The Afghanistan Papers
A Secret History of the War
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The Afghanistan Papers
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Narrated by:
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Dan Bittner
About this listen
A Washington Post Best Book of 2021
The number-one New York Times best-selling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock.
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: 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 become 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 “fast-paced and vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) 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 meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that 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 “searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials” (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.
©2021 Craig Whitlock and The Washington Post (P)2021 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Craig Whitlock has forged a searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials, with the same tragic echoes of the Vietnam conflict. The American dead, wounded, and their families deserved wiser and more honorable leaders.” (Tom Bowman, NPR Pentagon correspondent)
“At once page-turning and rigorous, The Afghanistan Papers makes a lasting and revelatory contribution to the record of America's tragic management of our longest war. In transparent and nuanced detail, Whitlock chronicles how American leaders and commanders undermined their country's promises to the Afghans who counted on them and to the US troops who made the ultimate sacrifice after 9/11.” (Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars and Directorate S)
“The Afghanistan Papers is a gripping account of why the war in Afghanistan lasted so long. The missed opportunities, the outright mistakes, and more than anything, the firsthand accounts from senior commanders who only years later acknowledged they simply did not tell the American people what they knew about how the war was going.” (Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon correspondent)
What listeners say about The Afghanistan Papers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C. Doyle
- 09-09-21
Breathtaking ...
Having studied and taught both history and international relations it comes as no surprise that the west was so hopelessly out of it's depth in almost all conflicts post the second world war. What becomes clear when listening to this first class audiobook is just how badly the war in Afghanistan was conducted. From top to bottom, from country to country, from inept policy maker to corrupt indigenous officials this majestic narrative provides the facts and almost eye popping figures for what has become a symbol of American humiliation ... I listened to the entire book in less than three days! I would recommend this title wholeheartedly for those who want to get to the crux of this most devastating of conflicts and for those who, like me, are fascinated by the disconnect between the propaganda and reality.
Craig Whitlock uses a really compelling mix of almost anecdotal reflection based on sources of evidence and statistics that reinforce and elaborate upon the points being made. Easy to understand and doesn't fall into the trap of simply repeating facts and figures ... looking forward to reading the book when it arrives!
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- tirnanog33
- 17-03-24
The madness of American misadventures where they have no business being involved
The absolute corruption, financed with American taxpayers dollars, that achieved nothing worthwhile, in the end
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Phillip
- 21-09-21
phenomenal
Brilliant investigative journalism, so interesting and informative. Amazingly written by Craig Whitlock beautifully narrated by Dan Bittner 🎶📚🏆
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Ai Shaheen
- 06-09-21
Excellent book
Timing of the book can either be an uncanny coincidence or this too, is a part of dirty politics of establishment! Excellent book with full of facts which, we the non US citizens knew long time ago. Clear and crisp narration of Dan Bittner is one of the best. It keeps listener glued to the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Arkhidamos
- 29-12-21
Devastating critique of Afghanistan war
The private thoughts laid out by military and political participants in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan are devastating on two counts.
One, it outlines the extent to which they were willing to lie to the American public, lies in which the other NATO governments colluded. The really barmy thing is (missed by this book because of its US-centric approach) that plenty of policy analysts, observers and citizens in the NATO countries were openly saying that the war was unwinnable from day one. If this book proves anything, it’s that they were right. You can hypothesise a world in which the US military under Bush concentrated on the capture of Bin Laden rather than nation building, you can imagine an invasion force which took seriously the differences between US/Western and the multiple Afghan cultures, and you can pretend that being smarter in respect of Pakistan’s double dealing might have avoided the major problems that confronted the war. But this is to misunderstand how wars are fought and what exactly Bush and his PNAC coterie wanted: billions in private sector contracts for their campaign contributors and a reliable geostrategic counterweight in Central Asia. Both Obama and Trump, regardless of their campaigns, joined in the US military establishment’s groupthink, wasting blood and treasure on nothing.
Two, even if you believe that nation building etc are valid goals, the book is devastating towards how utterly incompetent the US in particular but also the NATO-led ISAF forces were at doing any of this. Stupidity, self-interest, cowardice and plenty of other epithets can be applied to many of the characters whose actions are depicted in this book. Yet these are intelligent people - experienced soldiers, graduates of elite universities, some of righteous purpose with more sensitivity to their mission, personally courageous. In their unguarded moments, they identify for themselves many of the key failures. Yet despite their rank, access to or their own place in the political establishment and the resources at their disposal, none of them could do anything. That’s the extent of the madness of the Western political systems, which ultimately governed the “intervention” (invasion and occupation) of Afghanistan.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- citizen smith
- 17-07-23
not enough meat on the bone...
I expected more detail to be honest, it's all very thin and more of an overview than really digging in to the actual failures.
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- Adam Brown
- 07-02-22
Pretty interesting listen
If you are interested in the Afghanistan war and the thinking behind it, this is an eye-opener. The performance is good, clear and easily understood.
If you are a casual historian, this is a good listen for you - very interesting as it is such a recent event.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- Red river 6
- 09-09-21
It’s fine
If you know nothing about war/history. It’s fine.
But it’s kinda soft, bit wishaywashy
& he dates “oral history interview “ about a 1000 times. Gets irritating
But otherwise ok 👍
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