In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

Office of the President, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, August 23, 2008).

28. Author interview with senior U.S. State Department official, October 2, 2008.

29. Memorandum from Brigadier General Michael W. Callan to Acting Commander, United States Central Command, Subject: Executive Summary of AR 15–6 Investigation into new information relative to civilian casualties from engagement by U.S. and Afghan Forces on 21–22 AUG 2008 in Azizabad, Shindand District, Herat Province, Afghanistan, October 1, 2008.

30. Memorandum from the Rendon Group to J5 CENTCOM Strategic Effects, Polling Results—Afghanistan Omnibus May 2007, June 15, 2007.

31. Charney Associates, Afghanistan: Public Opinion Trends and Strategic Implications (New York: Charney Associates, 2008), slide 20.

32. Author interview with senior NATO intelligence official, November 13, 2008.

33. United Nations Department of Safety and Security, Security Incidents in Afghanistan, July 2008

34. NATO ISAF, Afghan National Security Forces Update (Kabul: NATO ISAF, July 24, 2008), slide 5. Between January 2007 and July 2008, there were 333 Coalition soldiers killed (20 percent), 1,015 Afghan police killed (59 percent), and 369 Afghan soldiers killed (21 percent).

35. Memorandum from Investigating Officer to Commander, Combined Joint Task Force—101, Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Subject AR 15–6 Investigation Findings and Recommendations—Vehicle Patrol Base (VPB) Wanat Complex Attack and Casualties, 13 July 2008, 13 August 2008.

36. The NATO after-action report was leaked to Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. See Graeme Smith, “Taliban Making the Grade in Guerrilla War,” The Globe and Mail, August 20, 2008.

37. Author interviews with U.S. intelligence officers, Bagram, Afghanistan, March 8, 2008.

38. U.S. Department of State, “Pakistan: Refocusing Security Assistance,” January 2008.

39. State Bank of Pakistan, Monetary Police Statement, July—December 2008 (Islamabad: State Bank of Pakistan, 2008).

40. Author interview with senior State Department official, September 30, 2008.

41. Dexter Filkins, “The Long Road to Chaos in Pakistan,” New York Times, September 27, 2008.

42. Dexter Filkins, “Right at the Edge,” New York Times Magazine, September 5, 2008.

43. Author interview with senior NATO official, September 29, 2008.

44. Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt, “Pakistanis Aided Attack in Kabul, U.S. Officials Say,” New York Times, August 1, 2008, p. A1.

45. Author interview with senior White House official, September 25, 2008.

46. Iftikhar A. Khan, “Kayani Warns US to Keep its Troops Out,” Dawn (Pakistan), September 11, 2008.

47. Combined Joint Task Force-101, CJTF-101 Assessment (Bagram: CJTF-101, 2008), slide 7.

Chapter Eighteen

1. Zehr-Ed-Dn Muhammed Bbur, Memoirs of Zehr-Ed-Dn Muhammed Bbur: Emperor of Hindustan, vol. 2, translated by John Leyden and William Erskine (London: Oxford University Press, 1921), p. 19.

2. Author interview with Lieutenant Colonel Simon Heatherington, Commander, Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team, Kandahar, January 16, 2007.

3. Douglas J. Feith, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), pp. 101, 149.

4. Francesc Vendrell, EUSR Vendrell’s Valedictory Report (Kabul: European Union, 2008).

5. Olivier Roy. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 10.

6. U.S. Embassy Kabul to Department of State, Cable 4745, August 2, 1971, “Audience with King Zahir.” Released by the National Security Archive.

7. Thomas Schweich, “Is Afghanistan a Narco-State?” New York Times Magazine, July 27, 2008.

8. See, for example, United States Department of the Army, Counterinsurgency, FM 3–24 (Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2006), pp. 1–13.

9. On the role of tribes, see Shahmahmood Miakhel, “The Importance of Tribal Structures and Pakhtunwali in Afghanistan: Their Role in Security and Governance,” in Arpita Basu Roy, ed., Challenges and Dilemmas of State-Building in in Afghanistan: Report of a Study Trip to Kabul (Delhi: Shipra Publications, 2008), pp. 97–110; David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 39–114.

10. Asia Foundation, Afghanistan in 2008: A Survey of the Afghan People (Kabul and San Francisco: Asia Foundation, 2008).

11. Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf and Mark Adkin, Afghanistan—The Bear Trap: The Defeat of a Superpower (Havertown, PA: Casemate, 2001), p. 64.

12. Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963), p. 186.

13. Norman Davies, God’s Playground: A History of Poland in Two Volumes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

14. Author interview with Ambassador Ronald Neumann, September 7, 2007.

Afterword

1. Author interview with U.S. Army soldier, September 17, 2009.

2. Author interview with White House official, November 2009.

3. Memorandum from Stanley A. McChrystal to the Honorable Robert M. Gates, Subject: COMISAF’s Initial Assessment, Reference: Secretary of Defense Memorandum 26 June 2009, August 30, 2009, p. 1-1.

4. Steven Simon, “Can the Right War Be Won? Defining American Interests in Afghanistan,” Foreign Affairs, vol. 88, no. 4, July/August 2009, p. 134. Also see, for example, Rory Stewart, “How to Save Afghanistan,” Time, July 17, 2008.

5. Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson, “Afghanistan: How Much is Enough?” Survival, vol. 51, no. 5, October–November 2009, pp. 47–68.

6. John J. Mearsheimer, “Hollow Victory,” Foreign Policy, November 2, 2009.

7. Letter from Matthew Hoh to Ambassador Nancy J. Powell, September 10, 2009.

8. Author interview with U.S. army soldier, November 5, 2009.

9. Memorandum from Investigating Officer to Commander, Combined Joint Task Force—101, Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Subject: AR 15-6 Investigation Findings and Recommendations—Vehicle Patrol Base (VPB) Wanat Complex Attack and Casualties, 13 July 2008, August 13, 2008.

10. “Haqqani Says No Use of Negotiations; Vows to Defeat ‘Crusaders’ in Afghanistan,” in the 30th issue of Al-Samud monthly magazine, December 2008. The magazine was published on the Hanin Net Web site at www.hanein.info/vb.

11. Author interviews with British, Pakistani, and Afghan government officials, April and May 2009.

12. Author interviews with NATO government officials, September 2009.

13. Author interview with U.S. intelligence official, November 2009.

14. GEO TV (Pakistan) interview of Shaykh Mustafa Abu al-Yazid (aka Shaykh Saeed), June 21, 2008.

15. See, for example, Stephen Biddle, “Is it Worth It?” American Interest, July– August 2009, vol. 4, no. 6.

16. Steve Coll, “The Case for Humility in Afghanistan,” Foreign Policy, October 16, 2009.

17. Author interview with Taliban commander, April 2009.