Just now reading No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal. You know about American incompetence in Afghanistan, but Gopal is unique in showing how the occupation looked on the ground, and destroys the narrative of a well-meaning America just being too ambitious. Thread.
In one Afghan district, there was a dispute over which side was the legitimate government. Both sides were accused of being Taliban by their enemies. What did the US do? It went and killed both sides, tortured the survivors, and then awarded medals to the troops involved.
A warlord built a business empire off the occupation, selling the US land he stole from locals, getting the US to take out his rivals by accusing them of being Taliban. The US military dropped fliers that said Afghans who cooperated could “Get Wealth and Power Beyond Your Dreams"
One elder went to the US and begged them to get their warlord to stop harassing him. They called the warlord, who them that he was of course Taliban. The US arrested the elder and put him in prison. After his release, he joined the insurgency.
When one local criticized the American-backed warlord, his home was raided. The State Department told the world that because the man had a model airplane, it was evidence he was involved in 9/11.
One local leader tried to cut down on corruption, was accused by a rival of being Taliban, sent to Gitmo.
Samoud Khan, who kept two "tea boys", rose in his place. Then a different warlord got the Americans to arrest Khan, who also sent one of his 12 year old tea boys to Gitmo.
Prisoners at Guantanamo would often be accused of supporting groups that were actually pro-American, or no longer existed.
They arrested people for being associated with Helmand governor Sher Muhammad Akhundzada, and others for resisting him.
A warlord explains how it works. Went to the Americans, got $5 million to get Bin Laden. Then he went to al-Qaida, who gave him $1 million not to give him to the Americans. Then he went to the ISI and asked for $500K, who put a gun to his head and told him to leave.
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