What We Got Wrong in Afghanistan

In the wake of 9/11 Bin Laden released several messages in which he spelled out how America would lose the war on terror.

"We cannot let the terrorists win" said Bush, before the US did precisely what Bin Laden said America would do. It is now history. The terrorists won of course, just the way they said they would.

The hunt for Bin Laden was an international policing/special forces operation. It took 2 years.

What was the rest of the war about?

Bin Laden provided a business opportunity too lucrative to resist.

Anyone with half a brain knew that establishing a functional government and security force would be a futile and fruitless endeavour 20 years ago.

On May 1,The US Military abandoned their bases, slipping out unannounced, quietly in the middle of the night. They left behind military vehicles (including 4000 humvees), small arms, and ammunition. They left it there for the Taliban to take. They did this at the beginning of "fighting season" in Afghanistan.

Before 9/11 radical islamic extremists in Afghanistan were our allies. The Mujahadeen were championed by Reagan in the 80s for driving out the Soviets with American supplied stingers (lightweight, portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank rocket launchers).

Only months before 9/11 Bush awarded the Taliban with $43 million for supposedly eradicating opium production in Afghanistan.

The Taliban were our allies then, and clearly and still are. Their job was to play the "heel" in a nihilistic, multi-trillion dollar act of kayfabe more outrageous than anything even Vince McMahon could dream up.

What did we get wrong in the Afghan theatre? Nothing! It was great theatre! The show ran for 20 seasons.

As a reward for a job well done, we've handed the Taliban the keys to Afghanistan.

She's yours now, boys! Why don't you take her for a spin? See how she handles.

In a word: Everything?

Sure, facetious. I'm sure there were some things -- probably quite a lot of them -- that actually went (at least somewhat) right. But those never made the headlines; all you heard about were fuck-ups and failures.

So certainly the on-the-whole impression you get as a mainstream news media consumer in the West was: Pretty much everything went wrong.