By Daniel DePetris
The completion of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan marks a milestone in history, not only for a South Asian country that has been marred by warfare for the last four decades but also for a superpower whose troops fought valiantly for two decades.
Because the most immediate concern over the last two weeks was getting Americans and Afghan allies out of harm’s way, introspection about the war has been in short supply. But with the mass airlift complete, U.S. policymakers no longer have an excuse to avoid contemplating the lessons of a 20-year war riven by hubris, flawed assumptions, and deceit. Concentrating predominantly on the evacuation’s questionable implementation over the last 20 days is simply inadequate—we need to spend our time dissecting the last 20 years.
Any prognosis of Washington’s misadventure in Afghanistan must account for three critical errors in judgment, each of which proved to be a major inflection point in the conflict.
This piece was originally published in Task & Purpose on September 2, 2021. Read more HERE.