Interview
Steve Coll: The Fight for the Future of Afghanistan
- Steve Kahl, a two-time Pulitzer winner and former Washington Post correspondent, authored Ghost Wars (pre-9/11 history) and a sequel covering the period from September 10, 2001, through the present to provide a "reliable, detailed history" of the U.S., Pakistan, and Afghanistan triangle.
- Kahl argues that despite hundreds of thousands of Americans rotating through Afghanistan as military, embassy staff, aid workers, and journalists, there remains a fundamental lack of clarity regarding the mission's objectives and why goals were not achieved.
- Strategic Ambiguity and Repeated Errors
- President George W. Bush's initial strategy failed to clearly define the Taliban's role; he offered the group a chance to leave without attacking the U.S., despite evidence that they lacked foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks.
- Mullah Muhammad Omar refused to surrender Al-Qaeda leaders to American justice, prioritizing religious principles over the survival of the Taliban government, which led to the group's exile.
- Post-2001, NATO and U.S. forces failed to distinguish between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, leading to the imprisonment of hundreds of Taliban foot soldiers at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghan prisons.
- Kahl draws a parallel to Iraq, noting the U.S. similarly dissolved the Ba'ath Party and Iraqi army, ceding the insurgency to Sunnis by refusing to integrate former enemy soldiers into a political settlement.
- The Obama administration's 2009 "surge" strategy relied on a logic gap: sending 100,000 troops to protect U.S. vital interests (counteracting Al-Qaeda and securing Pakistan's nuclear weapons) that were physically located in Pakistan, not Afghanistan.
- Despite public statements from commanders that the war could not be won by military means alone, the U.S. consistently failed to resource a complementary diplomatic or political strategy to achieve a stable settlement with the Taliban.
- Assessment of Recent Administration Strategies (Trump Era)
- The Trump administration signaled a "no clock" approach, explicitly threatening to stay indefinitely until objectives were met, and loosened rules of engagement to increase battlefield pressure.
- Kahl critiques the efficacy of these tactical shifts, noting that 10,000–15,000 troops with stricter rules cannot succeed where 150,000 troops failed.
- Data on district control, tracked via CIA "district assessment classified maps" updated every six months since 2007, shows no significant shift in the balance of power between government, Taliban, and independent control.
- A notable policy departure was the suspension of aid to Pakistan to compel action against Taliban sanctuaries; Kahl views this as logical but unlikely to succeed without a concurrent negotiating strategy.
- Leadership and Decision-Making Failures
- Kahl observes that the U.S. national security system is highly "stovepiped," requiring the President to be exceptionally forceful to align the CIA, Pentagon, State Department, and Treasury toward a single objective.
- A recurring theme in decision-making is the repetition of misjudgments across three administrations, where arguments and tactical errors are recycled despite changing leadership.
- Evolution of Journalism and the Columbia Journalism School
- Journalism education is shifting to emphasize "computation" and data analysis, requiring journalists to perform math to hold power accountable in a digital age.
- The curriculum has moved away from student-centered "telling their own story" narratives toward traditional public service reporting focused on how power is exercised and how decisions are made.
- External pressures, including attacks from the presidency, tech industry disruption of advertising revenue, and the rise of "citizen journalists," have paradoxically reinforced a sense of professional mission among students.
- Current student enrollment is characterized by a renewed seriousness about the discipline, focusing on difficult reporting tasks such as interviewing opposing sides in polarized environments (e.g., Charlottesville).