Following withdrawal announcement, battle to determine Afghanistan war’s legacy begins

The easy, obvious and probably inevitable legacy of America’s two-decade-long war in Afghanistan is the recognition that there are limits to U.S. military power, especially when it comes to altering the culture and internal politics of other countries.

This conclusion, shared by politicians as disparate as President Biden and former president Donald Trump, isn’t entirely wrong. But it also fails to recognize the missed opportunities, the blunders and even some of the successes of the longest war in American history, according to senior military officers who fought in the conflict and civilian officials who tried to rebuild Afghanistan.

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