws to an end, sharp disagreements remain about its aims, direction and success
We Americans like to deceive ourselves. We want to believe there is good war and bad war. World War II was a good war, varnished with the patina of history. Vietnam was a bad war, its reality overridden by popular cultural narratives. Once, in the decade after 9/11, Afghanistan was the good war and Iraq the bad, a war of “choice,” not necessity. Now they are both bad.
Similarly, we like our winners and our losers well defined. But those on the field of battle are seldom Captain America and his nemesis Hydra. The reality of ambiguous war and victory defined down is unappealing to us. “Maintain the better status quo” is not a clarion call. There are many things that went wrong in Afghanistan. The strategy was weak, and the enemy persistent. The U.S. was often unfocused in its goals, under-resourcing even our limited efforts. Our allies on the ground—not just the Afghans, but the members of a coalition theoretically pursuing Enduring Freedom—were often far less capable than they might have been. But none of these problems were fatal to our effort to ensure that extremists would not control the country.
Despite our—and Afghanistan’s—accomplishments, a succession of presidents made them seem less worthwhile. Barack Obama, Donald Trump and now President Joe Biden said much the same thing: That our allies would not fight ; that democracy is not worth fighting for ; that American troops supporting stability in Afghanistan serve no purpose ; and that after Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, our battle was done.
For more than a decade, we have not had a president willing to persuade us that the fight in Afghanistan was worthy, nor to use his bully pulpit to praise that nation’s progress. No one has reminded us that it is the Afghan people who have borne the brunt of keeping us safe, delaying a return to the days when terrorists used those lands to plot the return of the caliphate.
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