Ebook: Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan

Chapter One: Getting into this mess -- Problems -- Bloback terrorism -- Islam -- The suicide bombers -- What's to hate about U.S. foreign policy? -- Ronald Reagan's Arab-Afghan holy warriors -- The new order -- Osama turns us on -- Iraq War 1 1/2: the Bill Clinton years -- The far enemy -- Chapter Two: Invasion -- Unnessary war -- The trap -- Unlimited war -- America's most wanted -- The law -- Karzai and the warlords -- Chapter Three: The long war -- Empire -- Missed chances for peace -- It's the occupation -- Girls' school and nation building -- Injun country -- Pakistan and the Taliban -- Korengal -- The ghosts of direct action -- Chapter Four: The "surge" -- Jammed by the blob -- The COINdinistas -- Escalation -- Drug wars -- Tossing COIN -- "Surge" -- era war crimes -- Losing anyway -- Chapter Five: Falling action -- Criminal cops -- Attempts to negotiate -- Taliban back in force -- A Trojan Horse? -- Staying forever -- Costs and consequences -- Backdraft -- Another world -- Mattis and McMaster's war -- Come home -- Acknowledgments -- About the author -- Appendices: Appendix I: Frequently used abbreviations -- Appendix II: Cast of characters -- Appendix III: Selected readings on U.S. torture -- Appendix IV: Selected readings on Afghanistan -- Index;After more than a decade and a half, the results are in. The U.S. government has been unable to achieve its goals in Afghanistan. Even worse, what state it has been able to achieve there is completely unsustainable and certain to fall apart when the occupation is finally called off, and America does come home. The politicans, generals, and intelligence officers behind this unending catastrophe, who always promise they can fix these problems with just a little bit more time, money and military force, have lost all credibility. The truth is America's Afghan war is an irredeemable disaster. It was meant to be a trap in the first place. America is not only failing to defeat its enemies, but is destroying itself, just as Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda always intended. Fool's Errand is an attempt to present the American people with the reality of this forgotten war, because only the ignorance of pride and refusal to admit they have been deceived can prevent Americans from realizing they have supported a policy that is destructive to the United States as well as Afghanistan." -- from Introduction