America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History (75 page)

 54.
George W. Bush, “Remarks at the United States Military Academy at West Point” (December 9, 2008).

 55.
“Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the Department of State” (January 15, 2009).

 56.
Available at
icasualties.org
.

 57.
Brookings Iraq Index (December 11, 2009),
brookings.edu/~/media/Centers/saban/iraq-index/index20091211.PDF
, accessed May 13, 2015.

 58.
“Four Killed in Baghdad Market Blast,” Agence France Presse (June 1, 2009); “Nine Killed in Baghdad Café Bombing,” Agence France Presse (June 4, 2009); “Iraq: Bombing of Minibus in Shiite Area Kills 9,” Associated Press (June 8, 2009); “Car Bomb in Iraq Kills About 30 People,” Associated Press (June 10, 2009); “Iraq Truck Bomb Kills 64,” Agence France Presse (June 20, 2009); “Iraqis Hunt for Relatives in Rubble of Deadly Truck Bombing,” Agence France Presse (June 21, 2009); “31 Killed in Iraq Attacks as U.S. Pullback Looms,” Agence France Presse (June 22, 2009); “Bomb Strikes Shiite Market in Baghdad, Killing 69,” Associated Press (June 24, 2009); “Motorcycle Bombs Kill 20 in Baghdad,” Associated Press (June 26, 2009); “Iraqis Celebrate US Pullback but Bombing Kills 33,” Associated Press (June 30, 2009).

 59.
Franks,
American Soldier,
400.

 60.
Casey,
Strategic Reflections,
68.

 61.
A third issue receiving attention was that of removing equipment—some 2.8 million tons worth, in 88,000 shipping containers, along with 41,000 vehicles of various types. “DoD News Briefing with Lt. Gen Webster from Kuwait” (April 2, 2010).

 62.
Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor,
The Endgame
(New York, 2012), 560–70, 573–74.

 63.
“DoD News Briefing with Gen. Ray Odierno from the Pentagon Briefing Room” (May 8, 2009).

 64.
The United States was demanding that any U.S. troops remaining in Iraq beyond the December 31, 2011, deadline for withdrawal to which the Bush administration had agreed should be immune from Iraqi law. The government of Iraq rejected this infringement of national sovereignty.

 65.
Joseph B. Treaster, “U.S. Forces out of Vietnam; Hanoi Frees the Last P.O.W.,”
The New York Times
(March 30, 1973).

 66.
“Obama Gives Top U.S. Commander in Iraq Understated Welcome Home,” Associated Press (December 20, 2011); “U.S. General Brings Baghdad Standard Home,”
CNN.com
(December 20, 2011).

15. Government in a Box

 1.
“Remarks in Cairo,” June 4, 2009.

 2.
Julian E. Barnes, “U.S. Calls Iraq the Priority,”
Los Angeles Times
(December 12, 2007).

 3.
Amy Belasco, “Troop Levels in the Afghan and Iraq Wars, FY2001–FY2012: Cost and Other Potential Issues” (July 2, 2009). This is a Congressional Research Service report.

 4.
Available at
icasualties.org/oef
.

 5.
Barfield,
Afghanistan,
293–305.

 6.
UN agencies included the Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan, the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the United Nations Common Supplier Database. For a complete list, see the website of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan,
http://unama.unmissions.org
, accessed May 20, 2015. The United Kingdom, its army having failed on multiple previous occasions to pacify Afghanistan, contributed by far the largest ISAF contingent, followed by Germany, France, Canada, and Italy. See the “ISAF Placemat” for January 2009, at
nato.int/isaf/placemats_archive/2009-01-12-ISAF-Placemat.pdf
, accessed May 20, 2015.

 7.
In 2007, for example, Afghanistan ranked 172nd out of 179 on Transparency International’s annual corruption index, coming in slightly ahead of Iraq and Somalia.
transparency.org/research/cpi/cpi_2007/0/
, accessed May 22, 2015.

 8.
Barfield,
Afghanistan,
312–20.

 9.
Carlotta Gall, “Convey Crash Sparks Kabul Riots,”
The New York Times
(May 29, 2006); Rachel Morarjee, “Riots Breach Kabul ‘Island’,”
The Christian Science Monitor
(May 30, 2006); Carlotta Gall, “Ruffians Blamed in Afghan Raids,”
The International Herald Tribune
(June 1, 2006).

 10.
Pamela Constable, “Dozens Are Killed in Afghan Fighting,”
The Washington Post
(May 23, 2006).

 11.
In 2006, coalition airstrikes killed 116 civilians, a number that rose to 321 the following year. Human Rights Watch, “ ‘Troops in Contact’: Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan” (September 2008), 14.

 12.
The reference to confusing command and control alluded to the fact that NATO, CENTCOM, and U.S. Special Operations Command—each headed by a different American four-star—each “owned” part of the action in Afghanistan. Unity of command took a backseat to the protection of bureaucratic turf.

 13.
Gates,
Duty,
199, 209, 211, emphasis in original.

 14.
“A Counter-Insurgency Takes a Long Time, Longer Than We Thought,”
Spiegel Online
(November 8, 2008).

 15.
Dan Rather, “The Commander,”
Dan Rather Reports
(January 6, 2009).

 16.
“Statement on United States Troop Levels in Afghanistan” (February 17, 2009).

 17.
“Remarks on United States Military and Diplomatic Strategies for Afghanistan and Pakistan” (March 27, 2009).

 18.
McChrystal,
My Share of the Task,
162.

 19.
A notable misstep occurred in 2004 when McChrystal recommended a deceased army ranger, former NFL football player Pat Tillman, for a posthumous award for gallantry, concealing the fact that Tillman had died from friendly fire.

 20.
John Barry, “The Hidden General,”
Newsweek
(June 25, 2006).

 21.
Dexter Filkins, “Stanley McChrystal’s Long War,”
The New York Times Magazine
(October 14, 2009).

 22.
Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Mazzetti, “General Steps from the Shadows,”
The New York Times
(May 13, 2009).

 23.
Ann Scott Tyson, “Manhunter to Take on a Wider Mission,”
The Washington Post
(May 13, 2009).

 24.
Evan Thomas, “General McChrystal’s Plan for Afghanistan,”
Newsweek
(September 25, 2009).

 25.
Mark Thompson and Aryn Baker, “Starting Anew,”
Time
(July 20, 2009).

 26.
Gates,
Duty
, 352–53.

 27.
“COMISAF’s Initial Assessment” (August 30, 2009),
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092100110.html
, accessed May 25, 2015.

 28.
In his first nine seasons playing for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA, Jordan had averaged over 30 points per game. In his one season as an outfielder with the Double-A minor league Birmingham Barons, he hit .202.

 29.
Michael Gerson, “U.S. Has Reasons to Hope for Afghanistan,”
The Washington Post
(September 4, 2009).

 30.
No one claimed responsibility for the leak. Secretary of Defense Gates fingered a member of McChrystal’s staff, acting “out of impatience.” Gates,
Duty,
368.

 31.
John F. Burns, “McChrystal Rejects Scaling Down Afghan Military Aims,”
The New York Times
(October 1, 2009).

 32.
The Eikenberry cables are readily available online at
documents.nytimes.com/eikenberry-s-memos-on-the-strategy-in-afghanistan
, accessed May 31, 2015.

 33.
“Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan” (December 1, 2009).

 34.
Amy Belasco, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11” (December 8, 2014). Appendix A provides details.

 35.
Headquarters, International Security Assistance Force, Kabul Afghanistan, SUBJECT: Tactical Directive (July 6, 2009). This two-page document explains the rationale for the more restrictive rules of engagement that McChrystal was imposing.

 36.
Dexter Filkins, “Afghan Offensive Is New War Model,”
The New York Times
(February 12, 2010).

 37.
Michelle Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, “Briefing on Operation Moshtarak in Helmand Province, Afghanistan” (February 22, 2010).

 38.
Rod Nordland, “12 in Allied Forces Die in Afghanistan,”
The New York Times
(February 19, 2010).

 39.
Zoe Magee, “Afghan Flag Raised Over Marja After Battling Taliban for 12 Days,”
ABCNews.go.com
(February 25, 2010).

 40.
Rod Nordland, “Taliban Hit Back With a Campaign of Intimidation,”
The New York Times
(March 18, 2010).

 41.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, “ ‘Still a Long Way to Go’ for U.S. Operation in Marja, Afghanistan,”
The Washington Post
(June 10, 2010).

 42.
Bing West,
The Wrong War
(New York, 2011), 223.

 43.
The individual appointed to govern liberated Marja became an ironic symbol of the obstacles to honest and competent administration. He turned out to be a convicted felon who had served a four-year prison term in Germany. “Officials: New Marjah Leader’s Criminal Past to Be Probed,”
USA Today
(March 6, 2010).

 44.
To appreciate the frustrations that the Marines experienced, see Ben Anderson’s superb 2011 HBO documentary
The Battle of Marjah,
youtube.com/watch?v=b9Pq5JZ2Fd8
, accessed May 28, 2015.

 45.
Todd Pitman, “Marines in Marjah Face Full-Blown Insurgency,”
The Boston Globe
(October 8, 2010).

 46.
“CFR Events: HBO History Makers Series with Stanley McChrystal” (October 6, 2011).

 47.
Michael Hastings, “The Runaway General,”
Rolling Stone
(July 8, 2010).

 48.
Dan Lamothe, “Inside the Stunning Fall and War-Crimes Investigation of an Army Green Beret War Hero,”
The Washington Post
(May 19, 2015).

 49.
Graham Bowley and Matthew Rosenberg, “Video Inflames a Delicate Moment for U.S. in Afghanistan,”
The New York Times
(January 12, 2012).