How We Won and Lost the War in Afghanistan

Douglas Grindle provides a firsthand account of how the warin Afghanistan was won in a rural district south of Kandahar Cityand how the newly created peace slipped away when vital resources failed to materialize and the United States headed for the exit. By placing the reader at the heart of the American counterinsurgency effort, Grindle revealslittle-known incidents, includingthe failure of expensive aid programs to target local needs, the slow throttling of local government asofficial funds failed to reach the districts, and the United States' inexplicable failure to empower the Afghan local officials even after they succeeded in bringing the people onto their side. Grindle presents the side ofthe hard-working Afghans who won the war andexpresses what they really thought of theU.S. military and itsdecisions.Written by a former field officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, this story of dashed hopes and missed opportunities details how America's desire to leave the war behind ultimately overshadowed its desire to sustainvictory.