History

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

  • Downloads：2815
  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2021-08-11 17:21:04
  • Update Date：2025-09-06
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Craig Whitlock
  • ISBN：B08VJLJ56L
  • Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Reviews

Courtney Tychinski ，

This book started off very strong for me， but continued to seem more and more like a hodgepodge of everything that went wrong for the US in Afghanistan。 The author pieces together a narrative through candid interviews records with high-serving US officials both in White House administrations and the military that he attained through the Freedom of Information Act。 The [short] chapters provide an overview on how no one truly knew what the US's goals were in the war in Afghanistan。 Just diminishin This book started off very strong for me， but continued to seem more and more like a hodgepodge of everything that went wrong for the US in Afghanistan。 The author pieces together a narrative through candid interviews records with high-serving US officials both in White House administrations and the military that he attained through the Freedom of Information Act。 The [short] chapters provide an overview on how no one truly knew what the US's goals were in the war in Afghanistan。 Just diminishing al-Qaeda following 9/11？ Punishing Afghanistan for harboring 9/11 conspirators？ Nation-building？ And when no one knows what the goals are， how do we measure "success" and "effectiveness" of US & NATO troops there？ While I have no doubt that everything included is factual （and it left me questioning more and more the rationale behind a war that never seemed fully logical and has been going on since my childhood）， I do question why the presentation is very one-sided， though the author is not shy to share faults of the Bush， Obama， and Trump administrations。 It is still a great read， and I would still recommend it， but I do also question why， of the thousands of hours of interviews， it seems like the author cherry-picked the remarks that make the administrations look the worst。 。。。more

Brandon Westlake ，

Wow， what an eye-opening book。 I feel I could roughly give an overview of what happened in Afghanistan and why， and who the key players are but this book really fills in the details in a spectacular way。Furthermore， it shows what an outright tragedy it remains。 A military escapade built on blunder and ignorance， mismanagement and idiocy。 Whitlock's work will make it clear to you that this is a comedy of errors， and one on a massive deadly scale。 It's hard to miss the connection to Vietnam。 The s Wow， what an eye-opening book。 I feel I could roughly give an overview of what happened in Afghanistan and why， and who the key players are but this book really fills in the details in a spectacular way。Furthermore， it shows what an outright tragedy it remains。 A military escapade built on blunder and ignorance， mismanagement and idiocy。 Whitlock's work will make it clear to you that this is a comedy of errors， and one on a massive deadly scale。 It's hard to miss the connection to Vietnam。 The sheer ignorance of our military and executive branch really frustrated me; at times making me walk away from reading and to come back later。 My only criticism is that I would have like Whitlock to take the last few pages a step further- where does it seem to be going？ What are the consequences of the US leaving vs staying？ To be sure， it's easy to look back on history and see the screwups， but it's another thing that it was so blatantly obvious at the time。 Once again， American exceptionalism seems to have gotten the better of us （and continues to do so）。 If you want an great overview of the quagmire， read this。 。。。more