ANALYSIS | Arrogance and ignorance: this is why the West lost in Afghanistan
Storming into countries without insight into their ways cripples the West’s cause before the first shot rings out
05 September 2021 - 18:38
There have been many dark moments in the two decades since 9/11, some of them in Kabul, Afghanistan, last month. I remain especially haunted by a snapshot from 2007 Iraq. British political adviser Emma Sky was riding a Blackhawk with US commander Gen Raymond Odierno. She mentioned to her boss over the intercom a glimpsed graffiti on a building wall in Baghdad: “THE HERO, THE MARTYR SADDAM HUSSEIN.”..
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