Rethinking the Afghanistan War’s What-Ifs
By DAVID E. SANGER
NYT
WASHINGTON — Long before Afghanistan became the longest shooting war in American history, the question loomed: Could it have turned out differently?
If only we had been smart enough, the arguments went, the “good war” might not have gone bad. If only we had gone into Tora Bora with overwhelming force in the winter of 2001, and captured Osama bin Laden. If only we had put a substantial force into the country in 2002, rather than assuming that the Taliban had been “eviscerated,” the term used, and now regretted, by American military briefers. If only we had carried through on President George W. Bush’s promise of a “Marshall Plan” for Afghanistan.
If only we had not been distracted by Iraq, or averted our eyes from the Taliban’s resurgence, or confronted the realities of Pakistan’s fighting both sides of the war ...
If only.
The WikiLeaks revelations of last week gave new life to this sea of second thoughts. The thousands of military reports revealed little that was fundamentally new; many should have been stamped “open secret.” But in their staccato rawness, they offered a ground-level view of how faulty assumptions gave rise to misjudgments, and how misjudgments cascaded into everyday deadly encounters.
(More here.)
NYT
WASHINGTON — Long before Afghanistan became the longest shooting war in American history, the question loomed: Could it have turned out differently?
If only we had been smart enough, the arguments went, the “good war” might not have gone bad. If only we had gone into Tora Bora with overwhelming force in the winter of 2001, and captured Osama bin Laden. If only we had put a substantial force into the country in 2002, rather than assuming that the Taliban had been “eviscerated,” the term used, and now regretted, by American military briefers. If only we had carried through on President George W. Bush’s promise of a “Marshall Plan” for Afghanistan.
If only we had not been distracted by Iraq, or averted our eyes from the Taliban’s resurgence, or confronted the realities of Pakistan’s fighting both sides of the war ...
If only.
The WikiLeaks revelations of last week gave new life to this sea of second thoughts. The thousands of military reports revealed little that was fundamentally new; many should have been stamped “open secret.” But in their staccato rawness, they offered a ground-level view of how faulty assumptions gave rise to misjudgments, and how misjudgments cascaded into everyday deadly encounters.
(More here.)
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