Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

“The fighting had gone quicker than anyone had hoped and cost far less than anyone had feared. What came next? It all went back to that old question: Who was the enemy?”This point — “Who was the enemy?’’ drives this story. Bolger, sincere, loyal, concerned, determined — sees this one fundamental puzzle — as the sand that leads to collapse. Repeats this question about a dozen times. Never finds or provides answer. He thinks no one did or can . . .Bolger is educated, thoughtful, analytical. Shows a depth of insight and breadth of understanding . . .“White House officials Andrew Card, Michael Gerson, and Karl Rove clearly had orchestrated a dramatic scene. But in more than one way, the real producers were Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. You just sensed where this thing was headed. The imperious nineteenth-century German statesman Otto von Bismarck said it well: “You know where a war begins but you never know where it ends.” Bismarck understood. Rhetoric, signage, and fond hopes aside, the Iraq campaign did not end on a carrier deck.’’History can teach . . .“Our primary failing in the war involved generalship. If you prefer the war-college lexicon, we—guys like me—demonstrated poor strategic and operational leadership. For soldiers, strategy and operational art translate to “the big picture” (your goal) and “the plan” (how you get there). We got both wrong, the latter more than the former. Some might blame the elected and appointed civilian leaders. There’s enough fault to go around, and in this telling, the suits will get their share. But I know better, and so do the rest of the generals. We have been trained and educated all our lives on how to fight and win. This was our war to lose, and we did. We should have known better.’’Wow! ( . . . so . . . so . . . real . . . )“In the military schools, like West Point, Fort Leavenworth, Quantico, and Carlisle Barracks, soldiers study the work of the great thinkers who have wrestled with winning wars across the ages. Along with Thucydides, Julius Caesar, and Carl von Clausewitz, the instructors introduce the ancient wisdom of Sun Tzu, the Chinese general and theorist who penned his poetic, elliptical, sometimes cryptic Art of War some twenty-three centuries ago. Master Sun put it simply . . . “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril”“We failed on both counts. I know I sure did. As generals, we did not know our enemy—never pinned him down, never focused our efforts, and got all too good at making new opponents before we’d handled the old ones.’’Man . . . just . . . just . . . astounding!“Despite the unmatched courage of those in U.S. uniform—including a good number of generals who led their people under fire—our generals did not stumble due to a lack of intellect. Rather, we faltered due to a distinct lack of humility. Certain we knew best, confident our skilled troops would prevail, we persisted in a failed course for far too long and came up well short, to the detriment of our trusting countrymen.’’‘Failure from lack of humility’! ( well . . . I know that feeling personally . . . )“Time after time, despite the fact that I and my fellow generals saw it wasn’t working, we failed to reconsider our basic assumptions. We failed to question our flawed understanding of our foe or ourselves. We simply asked for more time. Given enough months, then years, then decades—always just a few more, please—we trusted that our great men and women would pull it out. In the end, all the courage and skill in the world could not overcome ignorance and arrogance. As a general, I got it wrong. And I did so in the company of my peers.’’‘Courage and skill lose to arrogance’. Reality is real. Truth is true. (Hard to believe. Harder to apply.)“As for myself, I make no excuse. I’m just a soldier who tried, got a few things right, but, in the end, failed. If I remind you of anyone at all, maybe it’s Joe Stilwell, “Vinegar Joe,” of the China-Burma-India theater in World War II. He told it like it was, eventually got sent home for it.’’ TRIUMPHHarbingers 9/ 11The Hindu KushAnacondaA Weapon of Mass DestructionApocalypse Then ReduxHUBRIS“Mission Accomplished”What Happened in FallujahThe Color PurpleImplosionMalik DaoudRequiem on the TigrisNEMESISUndoneThe Good WarTaliban HeartlandMalik Daoud AgainAttritionGreen on BlueBolger feels deeply for the soldiers who fought with him side-by-side. Relates several heart wrenching accounts — courage, suffering, frustration, breakdown, heroism, etc., etc., are all here.Great!Another highlight is the forthright (blunt) analysis of prominent leaders. Focuses on the military, since that is his experience. Not slanderous or condemning — presents both the wise decisions and good motives — and foolish decisions and bad motivations. Goes deeper than surface appearance, reveals the inner man.Fascinating!Also, includes some explanations of the political/cultural/sociological influences — both western and eastern. Brief, clear and enlightening. Well done.Bolger’s story closer to a outstanding mystery/thriller/detective screenplay than pedantic history.About forty excellent color photographs.Hundreds of notes (linked)Detailed index (linked)

Why We Lost – A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars – By Daniel P. BolgerThe 21st Century U.S. Military Post-MortemDaniel Bolger is a 35 year veteran in the U.S. Army. He retired in 2013 as a Lt. General. During his career he was awarded five Bronze Stars.As a U.S. citizen, this book should be required reading for the lay person with no military experience. Why?1. Bolger provides unparalleled access into the lives of U.S. military men and women who were engaged in these wars – and provides uniquely, frank and descriptive accounts of the conditions and challenges they encountered. Bolger’s insightful accounts provide the reader with an appreciation of their service, sacrifice, courage and bravery that one simply cannot garner from the mainstream media coverage of the same. You walk away from this book with a deep and renewed sense of appreciation for the bravery and courageous contributions of our men and women who were/are involved in these conflicts.2. This book is written in a brutally honest fashion. It is definitely not a muckraking attack on the U.S. military – nor is it a one-sided justification treatise for all things military written by a insider zealot. It is a fair and balanced treatment of every dimension of these conflicts from a participant’s perspective…Bolger’s voice is refreshingly fair, providing uncanny, forthright commentary surrounding the genesis of these wars, the conduct of the wars, and U.S. attempts to extract ourselves from the aftermath of this mayhem.3. Finally, Bolger’s insights into “now what” regarding the lessons learned from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq provide fertile ground for the essential dialog that must take place regarding the role of the U.S. military in the 21st century.Who is the enemy? This is a central theme throughout the book, and remains the question today embedded in the threats to geo-political stability that continue to inhabit our globe. There are some quotes Why We Lost that should serve to provide the basis for a dialog far too many in the U.S. choose to avoid. Here are a few:“The war cost the U.S. a lot of money, almost a trillion dollars since September of 2001, about two-thirds for Iraq, the rest for Afghanistan. Just how much permanent damage this did to our country’s economy is hard to determine. War funding certainly elevated the Federal government’s already burgeoning annual deficits and added a few more unwelcome strata to the accreting mountain of long-term debt. Both political parties pointed accusing fingers even as the spending continued. By any measure, fighting a protracted war on the opposite side of the world with a volunteer military and a lot of expensive contractors is no cheap” (p.419).“We did not understand our enemies. Indeed, drawn into nasty local feuds, we took on too many diverse foes, sometimes confusing opponents with supporters and vice versa. Then we compounded that ignorance by using our conventionally trained military to comb through hostile villages looking for insurgents” (pp.429-430).“The record to date shows that no senior officers argued for withdrawal. Instead, like Lee at Gettysburg, overly impressed by U.S. military capabilities and our superb volunteers, commander after commander, generals up and down the chain, kept rigt on going. We trusted our invincible men and women to figure it out and rebuild two shattered Muslim countries and do so under fire from enraged locals” (p. 430).“Stay the course. Add forces. Pull out. Over time, in both countries, all three approaches were tried. Only the third one, pulling out, worked, and that in the finite sense that it ended U.S. involvement. But it left both friends and foes behind, sowing the seeds for future troubles” (p. 431).As Dwight Eisenhower warned decades ago, the military-industrial complex is – well – a business. Like any organization, it knows what it knows and does what it does – learning along the way.However, after reading Daniel Bolger’s Why We Lost – A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, I came away with an appreciation for another reality of organizational behavior; inertia.Inertia is an energy that propels an organism/object/organization ahead, knowing what it knows, doing what it knows how to do. The problem with the energy of inertia is that it possesses an intrinsic characteristic; motion. Once you combine energy and motion and a huge organization begins lumbering downhill into vast and remote terrain – it is terribly difficult to pause, take account of oneself, change direction and rethink what we thought we knew. It is difficult for organisms and organizations to unlearn, reconstitute themselves and become more fit for the challenges that will undoubtedly unfold in the future.In my mind, the dialog about the role of the U.S. military in the 21st Century is the unequivocal contribution of Daniel Bolger’s Why We Lost – A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.This is a superb contribution for anyone desiring to become more informed about the role and future of the U.S. military…a discussion that we should not avoid or postpone.BUY THIS BOOK!!! I deeply appreciated General Bolger’s masterpiece. I’m confident you will too.

Informative and thorough book that reads like a thriller, once you start it's tough to stop.

This question is not adequately answered in this book, which is full of praise for the individual commanders. Help them "make rank" mayby? The book seems to say "What a great bunch of loosers."

Wer sich dafür interessiert erhält hier eine schonungslose Abrechnung über die beiden Kriegsschauplätze nur zu empfehlen die Details machen das Buch zu einer Abrechnung mit der Bush und Obama Administration