Since the 2001 war, American intelligence agencies had reported that the Taliban were so decimated they no longer posed a threat, according to two senior intelligence officials who reviewed the reports.
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But Afghanistan’s embattled president, Hamid Karzai, said in Washington last week that security in his country had 'definitely deteriorated'. One former national security official called that 'a very diplomatic understatement'.
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When it came to reconstruction, big goals were announced, big projects identified. Yet in the year Mr. Bush promised a 'Marshall Plan' for Afghanistan, the country received less assistance per capita than did postconflict Bosnia and Kosovo, or even desperately poor Haiti, according to a RAND Corporation study. Washington has spent an average of $3.4 billion a year reconstructing Afghanistan, less than half of what it has spent in Iraq, according to the Congressional Research Service.
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The stagnation reflected tension within the administration over how large a role the United States should play in stabilizing a country after toppling its government, former officials say.
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In the end, the United States deployed 8,000 troops to Afghanistan in 2002, with orders to hunt Taliban and Qaeda members, and not to engage in peacekeeping or reconstruction.
Can a war ever be "good"?
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