American Opportunity, Squandered in Afghanistan

In the guise of reconstruction and global security, we took opportunity from America, and gave it to futile nation building, corruption…and heroin.

Photo by M. Cooper on Unsplash

The Original Narrative of Our Efforts in Afghanistan

There is an equally dark and depressing story drifting below the awful images of the collapse of Kabul, the resumption of the primitive and cruel rule of the Taliban, and the heart-wrenching failure of American intelligence agencies and military leadership to predict and prevent the humanitarian crisis unfolding at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

The cost of the Afghan war, and the reconstruction work that the Taliban is now taking over and largely disassembling or scrapping, has cost us more than $2 trillion dollars.

Not long after the September 11th attacks, and the subsequent Operation Enduring Freedom, the Brookings institute published The Aid and Reconstruction Agenda for Afghanistan. In the report, they outlined the necessary agenda to accompany our war effort. The agenda included:

• Food, housing, medical care;
• Education;
• Rebuilding and developing infrastructure;