The American War in Afghanistan

May 17, 2021
Malkasian (Illusions of Victory), a former adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivers a rigorous, blow-by-blow chronicle of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Contending that the U.S. failed to defeat the Taliban because “they fought for Islam and resistance to occupation, values enshrined in Afghan identity,” Malkasian sketches the complex relationship between Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, and notes that after the initial success of the American-led invasion in October 2001, the Bush administration became fixated on the war in Iraq, and Afghan president Hamid Karzai failed to build an effective military and police force. In 2006, a vigorous Taliban offensive resulted in “perhaps the toughest fighting the U.S. army experienced since Vietnam.” Malkasian also labels the 2009 surge “a resounding tactical success but a strategic failure,” details President Obama’s struggles to find a suitable exit to the war, and outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the February 2020 peace agreement. Synthesizing a vast array of literature from both sides of the conflict, including Oval Office transcripts and Taliban war poetry, Malkasian gets deep into the weeds, but offers a refreshingly nuanced and well-informed perspective. Foreign policy wonks will savor this comprehensive reckoning with America’s “forever war.”

Starred review from June 1, 2021
Comprehensive history of the longest armed conflict in U.S. history. In his third book, Oxford-trained historian and former State Department official Malkasian gives the most thorough account of the war in Afghanistan to date. Spanning more than 18 years and three American presidents--George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump--the conflict is now winding down, but in a way that many find disappointing. In the first three chapters, he lays the scene of Afghan culture and society. Malkasian argues that America's war in Afghanistan is part of the broader upheaval sparked by the Soviet-Afghan War, begun in 1978 and fought between Soviet-backed Communists who took power in a coup and the resistance fighters to whom the U.S. supplied over $1 billion in funds and arms as part of Cold War containment. In the middle chapters, Malkasian gives a blow-by-blow of American phases of the war, beginning with the period from the initial invasion after 9/11 through the 2003 Iraq War. Then came the 2006 Taliban offensive that triggered the troop surge of 2007. The author gives the most detailed coverage to Obama's surge, which included 140,000 troops (compared to Bush's 30,000) and was marked by various resets and reallocations. Malkasian focuses on the southern province of Helmand, where he spent nearly two years as a civilian adviser. In the final chapters, the author looks at Trump's drawdown and the 2019-2020 peace talks. Malkasian is clear on why those talks succeeded: "It is not the battlefield stalemate or diplomatic prowess. It is Donald Trump....More than other any other US politician, he was willing to buck criticism and demand that the United States leave." Perhaps the war wouldn't have been so costly if this had happened sooner, but Malkasian concedes that there was never an easy way out. Mismanagement, tribalism, and refusals to leave have all fed "the combat experience of a generation of US servicemen and women." For the Afghan people, the experience has been nothing short of catastrophic. A sweeping, deeply researched account that will gratify specialists and nonspecialists alike.

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