@@brucecampbell4528they both are. Trump decided to go behind the actual government in Afghanistan and basically surrender to the Taliban on our soil on live TV. This lead to numerous immediate issues with troops and police getting paid or even knowing who to take orders from. This is why they were able to drive straight in without much fight at all. Trump did this on his way out the door making a deal that said we would leave in Bidens first transitional year. Which Trump blocked the Biden administration from getting the usual headstart on because he wanted to betray our democracy real quick. Biden was president and though he didn't get the information an incoming president gets as early as he was supposed to and Trump literally dumped the whole thing into his lap after sabotaging any chance of the Afghanistan military and government making any kind of stand, the buck stops with the POTUS. Biden and his administration dropped the ball for their part as well in a few ways but trying to pretend that Trump doesn't own a major steak in that mess is pure cultist propaganda.
Yes you are right this whole scam was a complete vile disgusting waste of human life. And the US Government CIA got rid of thousands of US lives it wanted to avoid having to pay for and take care of (disgusting and filthy) and who cares if we waste a few million "sand monkeys" as quoted from countless talks and briefings while I was I the sand box. That attitude tells you the tale of the tape all on it's own never mind the colossal waste of resources
If you ever feel useless... remember... it took the United States 20 years, trillions of dollars and 4 U.S President to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.
For 20 years of Freedom for many women and children it was worth it, and this should never have happened, Trump's awful preparation of the Afghan military led to this.
The repeated flaw in American foreign policy after WW 2 is not realizing it is virtually impossible to avoid being seen as a foreign occupying power no matter how well intentioned your mission.
The US went into WW2 as a landgrabber or to maintain control of the West. Look at the dates of end of Operation Barbarossa, Pearl Harbor Attack and American military deployment. Britain was in warwith Germany from 1939. Where were mighty US?
There is no flaw in US Foreign Policy. By design, it's a shadow empire building policy. We're just really good at gaslighting our own people by naming it something else :)
You can’t use an Army to rebuild an entire country at gun point. Because that’s not what an army is designed to do. It seems like a lot of generals don’t understand that.
@@MrGhosthacked if the US nuked Afghanistan and repopulated it with Americans, then sure they could have. But other than that colonization will always fail. And what Europeans failed to realize is this L is on them too because they were involved in Afghanistan with the rebuilding process, so what the hell were they doing?
A wise man once told me, “ The generals get the glory, the mother and fathers get the flag and the soldiers get the GRAVE “. That wise man was my father a Korean War Veteran, he begged me not to join the military. I join the U.S. Navy, within two weeks “ Boots on ground “ in Iraq, we had our first unit “KIA” after the memorial service, l laid on my bunk and thought of my Father Worlds: “ The generals get the glory, the mother and fathers get the flag and the soldiers get the GRAVE”………..
@@binaariani3744 Didn’t either one in the U.S. , got PTSD, Called the N-word by an old man I held the door open for as he walk through another entrance. I thought to myself “ Well there goes Thank you for your service 😂 “….. I did find that better life though, I left the U.S. for another country.
Ok I get it. It's called sacrifice. If yourself, others and me didn't pick up the flag and sacrifice we wouldn't have a country. The biggest problem we have is politicians putting limits on us for these wars.
As Craig Whitlock says, "The United States never really understood Afghanistan and what made it tick." We didn't know its people, history, culture, religion, day-to-day life, politics, sociology, languages, ecology and never bothered to learn. As General Lute admitted, "We didn't have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking." In the heat of fear, anger, and vengeance, we rushed in and then fumbled around for 20 years. It was a massive failure of leadership - like Vietnam. Will we ever learn from these experiences?
Ofcourse we do😂 Ignorant comment. Go read the CIA declassified documents. We knew them before they were our enemy. Everything about them down to their school curriculum
entire war was a proxy war, not a real war. afghanistan is a dust bowl not a real company it's a piece of desert land that is meant to be left alone and not developed. and the usa lost to this useless piece of land. the real reason was the whole war was a scheme. all of the arab nations and usa was colluding with one another to conduct the genocide. very similar to the current ukraine thing, usa is still doing their misconduct but they shifted the genocide into ukraine and knows it's happening and still funds it.
No. Same mistakes again. Same arrogance. The U.S. failed to learn how the Brits won in Malaya against the communist insurgents, too. It was another guerilla war.
They will never because of their arrogance. Ask a republican who hates Muslims and people of colour from the global south. They are still seeking more wars.
@@davidb2206 Remember when USA armed the talibans against the socialist govt of Afghanistan and against the Soviet Union troops ? Remember also USA/Western propaganda portrayed talibans as "freedom fighters", sounds familiar ?? "We don't replicate the same mistakes we made in this war, for the next one ?" So when are you going to learn to stop interfering in other countries ? That's none of your business. That's none of your business that a country is communist or not. JUST F*** OFF.
My job in Afghanistan was with the UN as a development engineer and adviser to Ministers. The army getting involved in this type of activity was wrong. It placed all development agencies into the same box alongside the army and as such, became a threat to us all. I lost 6 colleagues to it. Also, they had no idea what was needed. What was needed was economy development, not just roads that suited the US purpose or projects to win hearts and minds. Even now, the major industries that were left when they left were mainly built around serving the needs of the US military and the international agencies rather than a self sufficient economy.
Seems to me that this was a place that didn't want to change or have what was offered. Exactly the opposite of Ukraine 🇺🇦 Ukraine wants it's country to survive and be a democratic government that is NOT corrupt. This they have proven time and time again. The support for Ukraine should be multiplied many times and sped up. Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦 from Canada 🇨🇦
The issues in Afghanistan were much greater than just economic development Afghanistan was a backward country beset with illiteracy, tribal warlords, women suppression, religious fundamentalism, poverty, and many more. Not a situation that can quickly or easily overcome.
As an Afghan who was born during the first occupation of the Taliban and remembers the B52 bombing of the capital Kabul, the situation in Afghanistan was and is much more complicated. The collapse of a country does not depend on 3500 foreign troops while having more than two hundred thousand national military forces. Just in summary no one knows the big game between superpowers and imagine this, only one year after the collapse of Afghanistan, Russia started the war in Ukraine and Afghanistan is a country that borders central Asia and post-Soviet countries which most still share the same benefits with Russia. Also, another big problem was corruption when you pour billions of dollars without a plan to spend it. Internal disagreements because of ethnical diversity in Afghanistan and the hegemonic ambitions of one of those ethnicities even to purge others from power.
The language the Americans were using to describe their objectives gave away how tone deaf they were. The history of Afghanistan was no secret to anyone who was willing to learn.
Pakistan helped US to invade while also helping to defeat US by sheltering Talibans, due to Durrand line Pakistan would never allow a stable Afghanistan regardless of what regime is in Afghanistan, apart from all this, in modern times US only fights failed wars, meaning US was not there to win the war but to leave the country in a failed state
@@antonioarroyas7662 there is no pride in the history of half a century war, more than two million deaths, no education, collapse of economy, and no one willing to stay.
@@Mu5tyLaghmani pakistans intelligence agency was behind all of this. they wanted to make money, so they sheltered and armed tal1ban, and forced america to spend more dollars in the afghan war. thus profiting pakistan. however almost 70k pakistanis died including soldiers just because of their stup1d game.
I served 2 one year deployments in Afghanistan 04-05 10-11. We knew that the Afghanistan government and military were going to just give up. The lowest of soldiers were not getting paid most of the time and they had terrible equipment. So much corruption in that country we couldn't fix that problem at all.
Do you feel comfortable talking about your assignments? If yes: what would you say were the crucial mistakes of the mission? Do you still think it was somehow worth it? Would you do this mission again?
@@Fallon922 I hope you realize the invasion of Iraq was due to Saddam Hussein illegally invading Kuwait, and his subsequent draining of Kuwait's resources and wealth, which wreaked murderous havoc on the male population. Afghanistan was caused by the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks hiding out with his militia in the caves and mountains.
The fact that they took back the country so fast on exit shows how we made changes. Whether the exit was botched or not, we didnt change any hearts or minds. We need to start staying out of these issues and let their regions figure it out.
We did change hearts... for the worse. The taliban increased tenfold during the our occupation and now have several billion dollars worth of weapons that the army left behind. Our war crimes there (that were pardoned or covered up) turned much of the populace against us...
@@JsfosstdjsfJsfos-lf4tg Yeah but Al Qaeda was training them in Afghanistan and they were defeated and destroyed so yeah it was a success they are gone today
The biggest mistake USA has made in afghanistan was not understanding the culture of afghans especially the Pashtoon tribes. You can never force them to accept something forcefully nor they are scared of deaths. The US could only own those people by economy development rather than imposing war and bombing them. USA might kill people but they cannot kill an ideology. After US investing trillions of $ and lossing personals, the Afghanistan is much more stronger and united than before.
@@jeffxie5067if you have unlearnt your accent, any country will do. Start your voicerecorder, and say "A", ...like 10K times, as other humans say it. Learn to use your voice apparatus like humans do. A.s.a. you feel confident, that they cannot identify your origins, go wherever you like. Otherwise its almost sure you will be hated or at best: laughed at, wherever you go. if you are respected, its because they are afraid of you. or are interested in your money.-should you have some. / this is safe information, so often shared among humans.
@@orhansense7282 What a clown you are. The USA was attacked on 9/11 by Al Qaeda which by the way also had attacked France, Russia and the UK, remember the UK subway bombing??? The USA and its allies went in to Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda and indeed Al Qaeda and Osama were destroyed they are all gone today. So it was a success, don't be a clown
lol you totally missed the point of the video, stop watching mainstream media and think for yourself. The US was never there to help afghani/iraqi people you fool.
there are lots of normal people in Afghanistan that don't want to be ruled by tyrants who abuse women, follow a backward religion and have inter course with kids, I think that's what he meant.
The Taliban certainly stood up for themselves. I don't like them, but they stood up for themselves, the Americans created this mess when they supported the mujahedin in the eighties.
But putting aside the Izrl-U.S. alliance, it is technically impossible for them to commit the same mistakes, because their practical realities on-the-ground, as nations, are fundamentally dissimilar. And as such, that which applies to one cannot systematically be hoisted onto the other.
According to Brown University researchers, the US War in Afghanistan (2001-2022) cost the US (tax payers) $2.313 trillion. I can think of better ways to spend this money. Tax payer money should be spent on infrastructure, healthcare and education. Opium production surged from approximately 180 tonnes in 2001 to 9,900 tonnes in 2017.
Biden has passed ALOT over 1 trillion dollars has been put for infrastructure, healthcare is there for anyone who can’t afford and needs it also under the affordable care act. However the way we entered Afganistán and withdrew troops was totally wrong, I personally don’t blame Biden because the deal was made between Trump and the taliban.
@@drZok3136ridiculous. Biden wasn’t even President between that time period and why on earth would he be motivated to end the war if he was receiving the drug money? The fact is that opium production in Afghanistan was controlled largely by the Taliban, not by U.S. forces, and certainly not by the Vice President.
this was an incredible documentary, thanks for making it. the fact that america can examine itself this well gives me hope both about the future of america and about my own country here in europe.
I recall a lesson from Vietnam….what did the Vietnamese want? My 14 years in Afghanistan left me with one question….why did we force our values on the Afghans?
@@levelazn Mybe that reason is like how they force their authoritarian ways on innocent people? Do you like the genocide on the Uyghurs and the oppression of people of china? Freak
@@Errol-kq7eobut that’s their own people they are not from another country, think about it if Chinese gov come to USA and ask you to take their values would you do that?
@@Mesrine1 Why does this matter? That's like saying think about if child protective services came into your house because you were abusing them and forcing their values of not abusing them on you.
entire war was a proxy war, not a real war. afghanistan is a dust bowl not a real country it's a piece of desert land that is meant to be left alone and not developed. and the usa lost to this useless piece of land. the real reason was the whole war was a scheme. all of the arab nations and usa was colluding with one another to conduct the genocide. very similar to the current ukraine thing, usa is still doing their misconduct but they shifted the genocide into ukraine and knows it's happening and still funds it.
You can't create a national army. You can create an army. You can arm and train people. But where the "national" comes, it's up to the people. The best you can do is educate them. If you don't do this step, then you just built an army for someone else.
you can`t educate anything on low iq population especially with a fundamentally flawed culture it never worked and never will people educate themselves and structure the society rules and organisation in such a way that with each ITERATION the resulted specimens are better , for that one needs the proper genetic material and the proper societal rules cumulatively known as the CULTURE and then and only then after generations correctly named ITERATION the resulted specimens are better, this is practically how we build AI today , the american withdrawl was the absolute perfect decission and soon with the advent of tens of millions of low iq immigrants (politically correct term is low academic potential) YOU TO WILL NEED TO WITHDRAW from your own cities and eventually from the country , functional societies are not given they are built and i clearly expressed the recipe above 12:20 it`s not in their DNA to change (the machine is flawed the production process was flawed ) in this condition we call the specimen a rebut and it goes to be recycled for a new iteration
You can not invade a foreign country and expect roses from the people. Even if you promise them democracy and economic development. No one will ever accept an occupier or an outsider as a ruler of their established society.
@@mesafintfanuel3627 The USA went in to stop Al Qaeda after it attack them on 9/11 also they attacked France, Russia and UK so they had to be stopped. Indeed Al Qaeda today is gone so it was successful.
As a young Afghan, I would like to address the issue of corruption, particularly in reference to the female ambassador from Afghanistan who held a position in the United States. It is disconcerting to witness her speaking about corruption when, as reported by the media, she herself has been implicated and proven to be involved in embezzling millions of American dollars. And it's worth noting the loss of thousands of Afghan lives. Every Afghan knows that the USA was not here to build our country or stabilize the economy-none of them. From the top leader to down, it is evident that their aim was to enrich themselves by filling their pockets. It was America that supported them. In the end, the USA should not have attacked our country; they should have learned from the experiences of the Russians and the British
My brother served in the middle east, often ran into Army Rangers guys. One encounter, this dude said ‘watch this’ and mowed down some men walking thru a field. No intel on if they were bad guys, innocent or anything. Another time, he asked why he kept seeing an FBI agent wonder out of the base with a bag of pistols. ‘Incase we shoot the wrong people’ Google drop gun. What a mess
The US Army personnel responsible for murdering over 500 unarmed civilian men, women, children, and infants in the village of My Lai were acquitted and pardoned.
Really? No, it showed that if you agree to stop fighting then wait until the USA leaves then start fighting again you can take over. In neither circumstance did they win militarily.
I like the candid dialogue but disagree with his final conclusion. The termination of the war matters. I served 2 tours there during the height of the war (07-08 and 09-10) and I think that if we do not acknowledge that our efforts produced no visible fruit we will have more guys not reaching out for help and eating guns. Freud, I think said it best when he said (I paraphrase): "A man who faces facts, no matter how unpleasant, retains his sanity." We have to face facts on this, and hold those who made the informed decisions accountable for it. Our fallen comrades would ask no less than this....
All wars ended in some kind of negotiated settlements. Sometimes it's very one-sided, but even the most "unconditional surrenders" had a lot of "conditions" in the ending. The Allies promised that, for example, they would not enslave the German and Japanese populations but the war criminals would be trialed. They would be allowed to return to The International economics systems, etc ... The American people bought into the idea of "there is no negotiated end to war. We fight, we defeat, and we win". Well, it's not the Punic Wars anymore where you get to kill all the males, enslave all the women and children and (apocryphally) salt the ground. It's no longer the case. I believe that was how they saw American won the Civil War and WWII. The books written by Dan Reiter demonstrated this quite nicely. In 2002, he wrote "Democracies at War" which said that democracies are more likely to win wars than autocracies. This was his self- reassuring book just as his country started two wars. Sad to say that his democracy added two losses to the record. In 2009, he wrote "How Wars End" and it admits to the fact that wars end by settlements and wars are an educational process to show the participants what they can and can't get.
Well the US army had pretty much left after 2014-2015 when the deaths per year fell to less then 20 after 2015, as after that it was mostly just training mission and the air base and intelligence. And overall Al Qaeda is today gone and Osama is fish food.
@@yayaabdulahihasan7749 yea relationship wise but fundamentaly or religiously especially if it's been ingrained for thousands of years change is nearly impossible, your right though maybe the right people can I think the u.s. just went head first into something they don't understand
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year. Why wasn’t this mentioned in this video? In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine. This documentary is stew pid.
“Operation enduring freedom” was the virtuous name given to the unjust invasion of Afghanistan. “Operation Iraqi freedom” was the angelic title for the brutal invasion of Iraq. “Operation unified protector” was the fancy name for the destruction of Libya. All in the name of democracy.
Read a book that amazing, War is a Racket by Gen Smedley Butler, Marine Corp General, won two medals of honor, sent to central America so US companies could take over the banana plantations, it's always the money.
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year. Why didn’t they mention this in this video? In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine. This documentary is stew pid.
Peace didn't exist before the "endless wars" of War on Terror, nor will it exist afterwards. This planet has never known peace in the entire 6000 years of human recorded history.
entire war was a proxy war, not a real war. afghanistan is a dust bowl not a real country it's a piece of desert land that is meant to be left alone and not developed. and the usa lost to this useless piece of land. the real reason was the whole war was a scheme. all of the arab nations and usa was colluding with one another to conduct the genocide. very similar to the current ukraine thing, usa is still doing their misconduct but they shifted the genocide into ukraine and knows it's happening and still funds it. they want to keep the population numbers in check. the world is on pace to run out of oil within 30 years from now. but they should not do these stupid wars, they should just tell everyone to stop breeding like what china did. but the woman still find a way to cheat the rules.
@@fiaf-m3003 the people of usa do. not a reckleess 80 year olds like biden whom his own time is near an end so he could care less about human life. but he doesn't represent the people at large. these decisions are made by the few with too much power.
As always we never learn from past military experiences, we continue to make the same mistakes costing lives. Afghanistan was my generation Vietnam with incompetent, promotion and assignment driven general officers whose main concern was outdoing the previous person and most importantly not displaying true LEADERSHIP. To listen to these retired generals talk now really upsets me because they had an obligation to their subordinates to not only lead but fight to ensure they had the necessary resources and objectives to be successful. I served in the Army from 1988-2012 and had my fair share of deployments to many countries in support of military operations prior to and after 9/11. I learned that being a leader encompass courage to stand up for what is right regardless of the situation. I understand that there are people that have aspirations of achieving the highest level/rank whether it be as a NCO or officer but some do forget what their primary purpose of being a leader is. Leaders inspire, motivate, train, teach, mentor, take care of their personnel and most importantly are tasked to take their subordinates to combat and bring them back home safely. I’ve said in a previous post the military was given a challenging task with no clear guidance and they did their best to accomplish the mission. The military doesn’t lose wars only politicians lose wars. We put so much trust in our politicians and things just seem to fall apart constantly. We all knew Afghanistan was a corrupt country but yet we expected a different outcome. This goes to show when the government of a country is corrupt the country has no choice but to fail regardless how much effort and support is given throughout the international community. My hopes are that our politicians, military leaders and citizens have learned from the Afghanistan war but my heart says we have not based on current events which means we are doomed to make the same mistakes again. History exists to teach but one must be willing to learn.
My hope is that US will loose a major war and will become one of few major powers restricted to own sphere of influence with no global outreach. It's all pointing to that scenario. Country is surrounded by medieval shitholes with narco crime and lawlessness while hypocritically trying to build nations on the other side of the globe . Probably by design. Why build prosperity in your own sphere of influence when you can have as much cheap destitute labor as needed? Also , you guys who are enlisting in tours because there is nothing else you can do in life are mercs no soldiers since you're mostly used in illegal wars and only the fact of being a military force of a superpower saves your leadership ranks from being court-martialed as war criminals.
I knew back in 2011 and 2012 when I was in Afghanistan that as soon as we left the taliban would take back over. We had to leave at some point but the way it was done was terrible, seeing these guys try to say they didn't see it coming really hurts amd pisses me off. These "leaders" need to be held accountable! the way the whole war was managed by politicians and genreals was terrible. We all knew exactly how the withdraw would play out
Afghanistan was a plot so we give the military industrial complex billions of US tax dollars. That is fundamentally it. Everything else was just a lie/excuse. Just like now "CHINA! RUSSIA! QUICK, WE NEED TO INCREASE MILITARY FUNDING BY ANOTHER 200 BILLION!" meanwhile the American people are stuck in a capitalist hellscape where every turn is met by a greedy corporation using inflation as an excuse to nickel and dime us.
Some of the people who benefitted from this 20-year Afghan war are now working in academic institutions teaching your sons and daughters. Some of them are in arms and tech companies (as board members or advisers). And the others? Well, they could be your neighbors happily enjoying their retirement.
More like 20 yrs of MONEY LAUNDERING at that money and still Afghans have nothing to show for of that $2.3 Trillion dollars... Wake up people Ukraine is no different. Money making scam is what this is.. Greedy career corrupt politicians getting fat on tax payers money.
One of the biggest mistakes was that Americans were taking advice and trusting Pakistani government, while they were arming and supporting the taliban, and wanted this mission to fail,Americans were looking at Afghanistan thru the lenses of Pakistani Generals and believed it
Do you really think the superpower needed Pakistan advice to defeat a militant? yes Pakistan did supported some factions of Taliban but saying that it was the only reason for USA failure is immature and just a propaganda told by Afghan nationalists
Do you really think the superpower needed Pakistan advice to defeat a militant? yes Pakistan did supported some factions of Taliban but saying that it was the only reason for USA failure is immature and just a propaganda told by Afghan nationalists
That was the main reason for the failure of this mission, because Pakistan not just trained and supported the taliban in its soil ,but used its leverage with Americans to promote the taliban as the only other alternative for Afghanistan..
Agreed the short rotation in and out of the military was a huge weakness...we NGO volutneers were committed for years and left seldom, big difference in relationships and understanding of the work.
Well the goal from the start was to crush Al Qaeda as they hosted them in Afghanistan and that was successful, Al Qaeda is history. They attacked France, Spain train bombing, UK subway attacks, Even Russia was attacked, so we had to go in and end that mess which well. was successful.... The US military lost less than 20 men per year after 2014-2015 when it was contractors that took over but it was stupid, the whole show should have ended in 2015 but for whatever reason Obama and Trump did not end it, not sure why.
I only served 1 tour in Afganistan on active duty. I know I served my country to the best of my abilities at the time, however, I definitely have mixed feelings why we basically tried to occupy a country for so long and impose our views and ideologies among people that do not view the same way. At least once a week or sometimes twice a week we would gather at attention for Fallen Hero ceremonies on the flightline. We used our own C-130 aircraft for coffin displays. That was very difficult to deal with, because they were Americans that didn't even know.
you never served the US as it is not exist ONLY SOME AMERCAN CITIZENS HEARTH but other wise YOU SERVED KISSINGER WEAPON MAKERS DRUGDEALERS ISRAEL nothing else as your leaders and army is lead by them for to serve them.... minewhile all your tax money goes to Israel too where they use it for free healthcare free education free everything the money they double double and even more and may times double steeled from you from your family and kids .... WORST IT WILL GET FOR THEM IF ISRAEL WOULD NOT BE TOTALLY DESTROYED AND TAKEN THE RIGHT OF RECOGNISION OF THEM AS STATE GIVEN TO THEM BY THE QUEENS MOTHER JEWISH ORIGINE AND ABUSE OF THE UKS ROYAL FAMILY NAME AND TOTALLY IDSTROYED THE UK CITIZENS TOO> FOR THAT THEY USE THEIR OFFSPRINGS IN HOLYWOOD TO GET RICH BY BEING FAMOUS WHILE ALL FILM IS PLANE HOW TO KILL OUT THE US THE UK AND ALL NATIONS
With all the "noise", I did not see this coming. A beacon of hope that was truly needed in this political climate. Well balanced and I think you have set a new standard for NEWS in America. Someone has to do it. The ending was right on the 'money'. Fantastic. Release this into different platforms.
Hello, hope you are doing well, i am a student ftom Afghanistan living in Pakistan and acquiring education, i am in very harsh trouble at the moments, because of unpaid fees of university.will you plz help me with 400 dollar to submit my fee, i will be very thankful to you.
Fox news rvtards aren't going to take the time to watch this, let alone make a documentary like this. That is the difference between us and them today. Period.
There is a proverb in my local Kenyan Kikuyu dialect that goes, "Uuugi Ndwanjagia." The translation is that wisdom is usually always as a result of mistakes. Wisdom is usually never at the starting point of any and all human experiences but rather it is the end result of them all, both individually and collectively.
My father was in Pakistan Army and i can surely state this fact that American death toll in Afghanistan is way way more higher than officially acknowledged.
it's due to advanced medical technologies and treatments, large number of amputees and other seriously wounded who would have died in earlier conflicts of this scale. Huge numbers of PTSD, which then results in large numbers of dysfunctional individuals returning and demobilizing, then large numbers of suicides.
Lt. Col Jason Dempsey said what I know and saw during my three tours (48 months) serving in Afghanistan. I was reprimanded and sent home early for expressing my assessment of failures. No one [it's career suicide] tells the "Old Man" bad news!
Maybe the generals and the presidents during the war should be held responsible because they knew behind the scenes that it was a failed war doomed to failed. OBL dies in May 2011 that should have been the opportunity to withdrawal. Afghanistan is a failed country with different tribes fighting and killing each other
@@ErinDindoffer we should’ve withdraw in 2011 after Bin Ladens death, or in the end of 2011. Nation building should have been done in this country not in Afghanistan. Afghan people are responsible for developing their country
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year. Why wasn’t this mentioned in this video? In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine. This documentary is stew pid.
I appreciate your dad's service and I understand your loss. Thank you and your family for your sacrifices. The bogus war was Iraq. The Afghanistan war was righteous in my opinion.
Back in the 90's I remember talking to a former officer of the Soviet Army who said "The military did what was asked of us, and we did it well. The politicians lost this war." He also complained about the "greens" (ANA) being unmotivated and corrupt. I suspect if we were to ask a Vietnam veteran, they would say the same thing about their effort and about ARVN performance.
@@alexdale8705after all American forces left by 1973 , the north Vietnamese attacked the south and it was the army of south Vietnam that lost in 1975 .
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year. Why wasn’t this mentioned in this video? In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine. This documentary is stew pid.
@@terjeoseberg990 Ukraine is a high intensity conflict though. Perhaps a better comparison could have been to Soviet losses in Afghanistan: 14,453 KIA.
First off, I’m an OEF vet (Kandahar and Helmand provinces) and What always blew my mind and still enrages me to this day is this: The fighting aged males of that country didn’t want to take their own country back. If they didn’t want to be patriots and fight for their own freedom from the Taliban then why were we doing it for them? That’s just my $0.02
OEF vet too. My take centers around understanding Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. We, in the west, and as Americans, are generally on a higher rung of that pyramid. Where basic needs are met, physiologically, socially, economically, to the point where we can undergo self-actualization and get into abstract things like "patriotism" and "self-determination." Afghanistan does not have that bandwidth or "luxury" to explore such things. They are literally only thinking about their next meal. The poverty we saw there is the ultimate disconnect... we didn't understand the amount of poverty and that it is a country of grifters, young and old. They do whatever it takes to survive. That's their mode of thinking. We can't prescribe ideas like "patriotism" or suggest they go down the hard path of "self determination" when they themselves don't have enough money to feed their family, or much less themselves. We essentially were trying to teach an illiterate and grifting population western philosophy, law, and ideals expecting them to pick it up and see it's values. They can only explore those spaces if their physiological, mental, emotional, and economic needs are met first (hence, see Maslows Heirarchy of Needs). They simply don't have the mental or physical bandwidth to explore such things. The consolation is that I believe we truly empathized with them and wanted to give them a better future (especially women in Kabul), but in the end, they were simply too poor, too illiterate, and too hungry (literally) to adopt/adapt.
You still do not understand the Afghan people just like the politicians and the military leadership. Patriotism to Afghan people was fighting the foreign occupations and joining the Taliban. Those who were collaborating with Americans were the ones seen as traitors working to make few cash and bite time until the Americans leave. Fighting foreign occupation by a military super power for 20 years and defeating them would be the strongest show of patriotism on the face of the earth. Your own mind just switched the logic around.
@@John-vm2sq You are like many I worked with, you see things from your perspective and what you as an American want and are not even thinking about what it is they want. From their perspective, the Talibs are also Afghans, they follow the same religion and not always that much differently to what they do. Moreover, the fact that you wanted to introduce western or American culture and ideals puts you at odds with a culture that is a thousand years older than your own. The thing is, Americans were the invaders and the locals simply tolerated you knowing full well that eventually you would leave and think nothing of it...and you did.
They actually took their country back by fighting off the US and their western allies. Those you call the "Taliban" are local ethnic Afghans. Imaging being mad that people fought you because you were an invader.
To all those who fought in Afghanistan we salute you, While it ended in disaster not only for the US but also it's allies may your efforts be recognized to help the people of that country from Taliban rule
What did your nation give you in return? You think that whatever you did invading that land will go unnoticed? You will be held accountable before God and we would all see what your fate would be
@@MohamedBadat-yp7xj”A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.” It doesn’t matter what we think his country gave back. He made the decision to serve for what he believed was right. That’s why he is proud to have give service. Who are we to question his servitude? And for who? You’re right only God will have the right to judge if what he did was right or wrong. What if God deemed his actions to be right and just ? Will you question God’s Judgement ?
@@mikejohn3630 God will judge that is true but he doesnt like oppressors It matters not what this soilder thought,every single life he took will stand before God and say "God,this man here took my life whilst I was but a child" A woman will come and say "God,this man Murdered my parents and brothers" An old man will come and say "God,this man slaughtered my grandsons" And God will ask this soilder "On what right,did you do these atrocities,why did you do all of that" The us soilder will reply "God,I was commanded to do so by my army supervisor whos name is so and so" God will say "Didn't I not give you Intellect to discern what is right and what is wrong,didn't I not grant you a consciousness that guided you and you silenced it" God will then say "Every man,woman is accountable for their own sins,no burden of a person shall be carried by another person" And while all of his victims are watching He is thrown into the f(I re) God will then say "Am I not then just? His victims will celebrate because now true justice has been served
Proud ? you should be ashamed and disgusted. Remember when USA armed the talibans against the socialist govt of Afghanistan and against the Soviet Union troops ? Remember also USA/Western propaganda portrayed talibans as "freedom fighters", sounds familiar ?? "We don't replicate the same mistakes we made in this war, for the next one ?" So when are you going to learn to stop interfering in other countries ? That's none of your business.
No, it was due to 9/11 and Osama which conducted the attacks and his center of operations was in Afghanistan and the poof is that today Al Qaeda is GONE and Osama was captured. This was a resounding success and the US army pretty much alreayd left in 2014 as you can see by the deaths of US solders fell to less than 20 per year after 2015 and most of those were from disease or other reasons no combat
Afghan war Vet here. This was a very well done documentary. I appreciate the deep dive into this and hard questions asked. I think about this war a lot and the people we lost over there. I’d like to think what keeps people like me sane is knowing you did what you were asked to do well and did so with integrity and humanity. The other part is not fixating on the past (positive or negative) and always move forward mentally. I understand why Vets will ruminate on this but I would argue that’s not healthy and try to find something to get past this (hobby, work, non profit, community work, etc). I’m also glad they focused on the families here. So much sacrifice was made by them.
Thank you for making this available for free, every American should watch this film, those who have not served still have an obligation to remember the sacrifices of our service men
It's interesting that Jake said the words "blood lust" bc those were the words I going to use to describe what it was I think it was I, along with millions of other Americans were feeling back in September 2001. I remember that sense of wanting revenge even though I'd never been that kind of person. Of course, had I known then that this would mean sacrificing my oldest son, who was 10 at the time, I surely would've thought differently. Don't misunderstand, my son still lives and breathes, but the young man that marched off to train to become a Recon Marine and then fight in one of the most kinetic combat regions in Afghanistan is not the young man I handed off. He suffers horribly from PTSD. He suffers from nightmares every single night, he cannot stand the sound of a woman or a baby crying- whether it be in person or even just on tv/ movie, so he'll never be able to have a child of his own. The fact that he hasn't become one of the 13 veterans/day who commits suicide is nothing short of a miracle because he constantly tells us he doesn't want to be here. Despite all this, I mean he is a Recon Marine after all... the best of the best. He went to college when he got out, even got his Masters and works every day. Only we in his family know how much he suffers, but I know there are untold thousands, who knows, hundreds of thousands like him out there and for what?? What did we gain? He and I have spent many hours over the past 12 years talking about his time in the military and some about his time in Afghanistan. Recently, though, he said something that really shocked me. He told me that most of the Afghan people had no idea why we had even come there. It had to be pretty terrifying. Guess that's why his MOS was to win the hearts of the Afghan people and seek out and eliminate the Taliban. I'm making an edit to add, before anyone may suggest the obvious, we've been BEGGING my son to seek help from the VA for all of his issues, but try telling someone who's been trained SF that they should seek help....ummm it's not in their vocabulary, they're 'invincible'... until they're not. It took me 11 years, but I finally got him to agree to disarm himself last year. Things were getting way too scary so he finally agreed. He wasn't a danger to anyone but himself. It gave me hope that he could do that😌 Next step will be VA...baby steps.
I don't know what to say, good luck in the future. You should know at the very least, the US army did hand out aid in those 20 years, medicine, clothes, that did save lives.
Served in 2009 / 10 in a British NGO as "rebuilding aide". Thus: calling myself a (civilian) Afghanistan veteran. Also in solidarity and friendship mainly with US-soldiers, who were often there, when things became tense. And with whom I also had the most intense chats. It's good to hear here in that CNN documentary, that US-veterans also claim, that as required by the US Army’ s 2006 Field Manual, being “ a social worker, a civil engineer, a school-teacher, a nurse, a boy scout” and that they should all act as “nation builders as well as warriors” is just overloading those comrades and bothers in arms with the failures of politicians not having the least idea and interest in places like Afghanistan and their people. Founded in 2006 the NGO I worked for back then started working at a community dwelling on around 4 ha / 9.5 acres in Kabul’s Old Town. When I arrived there February 2009 the general condition of the site was characterized by war and perpetuate conflict in a way, I have never witnessed before. Particularly water and sanitation were a big issue, impacting every aspect of everyday life. When I left Afghanistan in July 2010 my overall role in the regeneration program had included developing a decentralized, gravity-based piped sewage system for sustainable urban water management with engineering consultants and managing land property rights in what many partners also in the government, World Bank and IMF believed to be a model project for urban and rural spaces and their neighborhoods. As the only German in that NGO I was kind of an exotic person for most others. Expats as much as Afghans. White haired senior engineer ("Sarr e sefid" for Afghan brothers and colleagues), trained architect, urban planner and urban historian. Never forget a long chat with another American Army officer working at the ANA / ISAF helicopter base at Kabul in September 2009, where they actually were training Afghan pilots on old, but highly robust Soviet helicopters or other mainly transport carriers. After I had told him about my grandpa, who in 1936 said, that this bloke in Berlin was a lunatic and that things might end up in a catastrophe and who then together with my granny manouvered their seven kids, amongst them my Dad through these times and waved US troops into his small town in 1945 and soon afterwards started working with them on a base close by as a technician the ice broke and that officer, who was as fond of "his" scholars as I was of "my" architects and engineers I trained frankly asked me: "Why do things here not work out the way they worked out with you guys?" We were discussing that matter for another I suppose 2 to 3 hours. The armed social worker with the pride and dignity of an honorable soldier and the German engineer and architect working with the Brits there keeping up that kind of grandpa's friendship with US-soldiers and colleagues. He as much as many other friends of mine might agree with my quote, after having written my first kind of analysis of our failure there in Afghanistan: "When you're coming back from Afghanistan to the West, nothing can ever be the way, it used to be." There's still such a lot to research concerning these 20 years of Western presence at the Hindu Kush and I'm afraid, political investigation here in Germany as much as at your country there in the US won't do a lot for getting the dust, greed and other trash from underneath the carpet revealed. Great documentary. Just found it on new years eve. Thank you. Have a great and better 2024, folks!
The thing about this war in afghanistan is that the USA is consistently placing a military presence in afghanistan and of course, it can be expected that there will be clashes between the locals and the americans. The US does not want to leave and will not invade the country either that is why the war has been going on for 20 years. You can call it a war, but the exact definition is occational clashes from time to time.
What if your country was infested with a cartel of madman terrorists who blow shit up taking out innocent children in the name of god. They also took over the emerald minds which didn’t belong to them
This war was pointless. Killing the people responsible could have been done via an airstrike or by other means. The attempt to turn Afghanistan into a civilized country was futile. But this doesn't mean America shouldn't help when an actual democracy (that wants to fight for itself, and only wants material aid from America) needs help. America has benefitted massively from liberating a significant part of the world, which is allied with the US today (and nations all over the world, from UK to Australia, from Ukraine to Taiwan came to America's aid when called upon when America became the only country ever to trigger an NATO Article 5 mutual defence case, and also asked other allies for help). But the Middle East is different - you can't help someone who dislikes you and is offended by your presence.
The question I didn't hear was: "What if the resources had instead been invested in defensive measures at home (e.g., airline security) rather than offensive measures abroad?"
What more? America could and can always do more to protect our homeland. Stop sending obligation money to these counties. These billions should be spent on our own security. We have no business trying to save other countries when we can't save our own.
I spent a very long deployment in Kandahar walking the streets and meeting people and yes also fighting. I learned most people there are good people, they just wanted a chance. Unfortunately, the Taliban is so deeply rooted in their minds by fear that the immediately folded and were bluffed by only 5000 Taliban combatants. I pray 🙏🏽 that our interpreter is save and surviving their new world.
Hello, hope you are doing well, i am a student ftom Afghanistan living in Pakistan and acquiring education, i am in very harsh trouble at the moments, because of unpaid fees of university.will you plz help me with 400 dollar to submit my fee, i will be very thankful to you.
Really 😏. After you promised to relocate them and their families . You are part of the problem . Hypocrites and liars . No one trust Americans outside America . Even NATO and the European Union just love taking y’all tax dollars , they do t trust y’all
Wars are only profitable if victory is achieved. What's the point in making money if the dollar takes a hit like it did because of GWOT. Yeah folks like certain contractors shamelessly make money but they also do want to see the mission succeed as well because otherwise what good is the money if its not worth the paper it's printed on. This war was done for so many reasons good and bad but ultimately we all lost but the biggest losers is the people of Afgahnistan. I hope that one day maybe there can be reconciliation but doubt that will happen in my life time.
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year. Why didn’t they mention this in this video? In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine. This documentary is stew pid.
My name is Abbas from Iraq, the capital Baghdad 1989. I am writing this letter and my tears will not stop or dry. There is a war with Iran, a war with America, a war with Kuwait, and a war with ISIS... I do not want to get married. I fear for the child's future. I want nothing but to leave this world as soon as possible. We have seen nothing from countries but destruction, killing, and deprivation. I ask God to stand with us against any curious person who interferes in the affairs of others.
The 20-year war in Afghanistan, which cost over two trillion dollars and more than 6,000 American lives, ended much like it began, with the Taliban in power. The bi-partisan debacle led to the fall of the central government and a chaotic evacuation of American troops and Afghan allies. The documentary, "America After 9/11: Lessons Learned and Unlearned," provides a retrospective view of the war's architects, who reflect on what went wrong and the lessons that must be learned. Lieutenant Colonel Jason Dempsey, who served in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2014, believes the problem of assessing the war's failure is difficult because everyone can think they're doing their best. The military received great write-ups, and we convinced ourselves that we were doing well, but we never held anybody accountable. Dempsey argues that it's super easy for political leaders to say the military has this, and Congress has no desire to own any oversight of the way we're fighting. The documentary provides a sobering reminder of the human cost of war, with the lives of American soldiers, even if it's just a dozen, not being a goddamn rounding error. The lives of Afghan citizens were also lost, and their future remains uncertain. The war's architects agree that corruption was one of the main reasons for the war's failure, along with a lack of accountability and a failure to understand the complexity of the Afghan culture. The documentary argues that we must have these discussions and hold those accountable to learn from our mistakes and prevent the replication of the same mistakes in the next war.
You said a lot of crap but the answer has already been proposed by the anti-war movement of the 1960s. It is get your hands off the affairs and discords of foreign people and nation states.
A big issue is that it’s not entirely the role of the military to do state building. It’s the responsibility of the state department and the president to ensure the stability of the government of Afghanistan. I’ve seen very little analysis in the failures of multiple presidents and state department officials to create a stable country.
These generals are a joke. Why do we have a CIA, NSA, Dept of Defense, and countless other full time intelligence agencies only for all those dimwits to say “we didn’t understand what we were getting into or the Afghan culture”???? I’m not buying it. Criminals made billions from that war, they’re sociopaths.
@@HeyLook287 you didn't go into an independent country....why would you say so?..... you went into a dictator ruling country....its all that iss to it....
Imagine the money put into the war in Afghanistan and Iraq was put into infrastructure, research and development at home! We would have been way ahead of every nation in every aspect of life
I love one of the comments, the democracy in US itself is an experiment. I love the scientific approach toward social science. This Afghanistan issue can also be viewed as a 20 year experiments. With the local culture and other situations, this experiment failed for its original goal, but the experimental data have been collected and should be well documented and well used in future.
Do you reckon America will consider these failed results and stop promoting its American style democracy to other countries? Or would they just keep imposing American democracy to other countries, even though it's already cause issues in America itself?
A nuclear submarine of the Vanguard type of the British Navy with a crew of 140 people and Doomsday missiles "Trident-2" almost sank in the Atlantic due to the failure of the depth gauge. Comrade Depth Gauge was promoted by the Russian command to the rank of captain.
This decades conflict showed that although military might is certainly important, the aftermath is probably even more so. Once you get rid of the 'bad guy' (which we didn't even do), you are in charge of a territory that is unstable at best and extremely volatile at worst, with different factions now trying to fill that power vacuum, that will drain your resources for years to come if you don't have an exit plan.
ACTUALLY FANCY CALLING THE TALIBAN A BAD GUY, WHEN CLEARLY THE WORLD CALLS AMERICAN THE BAD GUY AND BULLIES 😂😂😂. ALSO AMERICA IS A TERRORIST NATION, BLOOD THIRSTY SAVAGES.😢😢😢
Remember when USA armed the talibans against the socialist govt of Afghanistan and against the Soviet Union troops ? Remember also USA/Western propaganda portrayed talibans as "freedom fighters", sounds familiar ?? "We don't replicate the same mistakes we made in this war, for the next one ?" So when are you going to learn to stop interfering in other countries ? That's none of your business.
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year. Why wasn’t this mentioned in this video? In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine. This documentary is stew pid.
Hypocrisy doesn't work in Afghanistan You are not different from other empire's anyone who dare to invade Afghanistan it will face the same consequences 😂😂😂
I believe that if the US started to help educate Afghan people in 20 years, instead of giving money, today Afghanistan would be a different country. And US politicians know about that.
Like Nam the majority of the people throughout the country had not bought into the vision of what the US wanted for the country. Its hard to fight for something the majority of people don't want and to only have less than 10000 US troops to convince them.
So let me get this straight. Poor leadership and strategy, corruption, lies, political and military failures.... and they think we need a draft??? Absolutely crazy. The soldiers past and present and the US people deserve better than the leaders they've had. Great insightful documentary, thank you for uploading.
1% of Americans served after 911, but that's not the whole story. The war was initially born primarily by generation X. There are only about 50 million Generation X Americans. Of those only 25% met the minimum military entrance standards. This is the healthier, better educated, more law abiding group. This is the same pool of People who run the nation and are in high demand. 30% of that cohort served so without seriously lowering standards we could not have had many more soldiers if there had been a draft.
And taking all the jews of Europe after ww2 and placing them in a country where there were already people living there and saying this is your new home,fuck the people that's living here.
Ukraine now. Remember when USA armed the talibans against the socialist govt of Afghanistan and against the Soviet Union troops ? Remember also USA/Western propaganda portrayed talibans as "freedom fighters", sounds familiar ?? "We don't replicate the same mistakes we made in this war, for the next one ?" So when are you going to learn to stop interfering in other countries ? That's none of your business.
The United States was wrong the first time, if the main enemy is Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, why didn't they separate the Taliban from Al-Qaeda from the start? instead of fighting both at once. From the start, the narrative issued by Bush was the involvement of the Taliban in acts of terrorism. Which the Taliban from the beginning until now has denied the accusation. Even the last hiding place of Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan. There are too many interests and goals of the US war in Afghanistan, so that the war becomes unclear, loses direction, and becomes biased. Maybe the guess is that the US goal is to prevent the Islamic Taliban government from coming to power in Afghanistan, wants to uphold democracy in Afghanistan, wants to control natural resources in Afghanistan, wants to make Afghanistan a military base to weaken or someday to attack Iran, wants to uphold women's rights or feminism. people like Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, are the ones who don't fully trust the US, the ones who are in the middle, but also the ones who are the most doubtful. People who try to mediate but without certain beliefs. How can they trust the US 100%, which they see has killed many Afghan people? And they also understand the level of confidence and characteristics of the Taliban who continue to survive patiently, with tenacity, surviving 20 years of guerrilla warfare in the barren hills. They know that what strengthens them is only their belief in God. And people like Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani certainly don't want to lose, on the one hand they don't really trust the US, and they really know the character of Afghanistan's tribalistic society which is difficult to bring to democracy, on the other hand they don't have the same level of faith as the Taliban. and they don't want to go to the trouble of siding with the Taliban to suffer decades of guerrilla warfare in the barren hills. Therefore, in such people what is dominant in them is pragmatism and opportunism. That's why they enforce the corruptive character of government. They just want to take the opportunity to enjoy abundant financial funding from the US, to enforce the fantasy of democracy in Afghanistan which they themselves actually doubt. In fact, the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations are on the right track. Where Obama returned to the original goal of eliminating Osama Bin Laden. Trump began direct negotiations with the Taliban, and intense which was rarely done before. The outside world has only seen direct negotiations between the US government and the Taliban in the Trump era. And finalized by Biden by withdrawing all US troops. This was all carried out to resolve Bush's misguided policies. whatever it is, the United States does not know anything about the characteristics of Afghan society and the Taliban. The United States does not know how strong their religious faith is, which they are not at all afraid to die. Dying in war is the way to heaven, and a source of pride for them.
Given the topic (of the longest war, and a costly one), would it make sense to mention in the bio of each retired general being introduced, that they might be currently employed as consultants lobbying for arms manufacturers - who might have a vested interest in supplying a war for 20 years? Transparency would have the advantage of removing suspicion potential conflicts of interest, right? And perhaps mention campaign contributions? The trillions didn’t come from anywhere, they came from congress…
Of course the arms industry has a vested interest in the sale of arms and therefore in any conflict. BUT, the fact is, you simply have to have an arms industry and better for it to be a thriving one than a weak one. With a weak arms industry you are left with a weak nation. This is a fact. So, what to do about the military industrial complex?
@@apacademy I’m not American, I’m a citizen of the world concerned and impacted by what the US does. I believe in good journalism, it plays an important role and, from my standpoint, the likes of CNN when doing these documentaries could be a little more “investigative” and transparent by informing viewers of the time these retired generals might have worked as consultants for the weapons industry during this 20 year war. Transparency does not mean something wrong has taken place, it usually means that there is nothing to hide. So, if there’s nothing to hide, why does CNN not introduce these retired generals with a more transparent bio?
America did not fail in defeating the Taliban. America failed in building a proper state in Afghanistan. the modern history of Afghanistan is one of failed attempts to built a proper state in Afghanistan by Afghans themselves or others. it is just too poor, mountainous ( difficult to connect different parts ), illiterate, in a nasty neighborhood, traditional beyond belief and fractious ( religiously, ethnically etc ).
Why do you want to defeat the Taliban? They are not your enemy. You installed the pro Iranian and pro Russian thugs in Afghanistan and The Taliban helped you by kicking them out
It should not be expected of the US to take care of them forever. US Troops died there teaching then to be independent and fight for themselves. They became to dependent on Americans protecting them. Americans paid financially and with American lives to help them- they should have been Ready to Fight for their families and their land. Bless their souls. They have been fighting a Civil war for centuries.
It didn't help that both in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush was all about the oil and kept giving back hard fought gains won at extreme cost before the war was ended in the pursuit of oil.
You can't expect to decisively win or defeat an enemy by fighting a War of Attrition, how many examples from history do you need to understand this. Modern U.S. wars are not about defending American Apple Pie, but instead maintaining some sense of continuity of International trade routes, shipping lanes and levels of production and distribution in the World. gg, Tampa Florida
The U.S. will always spend billions to maintain an overwhelming Naval existence in every part of the world, Gun Boat diplomacy in the 21st century.....gg, Tampa Florida
If you could travel back to 2001 (when I was in fifth grade) and tell people that we would be in Afghanistan for TWENTY YEARS, and that we would LOSE, no one would believe you. We never learn our lessons. 1. People do not like foreigners with guns in their country. Would you accept foreign troops with arms and APCs on the streets of your American city? No. We think the rules don't apply to us. After all we're the "good guys" right? We'll be "greeted as liberators" (thanks Rumsfeld). Never mind that we haven't been greeted as liberators since France and Italy in the mid 40's... 2. Trying to "win hearts and minds" and "plant the seeds of democracy" with armed force doesn't work. You can't nation build with the US Army, and trying to is an exercise in futility. 3. Trying to fight two wars at the same time, and thinking that won't affect the outcome of either is the height of hubris. Invading Iraq to eject Saddam (who we helped in the Iran-Iraq war) because his WMDs were suddenly a problem (even though he used them against the Iranians in the eighties and HIS OWN PEOPLE in the early nineties) was a massive mistake. We were fighting a war with widespread support in Afghanistan, went into Iraq for unclear reasons and lost both... 4. Ultimately, like in South Vietnam, the historical course of the nation of Afghanistan is decided by the people of Afghanistan. We spent literal trillions of dollars propping up a force that wouldn't fight for their own country... 5. The idiots (including some top brass in the US military) who bemoan the fact that Afghan girls can't go to school anymore fail to understand that that is simply NOT OUR PROBLEM! It's also definitely not the US Army's problem. Guess what? There are many countries around the world with rampant human rights abuses *cough* Saudi Arabia *cough* that CANNOT be our problem. The military of this country, the United States of America, was created to defend the people, territory and interests of the United States. The Taliban pose no threat to me, as I sit here in Florida, and the fact that their girls can't go to school simply doesn't matter, either to me or my country. 6. The way we left was a shambles. I don't dispute that. We should have left years ago, but spending an infinite amount of time and money remaining would not have changed the outcome one iota. To the Afghan people, you have my sympathy, but you were let down by your own countrymen. The American public should not feel at all responsible for your plight. To the soldiers, sailors and marines of my country; it pains me that you fought, bled and sometimes died for this shitshow. Ultimately, like in Vietnam fifty years ago, your sacrifice was in vain, and that disgusts me. It should disgust all of us, and compel us to hold accountable both our military leaders and especially the responsibility-dodging politicians who led us down this primrose path the Hell.
The colonial forces that kidnap and enslave have moral authority only from the mouths of those same "authorities", i.e. those who have learned the "history of the victors", i.e. heavy lies,... but fortunately such situations are only historical episodes, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer and then they mostly collapse on their own, i.e. according to the "law of force majeure", so don't talk about the "American democracy that everyone dreams of" because if they do dream, then it's dreams in which they smash it into dust and ashes. For the most part, your conclusions are good, and it is up to the Americans to understand that they, like "civil society" or so-called "ordinary people", are just pawns for the elite, which through "stronger figures", such as Bush, makes moves, i.e. fakes the demolition of the "Twins towers" to would have an excuse for war, because wars are their means of maintaining power by possessing all kinds of material values and thereby controlling the mind of the mass population, because the very term "government" means mind control.
Took 20 years to replace a weaker taliban with a stronger taliban
That's what America stands for.
BushStarted it. BidenFinished it.
Thank those two
@markmierzejewski9534Biden was responsible for the botching of the pull out.
and one with a now-seething hatred for Americans
@@brucecampbell4528they both are. Trump decided to go behind the actual government in Afghanistan and basically surrender to the Taliban on our soil on live TV. This lead to numerous immediate issues with troops and police getting paid or even knowing who to take orders from. This is why they were able to drive straight in without much fight at all. Trump did this on his way out the door making a deal that said we would leave in Bidens first transitional year. Which Trump blocked the Biden administration from getting the usual headstart on because he wanted to betray our democracy real quick.
Biden was president and though he didn't get the information an incoming president gets as early as he was supposed to and Trump literally dumped the whole thing into his lap after sabotaging any chance of the Afghanistan military and government making any kind of stand, the buck stops with the POTUS. Biden and his administration dropped the ball for their part as well in a few ways but trying to pretend that Trump doesn't own a major steak in that mess is pure cultist propaganda.
Thousands of American and Afghan lives wasted for absolutely nothing. This is despicable
Osama hiding in Pakistan the whole time while the Pakistanis mislead them
They don’t care
@@LIVdaBrandThat's pretty disgusting considering the sacrifice and loss people suffered
Especially, athe afghan people, they killed us in different name
Yes you are right this whole scam was a complete vile disgusting waste of human life. And the US Government CIA got rid of thousands of US lives it wanted to avoid having to pay for and take care of (disgusting and filthy) and who cares if we waste a few million "sand monkeys" as quoted from countless talks and briefings while I was I the sand box. That attitude tells you the tale of the tape all on it's own never mind the colossal waste of resources
If you ever feel useless... remember... it took the United States 20 years, trillions of dollars and 4 U.S President to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.
You killed it with this comment right here. 🤯
For 20 years of Freedom for many women and children it was worth it, and this should never have happened, Trump's awful preparation of the Afghan military led to this.
Brilliant comment
They didn'tWant ourDemocracy.
TheirResistance is noteworthy.
The real winner in this war are the weapon manufacturer 😂
Theyre the only reason we have wars in the first place
IT was always about that.
don't forget the banker. they are the real winner
More traffic in social media meta is biggest gainer
The Military Industrial Complex HUSTLE.
How can you defeat an enemy that looks into the barrel of your gun and sees paradise."Russian General in 1979"
After all, afganistan is the graveyard for empires
Philosopher you are not.
Understanding you don't @@rockabye_baby187
Now all the Black people are going to approach the loaded 🔫 gun.
@@rockabye_baby187hes quoting someone else lol
The repeated flaw in American foreign policy after WW 2 is not realizing it is virtually impossible to avoid being seen as a foreign occupying power no matter how well intentioned your mission.
Not repeated since 2001 change everything atta stop something 😇🙏🇧🇷
The US went into WW2 as a landgrabber or to maintain control of the West. Look at the dates of end of Operation Barbarossa, Pearl Harbor Attack and American military deployment. Britain was in warwith Germany from 1939. Where were mighty US?
Bush literally admitted that he should’ve never started that war on live television
see how Rotschild family got a fortune when the Europeans were at war. How did this loan affect Europeans' expenses after wars?
There is no flaw in US Foreign Policy. By design, it's a shadow empire building policy. We're just really good at gaslighting our own people by naming it something else :)
You can’t use an Army to rebuild an entire country at gun point. Because that’s not what an army is designed to do. It seems like a lot of generals don’t understand that.
What are you talking about? That's exactly how countries were built for the vast majority of human history.
Somebody hasn’t been to colonizer school
@@MrGhosthacked if the US nuked Afghanistan and repopulated it with Americans, then sure they could have. But other than that colonization will always fail. And what Europeans failed to realize is this L is on them too because they were involved in Afghanistan with the rebuilding process, so what the hell were they doing?
see how did Rotschild family get a fortune when the Europeans were at war. How did this loan affect Europeans' expenses after wars?
How are countries like Pakistan surviving then .. :)
Remember, Rambo taught them how to fight, never to give-up and never to surrender.
best comment in ages
RAMBO IS A REAL CARTOOO.🐐🐐🐐😢😢
He's a Man not a God
@@adinanamansaad2971 no, u
🙂
A wise man once told me, “ The generals get the glory, the mother and fathers get the flag and the soldiers get the GRAVE “. That wise man was my father a Korean War Veteran, he begged me not to join the military. I join the U.S. Navy, within two weeks “ Boots on ground “ in Iraq, we had our first unit “KIA” after the memorial service, l laid on my bunk and thought of my Father Worlds: “ The generals get the glory, the mother and fathers get the flag and the soldiers get the GRAVE”………..
Well you should listen to him you didn’t go to protect usa you whent for money and better life
@@binaariani3744 Didn’t either one in the U.S. , got PTSD, Called the N-word by an old man I held the door open for as he walk through another entrance. I thought to myself “ Well there goes Thank you for your service 😂 “….. I did find that better life though, I left the U.S. for another country.
see how Rotschild family got a fortune when the Europeans were at war. How did this loan affect Europeans' expenses after wars?
Ok I get it. It's called sacrifice. If yourself, others and me didn't pick up the flag and sacrifice we wouldn't have a country. The biggest problem we have is politicians putting limits on us for these wars.
@@tommygun5038 - OOOOOOHHHHHH that explains it. The vets are killing themselves because they were not allowed to kill more Afghanis. Got it.
As Craig Whitlock says, "The United States never really understood Afghanistan and what made it tick." We didn't know its people, history, culture, religion, day-to-day life, politics, sociology, languages, ecology and never bothered to learn. As General Lute admitted, "We didn't have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking." In the heat of fear, anger, and vengeance, we rushed in and then fumbled around for 20 years. It was a massive failure of leadership - like Vietnam. Will we ever learn from these experiences?
We may learn. Right now, how many US parents are willing to send their sons and daughters to go die in Burkina Faso ??
Ofcourse we do😂 Ignorant comment. Go read the CIA declassified documents. We knew them before they were our enemy. Everything about them down to their school curriculum
It's horrible for the ones fighting but some people make a lot of money
You guys pumped the the oil out of Afghanistan but there was so much more then you guys expected so it took 20 years
From the Netherlands: The same was valid with Vietnam, but I guess the military-industrial complex needs wars in order to exist.
I worked in Afghanistan for almost 3 years. This was always inevitable. The US did not want to deal with the Taliban and they were never going away.
"Charlie had only two ways home: death or victory."
-Capt. Benjamin Willard, United States Army
But Donald Trump struck a deal with them. And US supplied Taliban to fight the Russia … in the past.
entire war was a proxy war, not a real war. afghanistan is a dust bowl not a real company it's a piece of desert land that is meant to be left alone and not developed. and the usa lost to this useless piece of land. the real reason was the whole war was a scheme. all of the arab nations and usa was colluding with one another to conduct the genocide. very similar to the current ukraine thing, usa is still doing their misconduct but they shifted the genocide into ukraine and knows it's happening and still funds it.
@@traumvonhaiti I'm not surprised at all. There was a saying back then, the Americans have the watches, the Taliban have the time.
No you didn’t hahahah I know Steve I grew up with him you didn’t serve any where. You work at a local liquor store
First cnn documentary i have watched till the end in a while. Not biased not partial
they still tried to blame trump for everything
It's because it's all over and they don't have any interest
@@sykatrys5127 And they were there, on-location and into our living rooms, every step of the way.
The parallels with Vietnam are stunning. Did the US learn anything from that war?
No. Same mistakes again. Same arrogance. The U.S. failed to learn how the Brits won in Malaya against the communist insurgents, too. It was another guerilla war.
They will never because of their arrogance. Ask a republican who hates Muslims and people of colour from the global south. They are still seeking more wars.
Sadly no just another war due to the military industrial complex
@@davidb2206 Remember when USA armed the talibans against the socialist govt of Afghanistan and against the Soviet Union troops ? Remember also USA/Western propaganda portrayed talibans as "freedom fighters", sounds familiar ??
"We don't replicate the same mistakes we made in this war, for the next one ?" So when are you going to learn to stop interfering in other countries ? That's none of your business.
That's none of your business that a country is communist or not. JUST F*** OFF.
NO!!!
My job in Afghanistan was with the UN as a development engineer and adviser to Ministers. The army getting involved in this type of activity was wrong. It placed all development agencies into the same box alongside the army and as such, became a threat to us all. I lost 6 colleagues to it. Also, they had no idea what was needed. What was needed was economy development, not just roads that suited the US purpose or projects to win hearts and minds. Even now, the major industries that were left when they left were mainly built around serving the needs of the US military and the international agencies rather than a self sufficient economy.
False
True.
Seems to me that this was a place that didn't want to change or have what was offered.
Exactly the opposite of Ukraine 🇺🇦
Ukraine wants it's country to survive and be a democratic government that is NOT corrupt. This they have proven time and time again.
The support for Ukraine should be multiplied many times and sped up.
Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦 from Canada 🇨🇦
Mind Begs the Question:
- CIA caught sleeping by Al Qaida
- Mossad caught sleeping by Hamas
- Coincidental?
The issues in Afghanistan were much greater than just economic development Afghanistan was a backward country beset with illiteracy, tribal warlords, women suppression, religious fundamentalism, poverty, and many more. Not a situation that can quickly or easily overcome.
As an Afghan who was born during the first occupation of the Taliban and remembers the B52 bombing of the capital Kabul, the situation in Afghanistan was and is much more complicated. The collapse of a country does not depend on 3500 foreign troops while having more than two hundred thousand national military forces. Just in summary no one knows the big game between superpowers and imagine this, only one year after the collapse of Afghanistan, Russia started the war in Ukraine and Afghanistan is a country that borders central Asia and post-Soviet countries which most still share the same benefits with Russia. Also, another big problem was corruption when you pour billions of dollars without a plan to spend it. Internal disagreements because of ethnical diversity in Afghanistan and the hegemonic ambitions of one of those ethnicities even to purge others from power.
The language the Americans were using to describe their objectives gave away how tone deaf they were. The history of Afghanistan was no secret to anyone who was willing to learn.
Pakistan helped US to invade while also helping to defeat US by sheltering Talibans, due to Durrand line Pakistan would never allow a stable Afghanistan regardless of what regime is in Afghanistan, apart from all this, in modern times US only fights failed wars, meaning US was not there to win the war but to leave the country in a failed state
@@antonioarroyas7662 there is no pride in the history of half a century war, more than two million deaths, no education, collapse of economy, and no one willing to stay.
@@Mu5tyLaghmani pakistans intelligence agency was behind all of this. they wanted to make money, so they sheltered and armed tal1ban, and forced america to spend more dollars in the afghan war. thus profiting pakistan. however almost 70k pakistanis died including soldiers just because of their stup1d game.
I am an Afghani
And Afghans will never forget the American crime
It shames me to be British watching my great nation commit war crimes alongside these fools
Which one 🤔?
The world will never forget the Afghan crimes
and should never forged
No superpower ever defeated the Afghans.
I served 2 one year deployments in Afghanistan 04-05 10-11. We knew that the Afghanistan government and military were going to just give up. The lowest of soldiers were not getting paid most of the time and they had terrible equipment. So much corruption in that country we couldn't fix that problem at all.
The corruption is in ur country buddy not theirs
Why does America feel the need to fix other countries is the question. Why is America always sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong ?
Do you feel comfortable talking about your assignments? If yes: what would you say were the crucial mistakes of the mission? Do you still think it was somehow worth it? Would you do this mission again?
@@Fallon922are you aware of what the tailban does fella?
@@Fallon922 I hope you realize the invasion of Iraq was due to Saddam Hussein illegally invading Kuwait, and his subsequent draining of Kuwait's resources and wealth, which wreaked murderous havoc on the male population.
Afghanistan was caused by the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks hiding out with his militia in the caves and mountains.
Brilliant documentary, very unsettling to watch.
The fact that they took back the country so fast on exit shows how we made changes. Whether the exit was botched or not, we didnt change any hearts or minds. We need to start staying out of these issues and let their regions figure it out.
We did change hearts... for the worse. The taliban increased tenfold during the our occupation and now have several billion dollars worth of weapons that the army left behind. Our war crimes there (that were pardoned or covered up) turned much of the populace against us...
@@JsfosstdjsfJsfos-lf4tg billions in MRAPs and M113. Lol the kind of stuff we dump out at sea to help build coral reefs.
But if you leave those regions on their own you get 9/11
@@pyatig 9/11 was caused by Saudi arabian nationals, yet Saudi Arabi is the one country in the middle east not invaded by us.
@@JsfosstdjsfJsfos-lf4tg Yeah but Al Qaeda was training them in Afghanistan and they were defeated and destroyed so yeah it was a success they are gone today
As an American we are a disgrace too the people who lost their lives… this was Vietnam all over again…. A war we should have never been in….
And Biden is an idiot too add on too that statement
And the trade war.
I feel so sorry for all the good people, both American and Afghan, that gave their lives for absolutely nothing.
From so many countries
The biggest mistake USA has made in afghanistan was not understanding the culture of afghans especially the Pashtoon tribes. You can never force them to accept something forcefully nor they are scared of deaths. The US could only own those people by economy development rather than imposing war and bombing them. USA might kill people but they cannot kill an ideology. After US investing trillions of $ and lossing personals, the Afghanistan is much more stronger and united than before.
As a 20 year old, this war had been going on for practically my whole life thus far.
you are born into the wrong country. Flee, and save yourself before its too late.
@@orhansense7282 Flee to which country, any advice?
@@jeffxie5067if you have unlearnt your accent, any country will do. Start your voicerecorder, and say "A", ...like 10K times, as other humans say it. Learn to use your voice apparatus like humans do. A.s.a. you feel confident, that they cannot identify your origins, go wherever you like. Otherwise its almost sure you will be hated or at best: laughed at, wherever you go. if you are respected, its because they are afraid of you. or are interested in your money.-should you have some. / this is safe information, so often shared among humans.
@@orhansense7282 What a clown you are. The USA was attacked on 9/11 by Al Qaeda which by the way also had attacked France, Russia and the UK, remember the UK subway bombing??? The USA and its allies went in to Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda and indeed Al Qaeda and Osama were destroyed they are all gone today. So it was a success, don't be a clown
@@orhansense7282 sounds like u need to go to.
The loss of even one American life is too high a price to pay in a country that refuses time after time to stand up and defend itself.
Ignorant
lol you totally missed the point of the video, stop watching mainstream media and think for yourself. The US was never there to help afghani/iraqi people you fool.
afghans never asked america to come in.
there are lots of normal people in Afghanistan that don't want to be ruled by tyrants who abuse women, follow a backward religion and have inter course with kids, I think that's what he meant.
The Taliban certainly stood up for themselves. I don't like them, but they stood up for themselves, the Americans created this mess when they supported the mujahedin in the eighties.
U.S. to Israel: “Don’t make the same mistakes we did.”
*
Israel: “Hold my Dreidel.”
And Russia.And the US.Another Vietnam.Never fckn' learned! Not sure about Iraq? Was there 2003-2004 & 2007-2008...USARMY...
But putting aside the Izrl-U.S. alliance, it is technically impossible for them to commit the same mistakes, because their practical realities on-the-ground, as nations, are fundamentally dissimilar. And as such, that which applies to one cannot systematically be hoisted onto the other.
According to Brown University researchers, the US War in Afghanistan (2001-2022) cost the US (tax payers) $2.313 trillion.
I can think of better ways to spend this money. Tax payer money should be spent on infrastructure, healthcare and education.
Opium production surged from approximately 180 tonnes in 2001 to 9,900 tonnes in 2017.
Biden has passed ALOT over 1 trillion dollars has been put for infrastructure, healthcare is there for anyone who can’t afford and needs it also under the affordable care act. However the way we entered Afganistán and withdrew troops was totally wrong, I personally don’t blame Biden because the deal was made between Trump and the taliban.
Biden is literally using the money for infrastructure, Healthcare, and education.
The extra opium was to pay Joe's kickback.
@@drZok3136ridiculous. Biden wasn’t even President between that time period and why on earth would he be motivated to end the war if he was receiving the drug money? The fact is that opium production in Afghanistan was controlled largely by the Taliban, not by U.S. forces, and certainly not by the Vice President.
@@drZok3136 such a well thought out and nuanced response. You must be from Indiana.
this was an incredible documentary, thanks for making it. the fact that america can examine itself this well gives me hope both about the future of america and about my own country here in europe.
Actually cnn is just white washing its complicity in this whole story. They pumped it to the max and have now abandoned the sinking ship
It's not surprising to see CNN blaming George W Bush.
If this documentary is on FOX, it would be quite impressive.
@@jeffxie5067who’s to blame then?
It’d be impressive if the people in power had this level of self reflection but alas all they care about is money and power
You seem young. Establishment liberals always lament the past injustice but never the current injustice.
I recall a lesson from Vietnam….what did the Vietnamese want? My 14 years in Afghanistan left me with one question….why did we force our values on the Afghans?
the same reason america is forcing its value onto a china. an much older civilization that has its own trajectory.
@@levelazn Mybe that reason is like how they force their authoritarian ways on innocent people? Do you like the genocide on the Uyghurs and the oppression of people of china? Freak
Have you seen the "values" of the barbaric Taliban, and the many that don't want it forced on them?
@@Errol-kq7eobut that’s their own people they are not from another country, think about it if Chinese gov come to USA and ask you to take their values would you do that?
@@Mesrine1 Why does this matter? That's like saying think about if child protective services came into your house because you were abusing them and forcing their values of not abusing them on you.
A war without a purpose and cause...
HEROIN
MineraI resources.
H E R O I N
95% of the world's HEROIN PRODUCTION
entire war was a proxy war, not a real war. afghanistan is a dust bowl not a real country it's a piece of desert land that is meant to be left alone and not developed. and the usa lost to this useless piece of land. the real reason was the whole war was a scheme. all of the arab nations and usa was colluding with one another to conduct the genocide. very similar to the current ukraine thing, usa is still doing their misconduct but they shifted the genocide into ukraine and knows it's happening and still funds it.
You can't create a national army. You can create an army. You can arm and train people. But where the "national" comes, it's up to the people. The best you can do is educate them. If you don't do this step, then you just built an army for someone else.
you can`t educate anything on low iq population especially with a fundamentally flawed culture it never worked and never will people educate themselves and structure the society rules and organisation in such a way that with each ITERATION the resulted specimens are better , for that one needs the proper genetic material and the proper societal rules cumulatively known as the CULTURE and then and only then after generations correctly named ITERATION the resulted specimens are better, this is practically how we build AI today , the american withdrawl was the absolute perfect decission and soon with the advent of tens of millions of low iq immigrants (politically correct term is low academic potential) YOU TO WILL NEED TO WITHDRAW from your own cities and eventually from the country , functional societies are not given they are built and i clearly expressed the recipe above 12:20 it`s not in their DNA to change (the machine is flawed the production process was flawed ) in this condition we call the specimen a rebut and it goes to be recycled for a new iteration
You can not invade a foreign country and expect roses from the people. Even if you promise them democracy and economic development. No one will ever accept an occupier or an outsider as a ruler of their established society.
@@mesafintfanuel3627 The USA went in to stop Al Qaeda after it attack them on 9/11 also they attacked France, Russia and UK so they had to be stopped. Indeed Al Qaeda today is gone so it was successful.
As a young Afghan, I would like to address the issue of corruption, particularly in reference to the female ambassador from Afghanistan who held a position in the United States. It is disconcerting to witness her speaking about corruption when, as reported by the media, she herself has been implicated and proven to be involved in embezzling millions of American dollars.
And it's worth noting the loss of thousands of Afghan lives. Every Afghan knows that the USA was not here to build our country or stabilize the economy-none of them.
From the top leader to down, it is evident that their aim was to enrich themselves by filling their pockets. It was America that supported them. In the end, the USA should not have attacked our country; they should have learned from the experiences of the Russians and the British
your problem now, we washed our hands of Afghanistan.
@@justmehello5543For good. Now Afghanistan can reach prosperity and peace.
Respect from algeria ❤...
@@justmehello5543 kid your allies didn't washed their hands we cut it for them!
@ahmadjavediqbal well said
Proud of you my brother❤
Wow. As a veteran ('09 and '11) of the war in Afghanistan... I really needed to hear her say that at the end.
Me to brother.
My brother served in the middle east, often ran into Army Rangers guys. One encounter, this dude said ‘watch this’ and mowed down some men walking thru a field. No intel on if they were bad guys, innocent or anything. Another time, he asked why he kept seeing an FBI agent wonder out of the base with a bag of pistols. ‘Incase we shoot the wrong people’ Google drop gun. What a mess
Everyone should know this
The US Army personnel responsible for murdering over 500 unarmed civilian men, women, children, and infants in the village of My Lai were acquitted and pardoned.
The Middle East only exists because of oil money.
Give it 10 years...
@@johningram9081 the US army has no bad apples huh? Damn ignorance is bliss
It happened allot
I'm soooo glad I didn't have to fight in this war. Many of my friends are gone and many got affected by this useless war.
... it was not useless. It was for finding Osama ....
@@_Alfa.Bravo_they didn't even show us the bodies!
The worst part is they dumped him on the ocean without any photo whatsoever.
@TheAriebudhiw ... these pictures would have been used by the enemy for propaganda!
@@_Alfa.Bravo_No evidence no case
@@MohamedBadat-yp7xj ... and no place to lay flowers down
my heart goes to all the innocent lives lost on both sides,
And?
Vietnam🇻🇳 and Afghanistan🇦🇫 showed that braveness is what makes men inevitable.
Really? No, it showed that if you agree to stop fighting then wait until the USA leaves then start fighting again you can take over.
In neither circumstance did they win militarily.
Great documentary CNN!
I like the candid dialogue but disagree with his final conclusion. The termination of the war matters. I served 2 tours there during the height of the war (07-08 and 09-10) and I think that if we do not acknowledge that our efforts produced no visible fruit we will have more guys not reaching out for help and eating guns. Freud, I think said it best when he said (I paraphrase): "A man who faces facts, no matter how unpleasant, retains his sanity." We have to face facts on this, and hold those who made the informed decisions accountable for it. Our fallen comrades would ask no less than this....
All wars ended in some kind of negotiated settlements. Sometimes it's very one-sided, but even the most "unconditional surrenders" had a lot of "conditions" in the ending. The Allies promised that, for example, they would not enslave the German and Japanese populations but the war criminals would be trialed. They would be allowed to return to The International economics systems, etc ...
The American people bought into the idea of "there is no negotiated end to war. We fight, we defeat, and we win". Well, it's not the Punic Wars anymore where you get to kill all the males, enslave all the women and children and (apocryphally) salt the ground. It's no longer the case. I believe that was how they saw American won the Civil War and WWII.
The books written by Dan Reiter demonstrated this quite nicely. In 2002, he wrote "Democracies at War" which said that democracies are more likely to win wars than autocracies. This was his self- reassuring book just as his country started two wars. Sad to say that his democracy added two losses to the record. In 2009, he wrote "How Wars End" and it admits to the fact that wars end by settlements and wars are an educational process to show the participants what they can and can't get.
Well the US army had pretty much left after 2014-2015 when the deaths per year fell to less then 20 after 2015, as after that it was mostly just training mission and the air base and intelligence. And overall Al Qaeda is today gone and Osama is fish food.
A devastating defeat of a super power in the world
You can't make people change
@@JoshuaMademan You can change the people but you must be the right person.
@@yayaabdulahihasan7749 yea relationship wise but fundamentaly or religiously especially if it's been ingrained for thousands of years change is nearly impossible, your right though maybe the right people can I think the u.s. just went head first into something they don't understand
What devastating defeat? The Taliban were pretty much hunted for sport and then the US left.
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year.
Why wasn’t this mentioned in this video?
In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine.
This documentary is stew pid.
Nothing went wrong. For 20 years the Taliban controlled little of value and couldn't even consider taking Kabul.
“Operation enduring freedom” was the virtuous name given to the unjust invasion of Afghanistan. “Operation Iraqi freedom” was the angelic title for the brutal invasion of Iraq.
“Operation unified protector” was the fancy name for the destruction of Libya. All in the name of democracy.
We are givingDemocracy BadPubIicity.
Read a book that amazing, War is a Racket by Gen Smedley Butler, Marine Corp General, won two medals of honor, sent to central America so US companies could take over the banana plantations, it's always the money.
The”Downing Street Memos” show it had been decided in 2002 to invade Iraq, and subsequent Intel and policy was fixed around that decision.
OIL AND DRUGS!!!
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year.
Why didn’t they mention this in this video?
In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine.
This documentary is stew pid.
Stop the endless wars keep peace around the world..✌️
Peace didn't exist before the "endless wars" of War on Terror, nor will it exist afterwards. This planet has never known peace in the entire 6000 years of human recorded history.
entire war was a proxy war, not a real war. afghanistan is a dust bowl not a real country it's a piece of desert land that is meant to be left alone and not developed. and the usa lost to this useless piece of land. the real reason was the whole war was a scheme. all of the arab nations and usa was colluding with one another to conduct the genocide. very similar to the current ukraine thing, usa is still doing their misconduct but they shifted the genocide into ukraine and knows it's happening and still funds it.
they want to keep the population numbers in check. the world is on pace to run out of oil within 30 years from now. but they should not do these stupid wars, they should just tell everyone to stop breeding like what china did. but the woman still find a way to cheat the rules.
Peace doesn't sell. War is profitable. Sad, but true.
us never want peace in the world.
@@fiaf-m3003 the people of usa do. not a reckleess 80 year olds like biden whom his own time is near an end so he could care less about human life. but he doesn't represent the people at large. these decisions are made by the few with too much power.
The truth will set us all free in the end. Thank you for sharing the actual information with the people!
As always we never learn from past military experiences, we continue to make the same mistakes costing lives. Afghanistan was my generation Vietnam with incompetent, promotion and assignment driven general officers whose main concern was outdoing the previous person and most importantly not displaying true LEADERSHIP. To listen to these retired generals talk now really upsets me because they had an obligation to their subordinates to not only lead but fight to ensure they had the necessary resources and objectives to be successful.
I served in the Army from 1988-2012 and had my fair share of deployments to many countries in support of military operations prior to and after 9/11. I learned that being a leader encompass courage to stand up for what is right regardless of the situation. I understand that there are people that have aspirations of achieving the highest level/rank whether it be as a NCO or officer but some do forget what their primary purpose of being a leader is. Leaders inspire, motivate, train, teach, mentor, take care of their personnel and most importantly are tasked to take their subordinates to combat and bring them back home safely.
I’ve said in a previous post the military was given a challenging task with no clear guidance and they did their best to accomplish the mission. The military doesn’t lose wars only politicians lose wars. We put so much trust in our politicians and things just seem to fall apart constantly. We all knew Afghanistan was a corrupt country but yet we expected a different outcome. This goes to show when the government of a country is corrupt the country has no choice but to fail regardless how much effort and support is given throughout the international community.
My hopes are that our politicians, military leaders and citizens have learned from the Afghanistan war but my heart says we have not based on current events which means we are doomed to make the same mistakes again. History exists to teach but one must be willing to learn.
My hope is that US will loose a major war and will become one of few major powers restricted to own sphere of influence with no global outreach. It's all pointing to that scenario. Country is surrounded by medieval shitholes with narco crime and lawlessness while hypocritically trying to build nations on the other side of the globe . Probably by design. Why build prosperity in your own sphere of influence when you can have as much cheap destitute labor as needed?
Also , you guys who are enlisting in tours because there is nothing else you can do in life are mercs no soldiers since you're mostly used in illegal wars and only the fact of being a military force of a superpower saves your leadership ranks from being court-martialed as war criminals.
I knew back in 2011 and 2012 when I was in Afghanistan that as soon as we left the taliban would take back over. We had to leave at some point but the way it was done was terrible, seeing these guys try to say they didn't see it coming really hurts amd pisses me off. These "leaders" need to be held accountable! the way the whole war was managed by politicians and genreals was terrible. We all knew exactly how the withdraw would play out
why there isn't translation
Afghanistan was a plot so we give the military industrial complex billions of US tax dollars. That is fundamentally it. Everything else was just a lie/excuse.
Just like now "CHINA! RUSSIA! QUICK, WE NEED TO INCREASE MILITARY FUNDING BY ANOTHER 200 BILLION!" meanwhile the American people are stuck in a capitalist hellscape where every turn is met by a greedy corporation using inflation as an excuse to nickel and dime us.
Well uf u idiots set some objectives and diddnt make it about making money.. it might of been different.......no reverse gear
Some of the people who benefitted from this 20-year Afghan war are now working in academic institutions teaching your sons and daughters. Some of them are in arms and tech companies (as board members or advisers). And the others? Well, they could be your neighbors happily enjoying their retirement.
......not working
They became afhans hire as CIA espionage
Reality world
More like 20 yrs of MONEY LAUNDERING at that money and still Afghans have nothing to show for of that $2.3 Trillion dollars... Wake up people Ukraine is no different. Money making scam is what this is.. Greedy career corrupt politicians getting fat on tax payers money.
One of the biggest mistakes was that Americans were taking advice and trusting Pakistani government, while they were arming and supporting the taliban, and wanted this mission to fail,Americans were looking at Afghanistan thru the lenses of Pakistani Generals and believed it
The Biggest Mistake was electing a broken toaster to be the US President
Do you really think the superpower needed Pakistan advice to defeat a militant? yes Pakistan did supported some factions of Taliban but saying that it was the only reason for USA failure is immature and just a propaganda told by Afghan nationalists
Do you really think the superpower needed Pakistan advice to defeat a militant? yes Pakistan did supported some factions of Taliban but saying that it was the only reason for USA failure is immature and just a propaganda told by Afghan nationalists
That was the main reason for the failure of this mission, because Pakistan not just trained and supported the taliban in its soil ,but used its leverage with Americans to promote the taliban as the only other alternative for Afghanistan..
@@NickInsaf-eq9oi i don't think so you are amerciam what is your nationality AFGHAN?
Henry Kissinger "it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal"?
Agreed the short rotation in and out of the military was a huge weakness...we NGO volutneers were committed for years and left seldom, big difference in relationships and understanding of the work.
Well the goal from the start was to crush Al Qaeda as they hosted them in Afghanistan and that was successful, Al Qaeda is history. They attacked France, Spain train bombing, UK subway attacks, Even Russia was attacked, so we had to go in and end that mess which well. was successful.... The US military lost less than 20 men per year after 2014-2015 when it was contractors that took over but it was stupid, the whole show should have ended in 2015 but for whatever reason Obama and Trump did not end it, not sure why.
I only served 1 tour in Afganistan on active duty. I know I served my country to the best of my abilities at the time, however, I definitely have mixed feelings why we basically tried to occupy a country for so long and impose our views and ideologies among people that do not view the same way. At least once a week or sometimes twice a week we would gather at attention for Fallen Hero ceremonies on the flightline. We used our own C-130 aircraft for coffin displays. That was very difficult to deal with, because they were Americans that didn't even know.
Come on now you know exactly why they was over there America was over there way before 9/11 every American knows why
you never served the US as it is not exist ONLY SOME AMERCAN CITIZENS HEARTH but other wise YOU SERVED KISSINGER WEAPON MAKERS DRUGDEALERS ISRAEL nothing else as your leaders and army is lead by them for to serve them.... minewhile all your tax money goes to Israel too where they use it for free healthcare free education free everything the money they double double and even more and may times double steeled from you from your family and kids .... WORST IT WILL GET FOR THEM IF ISRAEL WOULD NOT BE TOTALLY DESTROYED AND TAKEN THE RIGHT OF RECOGNISION OF THEM AS STATE GIVEN TO THEM BY THE QUEENS MOTHER JEWISH ORIGINE AND ABUSE OF THE UKS ROYAL FAMILY NAME AND TOTALLY IDSTROYED THE UK CITIZENS TOO> FOR THAT THEY USE THEIR OFFSPRINGS IN HOLYWOOD TO GET RICH BY BEING FAMOUS WHILE ALL FILM IS PLANE HOW TO KILL OUT THE US THE UK AND ALL NATIONS
you know that is the definition of terrorism right? what we did there.
@@giostevens7669 No, I don't know. Please share
@@TheMusicHeals.kjhjhhg I never hurt or terrorized anyone in my 14 years on active duty. Spin it any way you want.
With all the "noise", I did not see this coming. A beacon of hope that was truly needed in this political climate. Well balanced and I think you have set a new standard for NEWS in America. Someone has to do it. The ending was right on the 'money'. Fantastic. Release this into different platforms.
Hello, hope you are doing well, i am a student ftom Afghanistan living in Pakistan and acquiring education, i am in very harsh trouble at the moments, because of unpaid fees of university.will you plz help me with 400 dollar to submit my fee, i will be very thankful to you.
wtf??
@@sikander8814bsbsnsghsgysksisk
Fox news rvtards aren't going to take the time to watch this, let alone make a documentary like this. That is the difference between us and them today. Period.
Wow that closing statement.
Extremely well put thank you.
This was actually a very good watch. Never did I think CNN would be able to step it up again. Hope it's not a one time thing.
Just wait 'till the war in G@Z@ is over (if ever).
There is a proverb in my local Kenyan Kikuyu dialect that goes, "Uuugi Ndwanjagia." The translation is that wisdom is usually always as a result of mistakes. Wisdom is usually never at the starting point of any and all human experiences but rather it is the end result of them all, both individually and collectively.
I guess the US is wisdom-resistant then...? After the "lessons" of vietnam, it should have been so obvious.....
They seem to never learn it seems
We needed this video sooner
My father was in Pakistan Army and i can surely state this fact that American death toll in Afghanistan is way way more higher than officially acknowledged.
rubbish, its impossible to hide that in a free society
Quite amazing how few casualties the U.S troops suffered in such a long war.
look for sucide rate among veterans you'll see it differently
it's due to advanced medical technologies and treatments, large number of amputees and other seriously wounded who would have died in earlier conflicts of this scale. Huge numbers of PTSD, which then results in large numbers of dysfunctional individuals returning and demobilizing, then large numbers of suicides.
@@falcon7036 actually no. Suicide among soldiers who been to war is usually much higher
Each one had a family. For each killed there are ten times more injured
@@MissMan666 That's what he meant.
Lt. Col Jason Dempsey said what I know and saw during my three tours (48 months) serving in Afghanistan. I was reprimanded and sent home early for expressing my assessment of failures. No one [it's career suicide] tells the "Old Man" bad news!
Maybe the generals and the presidents during the war should be held responsible because they knew behind the scenes that it was a failed war doomed to failed. OBL dies in May 2011 that should have been the opportunity to withdrawal. Afghanistan is a failed country with different tribes fighting and killing each other
@@njonjokibera9587 I have thought that very thing. After getting Bin Laden, we should have planned our gradual withdrawal.
@@ErinDindoffer we should’ve withdraw in 2011 after Bin Ladens death, or in the end of 2011. Nation building should have been done in this country not in Afghanistan. Afghan people are responsible for developing their country
That's because bad news and truth are not good for his heart & mind
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year.
Why wasn’t this mentioned in this video?
In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine.
This documentary is stew pid.
My dad fought in this war and missed my graduation, glad he survived the war but still missed him for a year in my life just for some boogus war
omg so sad life is so hard for you
@@stripclub-di5frOMG, what a humane response. /s
You're dad's a killer
I appreciate your dad's service and I understand your loss. Thank you and your family for your sacrifices. The bogus war was Iraq. The Afghanistan war was righteous in my opinion.
@@freddygray8058If killing your gangs is a fair thing?!!!
Why did the United States commence the war in Afghanistan despite the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan?
Back in the 90's I remember talking to a former officer of the Soviet Army who said "The military did what was asked of us, and we did it well. The politicians lost this war." He also complained about the "greens" (ANA) being unmotivated and corrupt.
I suspect if we were to ask a Vietnam veteran, they would say the same thing about their effort and about ARVN performance.
Our Army in Vietnam became largely conscript one.
There were a number of things that led to the end of the Vietnam war, but part of it was indeed the weakness of South Vietnams military.
@@alexdale8705after all American forces left by 1973 , the north Vietnamese attacked the south and it was the army of south Vietnam that lost in 1975 .
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year.
Why wasn’t this mentioned in this video?
In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine.
This documentary is stew pid.
@@terjeoseberg990 Ukraine is a high intensity conflict though. Perhaps a better comparison could have been to Soviet losses in Afghanistan: 14,453 KIA.
First off, I’m an OEF vet (Kandahar and Helmand provinces) and What always blew my mind and still enrages me to this day is this: The fighting aged males of that country didn’t want to take their own country back. If they didn’t want to be patriots and fight for their own freedom from the Taliban then why were we doing it for them? That’s just my $0.02
OEF vet too. My take centers around understanding Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. We, in the west, and as Americans, are generally on a higher rung of that pyramid. Where basic needs are met, physiologically, socially, economically, to the point where we can undergo self-actualization and get into abstract things like "patriotism" and "self-determination."
Afghanistan does not have that bandwidth or "luxury" to explore such things. They are literally only thinking about their next meal. The poverty we saw there is the ultimate disconnect... we didn't understand the amount of poverty and that it is a country of grifters, young and old. They do whatever it takes to survive. That's their mode of thinking. We can't prescribe ideas like "patriotism" or suggest they go down the hard path of "self determination" when they themselves don't have enough money to feed their family, or much less themselves.
We essentially were trying to teach an illiterate and grifting population western philosophy, law, and ideals expecting them to pick it up and see it's values. They can only explore those spaces if their physiological, mental, emotional, and economic needs are met first (hence, see Maslows Heirarchy of Needs). They simply don't have the mental or physical bandwidth to explore such things.
The consolation is that I believe we truly empathized with them and wanted to give them a better future (especially women in Kabul), but in the end, they were simply too poor, too illiterate, and too hungry (literally) to adopt/adapt.
You’re very well spoken and I agree 100%.
You still do not understand the Afghan people just like the politicians and the military leadership. Patriotism to Afghan people was fighting the foreign occupations and joining the Taliban. Those who were collaborating with Americans were the ones seen as traitors working to make few cash and bite time until the Americans leave. Fighting foreign occupation by a military super power for 20 years and defeating them would be the strongest show of patriotism on the face of the earth. Your own mind just switched the logic around.
@@John-vm2sq You are like many I worked with, you see things from your perspective and what you as an American want and are not even thinking about what it is they want. From their perspective, the Talibs are also Afghans, they follow the same religion and not always that much differently to what they do. Moreover, the fact that you wanted to introduce western or American culture and ideals puts you at odds with a culture that is a thousand years older than your own. The thing is, Americans were the invaders and the locals simply tolerated you knowing full well that eventually you would leave and think nothing of it...and you did.
They actually took their country back by fighting off the US and their western allies. Those you call the "Taliban" are local ethnic Afghans. Imaging being mad that people fought you because you were an invader.
To all those who fought in Afghanistan we salute you, While it ended in disaster not only for the US but also it's allies may your efforts be recognized to help the people of that country from Taliban rule
The USA did not go in to save the people of Afghanistan but to destroy Al Qaeda and Osama which was successful of course they are all gone today.
2 deployments to Afghanistan 🇦🇫 & I will always be proud of the service of my friends & I gave to the Nation. 🇺🇸
What did your nation give you in return?
You think that whatever you did invading that land will go unnoticed?
You will be held accountable before God and we would all see what your fate would be
@@MohamedBadat-yp7xj”A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus." Or that, "Virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.”
It doesn’t matter what we think his country gave back. He made the decision to serve for what he believed was right. That’s why he is proud to have give service. Who are we to question his servitude? And for who?
You’re right only God will have the right to judge if what he did was right or wrong. What if God deemed his actions to be right and just ? Will you question God’s Judgement ?
@@mikejohn3630 God will judge that is true but he doesnt like oppressors
It matters not what this soilder thought,every single life he took will stand before God and say
"God,this man here took my life whilst I was but a child"
A woman will come and say
"God,this man Murdered my parents and brothers"
An old man will come and say
"God,this man slaughtered my grandsons"
And God will ask this soilder
"On what right,did you do these atrocities,why did you do all of that"
The us soilder will reply
"God,I was commanded to do so by my army supervisor whos name is so and so"
God will say
"Didn't I not give you Intellect to discern what is right and what is wrong,didn't I not grant you a consciousness that guided you and you silenced it"
God will then say
"Every man,woman is accountable for their own sins,no burden of a person shall be carried by another person"
And while all of his victims are watching
He is thrown into the f(I re)
God will then say
"Am I not then just?
His victims will celebrate because now true justice has been served
You wasted trillions of our tax dollars and somehow still lost
Proud ? you should be ashamed and disgusted.
Remember when USA armed the talibans against the socialist govt of Afghanistan and against the Soviet Union troops ? Remember also USA/Western propaganda portrayed talibans as "freedom fighters", sounds familiar ??
"We don't replicate the same mistakes we made in this war, for the next one ?" So when are you going to learn to stop interfering in other countries ? That's none of your business.
Three words that will explain this better: Military Industrial Complex. Failure or success is not relevant here.
Amen. The moneymakers always win.
No, it was due to 9/11 and Osama which conducted the attacks and his center of operations was in Afghanistan and the poof is that today Al Qaeda is GONE and Osama was captured. This was a resounding success and the US army pretty much alreayd left in 2014 as you can see by the deaths of US solders fell to less than 20 per year after 2015 and most of those were from disease or other reasons no combat
@@drscopeify BOT lmao ... '' benladen hijacked planes with box cutters '' who ever believe in this is a certified BOT
@@drscopeifywrong ❤
sad to hear al the realities of this war in detail..
it is pure hell to be a little kid . . and your shoe laces come untied. a Dad who experienced the price of mistakes
Afghan war Vet here. This was a very well done documentary. I appreciate the deep dive into this and hard questions asked. I think about this war a lot and the people we lost over there.
I’d like to think what keeps people like me sane is knowing you did what you were asked to do well and did so with integrity and humanity. The other part is not fixating on the past (positive or negative) and always move forward mentally.
I understand why Vets will ruminate on this but I would argue that’s not healthy and try to find something to get past this (hobby, work, non profit, community work, etc).
I’m also glad they focused on the families here. So much sacrifice was made by them.
Thank you for making this available for free, every American should watch this film, those who have not served still have an obligation to remember the sacrifices of our service men
It is not a sacrifice when you knowingly choose to serve against humanity.
It's interesting that Jake said the words "blood lust" bc those were the words I going to use to describe what it was I think it was I, along with millions of other Americans were feeling back in September 2001. I remember that sense of wanting revenge even though I'd never been that kind of person.
Of course, had I known then that this would mean sacrificing my oldest son, who was 10 at the time, I surely would've thought differently. Don't misunderstand, my son still lives and breathes, but the young man that marched off to train to become a Recon Marine and then fight in one of the most kinetic combat regions in Afghanistan is not the young man I handed off.
He suffers horribly from PTSD. He suffers from nightmares every single night, he cannot stand the sound of a woman or a baby crying- whether it be in person or even just on tv/ movie, so he'll never be able to have a child of his own. The fact that he hasn't become one of the 13 veterans/day who commits suicide is nothing short of a miracle because he constantly tells us he doesn't want to be here.
Despite all this, I mean he is a Recon Marine after all... the best of the best. He went to college when he got out, even got his Masters and works every day. Only we in his family know how much he suffers, but I know there are untold thousands, who knows, hundreds of thousands like him out there and for what?? What did we gain?
He and I have spent many hours over the past 12 years talking about his time in the military and some about his time in Afghanistan. Recently, though, he said something that really shocked me. He told me that most of the Afghan people had no idea why we had even come there. It had to be pretty terrifying. Guess that's why his MOS was to win the hearts of the Afghan people and seek out and eliminate the Taliban.
I'm making an edit to add, before anyone may suggest the obvious, we've been BEGGING my son to seek help from the VA for all of his issues, but try telling someone who's been trained SF that they should seek help....ummm it's not in their vocabulary, they're 'invincible'... until they're not. It took me 11 years, but I finally got him to agree to disarm himself last year. Things were getting way too scary so he finally agreed. He wasn't a danger to anyone but himself. It gave me hope that he could do that😌 Next step will be VA...baby steps.
I suggest you guys look into Islam. May God grant you all peace and guidance
@@AbdullahUsmani-is9nn Thank you🙏
So sorry to hear about your son's struggles. I hope he finds peace, and I hope you do. Best thoughts to you both.
@@parsonj39 Thank you, I appreciate your kind words.
I don't know what to say, good luck in the future. You should know at the very least, the US army did hand out aid in those 20 years, medicine, clothes, that did save lives.
Served in 2009 / 10 in a British NGO as "rebuilding aide". Thus: calling myself a (civilian) Afghanistan veteran. Also in solidarity and friendship mainly with US-soldiers, who were often there, when things became tense. And with whom I also had the most intense chats. It's good to hear here in that CNN documentary, that US-veterans also claim, that as required by the US Army’ s 2006 Field Manual, being “ a social worker, a civil engineer, a school-teacher, a nurse, a boy scout” and that they should all act as “nation builders as well as warriors” is just overloading those comrades and bothers in arms with the failures of politicians not having the least idea and interest in places like Afghanistan and their people.
Founded in 2006 the NGO I worked for back then started working at a community dwelling on around 4 ha / 9.5 acres in Kabul’s Old Town. When I arrived there February 2009 the general condition of the site was characterized by war and perpetuate conflict in a way, I have never witnessed before. Particularly water and sanitation were a big issue, impacting every aspect of everyday life. When I left Afghanistan in July 2010 my overall role in the regeneration program had included developing a decentralized, gravity-based piped sewage system for sustainable urban water management with engineering consultants and managing land property rights in what many partners also in the government, World Bank and IMF believed to be a model project for urban and rural spaces and their neighborhoods.
As the only German in that NGO I was kind of an exotic person for most others. Expats as much as Afghans. White haired senior engineer ("Sarr e sefid" for Afghan brothers and colleagues), trained architect, urban planner and urban historian. Never forget a long chat with another American Army officer working at the ANA / ISAF helicopter base at Kabul in September 2009, where they actually were training Afghan pilots on old, but highly robust Soviet helicopters or other mainly transport carriers.
After I had told him about my grandpa, who in 1936 said, that this bloke in Berlin was a lunatic and that things might end up in a catastrophe and who then together with my granny manouvered their seven kids, amongst them my Dad through these times and waved US troops into his small town in 1945 and soon afterwards started working with them on a base close by as a technician the ice broke and that officer, who was as fond of "his" scholars as I was of "my" architects and engineers I trained frankly asked me: "Why do things here not work out the way they worked out with you guys?"
We were discussing that matter for another I suppose 2 to 3 hours. The armed social worker with the pride and dignity of an honorable soldier and the German engineer and architect working with the Brits there keeping up that kind of grandpa's friendship with US-soldiers and colleagues.
He as much as many other friends of mine might agree with my quote, after having written my first kind of analysis of our failure there in Afghanistan: "When you're coming back from Afghanistan to the West, nothing can ever be the way, it used to be."
There's still such a lot to research concerning these 20 years of Western presence at the Hindu Kush and I'm afraid, political investigation here in Germany as much as at your country there in the US won't do a lot for getting the dust, greed and other trash from underneath the carpet revealed.
Great documentary. Just found it on new years eve. Thank you. Have a great and better 2024, folks!
Very good documentary
The thing about this war in afghanistan is that the USA is consistently placing a military presence in afghanistan and of course, it can be expected that there will be clashes between the locals and the americans. The US does not want to leave and will not invade the country either that is why the war has been going on for 20 years. You can call it a war, but the exact definition is occational clashes from time to time.
What a fantastic program. This was very well done. Informative, neutral and unbiased. 👏.
CNN and Unbiased doesn't blend good together...
"If some foreign power invaded my country like the german Nazis, id be the afghan equivalent off the taliban" George Gallaway.
What if your country was infested with a cartel of madman terrorists who blow shit up taking out innocent children in the name of god. They also took over the emerald minds which didn’t belong to them
This war was pointless. Killing the people responsible could have been done via an airstrike or by other means. The attempt to turn Afghanistan into a civilized country was futile. But this doesn't mean America shouldn't help when an actual democracy (that wants to fight for itself, and only wants material aid from America) needs help. America has benefitted massively from liberating a significant part of the world, which is allied with the US today (and nations all over the world, from UK to Australia, from Ukraine to Taiwan came to America's aid when called upon when America became the only country ever to trigger an NATO Article 5 mutual defence case, and also asked other allies for help). But the Middle East is different - you can't help someone who dislikes you and is offended by your presence.
The question I didn't hear was: "What if the resources had instead been invested in defensive measures at home (e.g., airline security) rather than offensive measures abroad?"
What more could America have done with their homeland security? Not all attacks are preventable. Was there any other airline attacks?
What more? America could and can always do more to protect our homeland. Stop sending obligation money to these counties. These billions should be spent on our own security. We have no business trying to save other countries when we can't save our own.
I spent a very long deployment in Kandahar walking the streets and meeting people and yes also fighting. I learned most people there are good people, they just wanted a chance. Unfortunately, the Taliban is so deeply rooted in their minds by fear that the immediately folded and were bluffed by only 5000 Taliban combatants. I pray 🙏🏽 that our interpreter is save and surviving their new world.
Hello, hope you are doing well, i am a student ftom Afghanistan living in Pakistan and acquiring education, i am in very harsh trouble at the moments, because of unpaid fees of university.will you plz help me with 400 dollar to submit my fee, i will be very thankful to you.
Sure, why for $400 let’s do $500 😂
Really 😏. After you promised to relocate them and their families . You are part of the problem . Hypocrites and liars . No one trust Americans outside America . Even NATO and the European Union just love taking y’all tax dollars , they do t trust y’all
I am from Afghanistan I can say Kandahar and Helmand was the most difficult place to be as Soldier. Glad you alive and OK
@@nissarghori5364 yes, no doubt about that. Thanks to your service
Wars are about sales and profit. It doesn't matter how many lives get lost in the process.
... this one was about REVANGE !!!
The sales and profits were planting poppy drugs to sell it world wide instead of feeding USA citizens
Reality
Wars are only profitable if victory is achieved. What's the point in making money if the dollar takes a hit like it did because of GWOT. Yeah folks like certain contractors shamelessly make money but they also do want to see the mission succeed as well because otherwise what good is the money if its not worth the paper it's printed on. This war was done for so many reasons good and bad but ultimately we all lost but the biggest losers is the people of Afgahnistan. I hope that one day maybe there can be reconciliation but doubt that will happen in my life time.
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year.
Why didn’t they mention this in this video?
In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine.
This documentary is stew pid.
My name is Abbas from Iraq, the capital Baghdad 1989. I am writing this letter and my tears will not stop or dry. There is a war with Iran, a war with America, a war with Kuwait, and a war with ISIS... I do not want to get married. I fear for the child's future. I want nothing but to leave this world as soon as possible. We have seen nothing from countries but destruction, killing, and deprivation. I ask God to stand with us against any curious person who interferes in the affairs of others.
The 20-year war in Afghanistan, which cost over two trillion dollars and more than 6,000 American lives, ended much like it began, with the Taliban in power. The bi-partisan debacle led to the fall of the central government and a chaotic evacuation of American troops and Afghan allies. The documentary, "America After 9/11: Lessons Learned and Unlearned," provides a retrospective view of the war's architects, who reflect on what went wrong and the lessons that must be learned. Lieutenant Colonel Jason Dempsey, who served in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2014, believes the problem of assessing the war's failure is difficult because everyone can think they're doing their best. The military received great write-ups, and we convinced ourselves that we were doing well, but we never held anybody accountable. Dempsey argues that it's super easy for political leaders to say the military has this, and Congress has no desire to own any oversight of the way we're fighting.
The documentary provides a sobering reminder of the human cost of war, with the lives of American soldiers, even if it's just a dozen, not being a goddamn rounding error. The lives of Afghan citizens were also lost, and their future remains uncertain. The war's architects agree that corruption was one of the main reasons for the war's failure, along with a lack of accountability and a failure to understand the complexity of the Afghan culture. The documentary argues that we must have these discussions and hold those accountable to learn from our mistakes and prevent the replication of the same mistakes in the next war.
2404 was the death toll in Afghanistan. 6000 was both Iraq and Afghanistan together.
You said a lot of crap but the answer has already been proposed by the anti-war movement of the 1960s. It is get your hands off the affairs and discords of foreign people and nation states.
@@Jay-ro2vnThat is also the figure without counting private contractors though
American imperialism -- always the same-- flee from the enemy after terrible losses.
🤔@@Jay-ro2vn
A big issue is that it’s not entirely the role of the military to do state building. It’s the responsibility of the state department and the president to ensure the stability of the government of Afghanistan. I’ve seen very little analysis in the failures of multiple presidents and state department officials to create a stable country.
It's not the job of the United States to stabilize any government. We shouldn't have gone there in the first place
No the issue is we went to an independent country and decimated it for "liberty" and left it worse off.
These generals are a joke. Why do we have a CIA, NSA, Dept of Defense, and countless other full time intelligence agencies only for all those dimwits to say “we didn’t understand what we were getting into or the Afghan culture”????
I’m not buying it. Criminals made billions from that war, they’re sociopaths.
blackrock is exploiting america
@@HeyLook287 you didn't go into an independent country....why would you say so?..... you went into a dictator ruling country....its all that iss to it....
Imagine the money put into the war in Afghanistan and Iraq was put into infrastructure, research and development at home! We would have been way ahead of every nation in every aspect of life
🤔🙄😁🤩🤗
Education, health care, gun control
I love one of the comments, the democracy in US itself is an experiment. I love the scientific approach toward social science. This Afghanistan issue can also be viewed as a 20 year experiments. With the local culture and other situations, this experiment failed for its original goal, but the experimental data have been collected and should be well documented and well used in future.
Do you reckon America will consider these failed results and stop promoting its American style democracy to other countries?
Or would they just keep imposing American democracy to other countries, even though it's already cause issues in America itself?
We would not forgive America for attacking Afganistan.
A nuclear submarine of the Vanguard type of the British Navy with a crew of 140 people and Doomsday missiles "Trident-2" almost sank in the Atlantic due to the failure of the depth gauge. Comrade Depth Gauge was promoted by the Russian command to the rank of captain.
... OFF TOPIC .... has nothing to do with Afganistan
@@_Alfa.Bravo_ - Well, maybe comrade Depth Gauge know a little something about "hearts and minds"
This decades conflict showed that although military might is certainly important, the aftermath is probably even more so. Once you get rid of the 'bad guy' (which we didn't even do), you are in charge of a territory that is unstable at best and extremely volatile at worst, with different factions now trying to fill that power vacuum, that will drain your resources for years to come if you don't have an exit plan.
ACTUALLY FANCY CALLING THE TALIBAN A BAD GUY, WHEN CLEARLY THE WORLD CALLS AMERICAN THE BAD GUY AND BULLIES 😂😂😂. ALSO AMERICA IS A TERRORIST NATION, BLOOD THIRSTY SAVAGES.😢😢😢
There's no "bad guy"
The world isn't black and white
Remember when USA armed the talibans against the socialist govt of Afghanistan and against the Soviet Union troops ? Remember also USA/Western propaganda portrayed talibans as "freedom fighters", sounds familiar ??
"We don't replicate the same mistakes we made in this war, for the next one ?" So when are you going to learn to stop interfering in other countries ? That's none of your business.
Around 2,400 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. That’s about 120 per year.
Why wasn’t this mentioned in this video?
In less than 2 years 230,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine.
This documentary is stew pid.
@@fatalmokrane I recommend you watch Rambo 3 if you want to laugh (or maybe cry actually)
Hypocrisy doesn't work in Afghanistan
You are not different from other empire's
anyone who dare to invade Afghanistan it will face the same consequences
😂😂😂
I believe that if the US started to help educate Afghan people in 20 years, instead of giving money, today Afghanistan would be a different country. And US politicians know about that.
It's funny that you think they want education. They want religion. And slave-wives.
Like Nam the majority of the people throughout the country had not bought into the vision of what the US wanted for the country. Its hard to fight for something the majority of people don't want and to only have less than 10000 US troops to convince them.
So let me get this straight. Poor leadership and strategy, corruption, lies, political and military failures.... and they think we need a draft??? Absolutely crazy. The soldiers past and present and the US people deserve better than the leaders they've had. Great insightful documentary, thank you for uploading.
1% of Americans served after 911, but that's not the whole story. The war was initially born primarily by generation X. There are only about 50 million Generation X Americans. Of those only 25% met the minimum military entrance standards. This is the healthier, better educated, more law abiding group. This is the same pool of People who run the nation and are in high demand. 30% of that cohort served so without seriously lowering standards we could not have had many more soldiers if there had been a draft.
History repeats over and over again. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and in the future Taiwan.
And taking all the jews of Europe after ww2 and placing them in a country where there were already people living there and saying this is your new home,fuck the people that's living here.
Ukraine now.
Remember when USA armed the talibans against the socialist govt of Afghanistan and against the Soviet Union troops ? Remember also USA/Western propaganda portrayed talibans as "freedom fighters", sounds familiar ??
"We don't replicate the same mistakes we made in this war, for the next one ?" So when are you going to learn to stop interfering in other countries ? That's none of your business.
Well atleast korea was divided
The United States was wrong the first time, if the main enemy is Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, why didn't they separate the Taliban from Al-Qaeda from the start? instead of fighting both at once. From the start, the narrative issued by Bush was the involvement of the Taliban in acts of terrorism. Which the Taliban from the beginning until now has denied the accusation. Even the last hiding place of Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan. There are too many interests and goals of the US war in Afghanistan, so that the war becomes unclear, loses direction, and becomes biased.
Maybe the guess is that the US goal is to prevent the Islamic Taliban government from coming to power in Afghanistan, wants to uphold democracy in Afghanistan, wants to control natural resources in Afghanistan, wants to make Afghanistan a military base to weaken or someday to attack Iran, wants to uphold women's rights or feminism.
people like Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, are the ones who don't fully trust the US, the ones who are in the middle, but also the ones who are the most doubtful. People who try to mediate but without certain beliefs. How can they trust the US 100%, which they see has killed many Afghan people? And they also understand the level of confidence and characteristics of the Taliban who continue to survive patiently, with tenacity, surviving 20 years of guerrilla warfare in the barren hills. They know that what strengthens them is only their belief in God. And people like Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani certainly don't want to lose, on the one hand they don't really trust the US, and they really know the character of Afghanistan's tribalistic society which is difficult to bring to democracy, on the other hand they don't have the same level of faith as the Taliban. and they don't want to go to the trouble of siding with the Taliban to suffer decades of guerrilla warfare in the barren hills. Therefore, in such people what is dominant in them is pragmatism and opportunism. That's why they enforce the corruptive character of government. They just want to take the opportunity to enjoy abundant financial funding from the US, to enforce the fantasy of democracy in Afghanistan which they themselves actually doubt.
In fact, the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations are on the right track. Where Obama returned to the original goal of eliminating Osama Bin Laden. Trump began direct negotiations with the Taliban, and intense which was rarely done before. The outside world has only seen direct negotiations between the US government and the Taliban in the Trump era. And finalized by Biden by withdrawing all US troops. This was all carried out to resolve Bush's misguided policies.
whatever it is, the United States does not know anything about the characteristics of Afghan society and the Taliban. The United States does not know how strong their religious faith is, which they are not at all afraid to die. Dying in war is the way to heaven, and a source of pride for them.
It's almost as if you can't bribe people into political integrity. 🤨
You just need some type of leverage over them...😅
Given the topic (of the longest war, and a costly one), would it make sense to mention in the bio of each retired general being introduced, that they might be currently employed as consultants lobbying for arms manufacturers - who might have a vested interest in supplying a war for 20 years? Transparency would have the advantage of removing suspicion potential conflicts of interest, right? And perhaps mention campaign contributions? The trillions didn’t come from anywhere, they came from congress…
Of course the arms industry has a vested interest in the sale of arms and therefore in any conflict. BUT, the fact is, you simply have to have an arms industry and better for it to be a thriving one than a weak one. With a weak arms industry you are left with a weak nation. This is a fact.
So, what to do about the military industrial complex?
And congress funds come from you & me, the taxpayers who work to fund everything. Are you proud ?
@@apacademy I’m not American, I’m a citizen of the world concerned and impacted by what the US does. I believe in good journalism, it plays an important role and, from my standpoint, the likes of CNN when doing these documentaries could be a little more “investigative” and transparent by informing viewers of the time these retired generals might have worked as consultants for the weapons industry during this 20 year war. Transparency does not mean something wrong has taken place, it usually means that there is nothing to hide. So, if there’s nothing to hide, why does CNN not introduce these retired generals with a more transparent bio?
CNN is a. Mouth piece for Democrats. Do the math
America did not fail in defeating the Taliban. America failed in building a proper state in Afghanistan. the modern history of Afghanistan is one of failed attempts to built a proper state in Afghanistan by Afghans themselves or others. it is just too poor, mountainous ( difficult to connect different parts ), illiterate, in a nasty neighborhood, traditional beyond belief and fractious ( religiously, ethnically etc ).
Did you ever think that they didn't want to be like us and live the way their ancestors lived not lose their culture customs or beliefs
What's a "proper state?"
"Illiterate, in a nasty neighborhood, traditional beyond belief and fractious ( religiously, ethnically etc". The irony escapes you.
Why do you want to defeat the Taliban? They are not your enemy. You installed the pro Iranian and pro Russian thugs in Afghanistan and The Taliban helped you by kicking them out
Oh, they didn't fail in defeating the Taliban? So who is in charge of Afghanistan now? lol
It should not be expected of the US to take care of them forever. US Troops died there teaching then to be independent and fight for themselves. They became to dependent on Americans protecting them. Americans paid financially and with American lives to help them- they should have been Ready to Fight for their families and their land. Bless their souls. They have been fighting a Civil war for centuries.
It didn't help that both in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush was all about the oil and kept giving back hard fought gains won at extreme cost before the war was ended in the pursuit of oil.
.....or planting drugs their goal
That yellow flower
The USA military just to look good to iglesia universal del reino de Deus
well if it was about oil they should have pulled out immediately after fracking came in 2009.
Afghanistan doesn't have oil.
They all died for nothing
What went wrong?
Going to Afghanistan in the first place!
You can't expect to decisively win or defeat an enemy by fighting a War of Attrition, how many examples from history do you need to understand this. Modern U.S. wars are not about defending American Apple Pie, but instead maintaining some sense of continuity of International trade routes, shipping lanes and levels of production and distribution in the World. gg, Tampa Florida
The U.S. will always spend billions to maintain an overwhelming Naval existence in every part of the world, Gun Boat diplomacy in the 21st century.....gg, Tampa Florida
If you could travel back to 2001 (when I was in fifth grade) and tell people that we would be in Afghanistan for TWENTY YEARS, and that we would LOSE, no one would believe you. We never learn our lessons.
1. People do not like foreigners with guns in their country. Would you accept foreign troops with arms and APCs on the streets of your American city? No. We think the rules don't apply to us. After all we're the "good guys" right? We'll be "greeted as liberators" (thanks Rumsfeld). Never mind that we haven't been greeted as liberators since France and Italy in the mid 40's...
2. Trying to "win hearts and minds" and "plant the seeds of democracy" with armed force doesn't work. You can't nation build with the US Army, and trying to is an exercise in futility.
3. Trying to fight two wars at the same time, and thinking that won't affect the outcome of either is the height of hubris. Invading Iraq to eject Saddam (who we helped in the Iran-Iraq war) because his WMDs were suddenly a problem (even though he used them against the Iranians in the eighties and HIS OWN PEOPLE in the early nineties) was a massive mistake. We were fighting a war with widespread support in Afghanistan, went into Iraq for unclear reasons and lost both...
4. Ultimately, like in South Vietnam, the historical course of the nation of Afghanistan is decided by the people of Afghanistan. We spent literal trillions of dollars propping up a force that wouldn't fight for their own country...
5. The idiots (including some top brass in the US military) who bemoan the fact that Afghan girls can't go to school anymore fail to understand that that is simply NOT OUR PROBLEM! It's also definitely not the US Army's problem. Guess what? There are many countries around the world with rampant human rights abuses *cough* Saudi Arabia *cough* that CANNOT be our problem. The military of this country, the United States of America, was created to defend the people, territory and interests of the United States. The Taliban pose no threat to me, as I sit here in Florida, and the fact that their girls can't go to school simply doesn't matter, either to me or my country.
6. The way we left was a shambles. I don't dispute that. We should have left years ago, but spending an infinite amount of time and money remaining would not have changed the outcome one iota. To the Afghan people, you have my sympathy, but you were let down by your own countrymen. The American public should not feel at all responsible for your plight. To the soldiers, sailors and marines of my country; it pains me that you fought, bled and sometimes died for this shitshow. Ultimately, like in Vietnam fifty years ago, your sacrifice was in vain, and that disgusts me. It should disgust all of us, and compel us to hold accountable both our military leaders and especially the responsibility-dodging politicians who led us down this primrose path the Hell.
The colonial forces that kidnap and enslave have moral authority only from the mouths of those same "authorities", i.e. those who have learned the "history of the victors", i.e. heavy lies,... but fortunately such situations are only historical episodes, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer and then they mostly collapse on their own, i.e. according to the "law of force majeure", so don't talk about the "American democracy that everyone dreams of" because if they do dream, then it's dreams in which they smash it into dust and ashes. For the most part, your conclusions are good, and it is up to the Americans to understand that they, like "civil society" or so-called "ordinary people", are just pawns for the elite, which through "stronger figures", such as Bush, makes moves, i.e. fakes the demolition of the "Twins towers" to would have an excuse for war, because wars are their means of maintaining power by possessing all kinds of material values and thereby controlling the mind of the mass population, because the very term "government" means mind control.