The Afghanistan Papers
The groundbreaking investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about the longest war in American history by Washington Post reporter Craig Whitlock, a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. 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. Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public's understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains startling 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.
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2020–2024years
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What Hacker News says
- The did an enormous amount of nation-building. Billions and billions and billions of dollars over multiple decades. It was just a complete and utter failire.
The book “The Afghanistan Papers” covers the US’s misguided efforts there well.
- Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency by Andy Greenberg
The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock.
Enjoyed both a lot over the Christmas break.
- How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil - It is an interesting book because the author does not paint a rosy picture of what needs to get done to solve our energy and food problems in the coming decades. I really enjoyed it.
The Afghanistan Papers - A book similar to the Pentagon Papers and goes over the 20+ year War on Terror in Afghanistan and how much it failed.
I read a lot, but these were the some of the last couple of books I've read in 2022 that I found interesting.
- The Afghanistan Papers[0] was a bit unnoticed by many people. It is well worth a read, especially during this time. There are many, many very interesting things in there, but I want to highlight one: General Flynn's 'Lesson's Learned' Interview, 11/10/2015.
Keep that date in your head.[1]
That the interview is public at all is amazing. It is a very good overview of the man and the issues that the US dealt with in Afghanistan. Especially considering the current media tornado with Flynn, it offers an insanely unique look under the tent.
Flynn's attitude is really one of exhaustion. He's tired, after nearly 14 years fighting in Afghanistan, he's just done with it all. He's done with Congress, he's done with the White House, he's done with the military. What is especially interesting is his attitude towards the US voting public: He's done with them too. His faith is caput.
Sure enough, exactly one month and 30 minutes after the end of this interview, Flynn is shoulder to shoulder, sitting directly next to Putin in Moscow. 12/10/2015. [2] That dinner is wild by the way.
So, not only are the lower level contractors looking outside, the top line staff are as well.
Not to be too alarmist, but there is a whole whale of bad news here. There are uncomfortably large similarities to the lead up of the Social War of 91 BC afoot [3].
[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/...
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/...
[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guess-who-came-dinner-fly...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_War_(91%E2%80%9388_BC)
If you don't really have the time to read through it, the Washington Post did a fairly good job of highlighting the interesting bits. If you have not looked at it and don't want to read the grainy .pdf, that's ok too. The audio is free to listen to. I cannot stress enough how crazy this is. That this document is out there at all, that they went through all the highlighting and editing, that the audio tape is out there, and then the cornucopia of other info too. It's amazing technical journalism, let alone the content.
- Michael Flynn's (yes, that Flynn) interview in the Afghanistan Papers is one of the more interesting accounts I've read of the war.
https://archive.org/details/theafghanistanpapers_202001
That appears to be audio—I've only read the transcript, personally—but the text is hard to find a direct link to. A search can probably dredge up pages that'll eventually lead to the text.
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