Summary of Craig Whitlock & The Washington Post's The Afghanistan Papers

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 In 2002, President George W. Bush ordered the U. S. military to go to war in Afghanistan to retaliate for the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people. The war transformed Bush’s political standing. Although he barely won the presidency in the disputed 2000 election, polls showed 75 percent of Americans now approved of his job performance.
#2 When the war began, it was clear and narrow: to defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks. However, as the years went on, and the Taliban were overthrown, the mission became much more difficult to define.
#3 The United States went to war with Afghanistan without knowing why, or what they were trying to achieve. They just knew they wanted to get rid of al-Qaeda, and the Taliban quickly became secondary.
#4 The Bush administration changed its goals and objectives soon after it began bombing Afghanistan in October 2001. The secret six-page document called for the elimination of al-Qaeda and the termination of Taliban rule, but listed few concrete objectives beyond that.

Sujets

• Politique
• Military

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 18 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669386698
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Craig Whitlock & The Washington Post's The Afghanistan Papers
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In 2002, President George W. Bush ordered the U. S. military to go to war in Afghanistan to retaliate for the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people. The war transformed Bush’s political standing. Although he barely won the presidency in the disputed 2000 election, polls showed 75 percent of Americans now approved of his job performance.

#2

When the war began, it was clear and narrow: to defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks. However, as the years went on, and the Taliban were overthrown, the mission became much more difficult to define.

#3

The United States went to war with Afghanistan without knowing why, or what they were trying to achieve. They just knew they wanted to get rid of al-Qaeda, and the Taliban quickly became secondary.

#4

The Bush administration changed its goals and objectives soon after it began bombing Afghanistan in October 2001. The secret six-page document called for the elimination of al-Qaeda and the termination of Taliban rule, but listed few concrete objectives beyond that.

#5

The tide of battle suddenly shifted in the US’s favor, and the Northern Alliance captured several major cities in short order. Leaders in the Pentagon were bewildered by the rapid turn of events.

#6

In December 2001, only 2,500 American troops were in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld allowed the number to rise slowly but imposed strict limits. By the end of January, more American military personnel were guarding the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City than serving in Afghanistan.

#7

In December 2001, the United Nations held a conference in Bonn, Germany, that set up a governance plan for Afghanistan. Humanitarian groups and dozens of donor countries delivered much-needed aid. The Bush administration was still leery of getting bogged down, but the swift and decisive military victories boosted U. S. confidence.

#8

The goals of the war were to help Afghanistan build a country free of terrorism, with a stable government, a new national army, and an education system for boys and girls. But Bush offered no specifics or benchmarks for achieving them.

#9

On October 21, Bush was working in the Oval Office when Rumsfeld brought up the idea of meeting with General Franks and General McNeill. Bush seemed confused, and Rumsfeld wrote later that day that he didn’t need to meet with McNeill.

#10

In 2002, a report from the war zone written by a member of a team of allied commandos hunting for high-value targets caught the attention of Rumsfeld and other senior officials at the Pentagon. It described the Taliban as unvanquished, and warned that the war was not yet over.

#11

The United States jumped into the Afghan war, blurring the line between al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and ended up fighting against al-Qaeda members who had little to do with the 9/11 attacks.

#12

The war in Afghanistan was a long and complicated one because the United States never really understood what motivated its enemies to fight. Afghans would tell the Americans that their foes belonged to the Taliban, when in reality, most of these foes were just feuding with each other.

#13

In 2001, the United States had two golden opportunities to bring the war to a quick and favorable end. They missed both of them. In December, a critical mass of intelligence reports indicated that Public Enemy Number One, bin Laden, had sought refuge with an estimated 500 to 2,000 al-Qaeda fighters in a large complex of fortified tunnels and caves near the city of Jalalabad.

#14

The American military’s campaign to capture or kill bin Laden in 2001 was complicated by the fact that he had escaped to Pakistan, which prolonged the war in Afghanistan.

#15

The United States missed a diplomatic opportunity to end the war in Afghanistan in December 2001, when it invited the Afghan factions to meet in Bonn, Germany, to discuss an interim power-sharing agreement. The idea was to end Afghanistan’s long-running civil war by bringing all potential troublemakers to the table.

#16

The Taliban was easy to demonize, as it was a product of Afghanistan’s religious and ethnic divisions. But it proved too large to eradicate, and the group drew support from Pashtuns for restoring some order to the country.

#17

The United States spent more on nation-building in Afghanistan than in any other country during the 2001-2020 period. However, unlike the Marshall Plan, which brought stability and peace, the U. S. inadvertently built a corrupt and dysfunctional Afghan government that depended on American military power for survival.

#18

In 2001, the Bush administration decided not to commit to a long-term nation-building campaign in Afghanistan. Instead, they wanted to destroy what existed there to start building.