The collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, revealed what little American lives and money had purchased over 20 years there. It laid bare a gaping disconnect between reality and what senior U.S. officials had been telling Americans for decades: that success was just around the corner.
In hundreds of reports over the last 12 years, we have detailed a long list of systemic problems: The U.S. government struggled to carry out a coherent strategy, fostered overly ambitious expectations, started unsustainable projects and did not understand the country or its people.
American agencies measured success not by what they accomplished, but by dollars spent or checklists of completed tasks. As our own agency winds down, we raise a fundamental question: Why did so many senior officials tell Congress and the public, year after year, that success was on the horizon when they knew otherwise?
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