I thought about this while reading a commentary in Army History (by Gian Gentile). I think we have a selective history of that region and it affected us in the 00s in terms of our military and foreign policy strategies. We forgot our own history there, it was selective and we interpreted it completely through the lens of our battle with the Soviet Union, and our confused thoughts about non Western countries and post WWII colonialism/neocolonialism.
It was the correct way to view our European security theater but not the correct lens with which to view the AfPak theater.
You see, the fomenting of insurgency, and our contributions and our allies contributions to it, licit and illicit both, caused a problem. And instead of going back to first principles, we focused on the Taliban insurgency without thinking it through.
I don't know. I change my mind sometimes.
Anyway, the problems all started with this bit of conventional wisdom: "we abandoned Afghanistan and look what happened."
Uh, no. We were there on and off. I can see why people don't like to talk about it, though.
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