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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. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government's strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground. Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn't know the name of his Afghanistan war commander--and didn't want to make time to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted he had no visibility into who the bad guys are. His successor, Robert Gates, said: We didn't know jack shit about al-Qaeda. The Afghanistan Papers is a shocking account that will supercharge a long overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

In 2019, The Washington Post published a series of articles based on a trove of leaked documents known as "The Afghanistan Papers." These documents, which were produced by the US government over a 19-year period, provide a candid and often damning assessment of the war in Afghanistan.

The papers reveal that the US government has consistently misled the public about the war, claiming progress where there was none and exaggerating the effectiveness of its strategies. They also show that the US military was aware of widespread corruption and human rights abuses by Afghan security forces, but did little to address these problems.

The Afghanistan Papers have had a significant impact on the public's understanding of the war. They have led to calls for a reevaluation of US policy in Afghanistan and have raised serious questions about the credibility of the US government.

Key Findings of The Afghanistan Papers

• The US government has consistently misled the public about the war in Afghanistan.
• The US military was aware of widespread corruption and human rights abuses by Afghan security forces, but did little to address these problems.
• US officials repeatedly exaggerated the progress of the war effort and downplayed the challenges faced by the Afghan government.
• The US government spent billions of dollars on development projects in Afghanistan, but many of these projects were ineffective or unsustainable.
• The war in Afghanistan has cost the lives of thousands of American soldiers and Afghan civilians.

The Impact of The Afghanistan Papers

The Afghanistan Papers have had a significant impact on the public's understanding of the war. They have led to calls for a reevaluation of US policy in Afghanistan and have raised serious questions about the credibility of the US government.

In the aftermath of the publication of The Afghanistan Papers, the US government has taken steps to address some of the problems identified in the documents. However, the war in Afghanistan continues to be a major challenge for the United States.