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[helicopter propellers beating]

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[reporter 1] Today, US soldiers raised
the American flag over Kandahar.

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And it was not just any flag.

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This flag was flown
over Ground Zero in New York City,

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and was signed by relatives

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of some of the victims
of the World Trade Center attacks.

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[reporter 2] Meanwhile, on the streets
of a southern Afghan city,

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life appears to be returning to normal

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following the fall
of the hard-line Islamic regime.

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[Chandrasekaran]
After Kandahar is liberated,

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it's clear to the remnants
of the Taliban leadership

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that's still in Afghanistan,

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as well as the fragments
of al-Qaeda's leadership

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that's still there,

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that it's game over for them
in Afghanistan.

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[man speaking Pashto] If Taliban
could have responded to America's demands

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and had handed over bin Laden,

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and if they had destroyed
al-Qaeda's military bases

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inside Afghanistan,
and had not let them in the country,

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it's obvious that the Americans
would have not entered Afghanistan.

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[man 2, in Pashto]
Their defeat was inevitable.

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We told the Taliban
that they would not be able to resist

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against this invasion in the cities.

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That they'd be forced
to abandon the cities.

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That they should review their strategy.

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That their military centers
were not capable of putting up a defense.

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And that they would be easily crushed.

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[in English] Most people assumed
the war was over at that point.

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[Soufan] Unfortunately,
taking down al-Qaeda,

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and taking down the Taliban regime,
and taking down Afghanistan,

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and destroying the terrorist cells
around the world was just a step

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for some people in Washington
to go to another war.

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And it's in Iraq.

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We start pulling resources away
from that legitimate battle that we had.

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The battle to retaliate against 9/11.

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To go to a country
that had nothing to do with 9/11.

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[fighter jet flying]

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[Bush] On my orders,

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coalition forces have begun striking
selected targets of military importance

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to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability
to wage war.

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[dramatic music plays]

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[man] In Afghanistan,
the end of 2001 was a period of optimism

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and a period of potential,

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where Afghanistan,
coming out of the dark years

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from roughly 1996 until 2001.

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And it's as though the screens were open,
the sunlight came in,

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and Afghan people saw an opportunity.

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[reporter]
For the first time, the sound of music,

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banned during the Taliban regime,
was blaring again on the streets.

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Long lines as men waited
to shave their beards,

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mandatory under Taliban rule.

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[in Pashto] A new hope was found
for the people of Afghanistan,

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especially when
the international community came.

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[reporter, in English] With the Taliban
gone, Kabul's people return.

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Those who could not tolerate
the Taliban's intolerance

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come home to make a life
in the capital again.

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[woman] After the fall of Taliban,
we came to Kabul.

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So I brought that burka to wear in Kabul,
but when I came to Kabul,

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many women were not wearing burka

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because Kabul was not controlled
by Taliban anymore.

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I could go back in the streets

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without the fear of being whipped
by Taliban,

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and the sense was that
at least I can breathe as a human being.

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[artillery fire]

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[Chandrasekaran] The United States
military does a great job

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at fighting wars, at vanquishing enemies.

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It's not always so good
at figuring out what comes next.

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And once the Taliban had been pushed
out of Kabul and Kandahar

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and then out of the country writ large…

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the US military didn't really have a plan
for, "What then?"

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How do you help this country
find some stability?

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How do you help provide basic services?

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How do you help bring this country
into the modern world?

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[man] It was not clear, directionally,

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what we wanted to do
and when we wanted to do it.

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What we did know is we wanted
to be damn sure that,

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whatever developed in Afghanistan,

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it could never again serve as a base

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for an attack beyond Afghanistan's borders
into our own homeland.

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And that's where the disagreement started.

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I felt that, uh…

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Well, you gotta get into nation-building
if you want that guarantee.

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You gotta have communications lines…

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roads, good roads so you can move forces
around as you need to,

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that farmers can get produce to market,
and so forth and so on.

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Then you had the minimalist line saying,
"We don't care about any of this."

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Uh, "Let's just not do any--
Let's just get out."

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This was the Rumsfeld doctrine.

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Knock off a regime
that you really don't like

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with the minimum force possible,
and get out.

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Don't worry about the rest of it.

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If we need to come back in a decade,
we'll come back in a decade.

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[Whitlock]
In December of 2001, General Tommy Franks,

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who's the war commander for Afghanistan,

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is summoned by Rumsfeld, who says,

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"We need to go see President Bush
at his ranch in Crawford, Texas."

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"You need to give him
the options on Iraq."

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This is while the battle of Tora Bora
had just ended.

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Still looking for bin Laden.
They're mopping up in Afghanistan.

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Right away, same general is ordered,

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"We need to escalate planning in Iraq."

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[reporter]
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

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met with NATO leaders to discuss ways
to fight the war on terrorism.

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[Rumsfeld] The only way to deal
with the terrorist network that's global

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is to go after it, where it is.

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[Bush] Evidence from intelligence sources,
secret communications,

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and statements by people now in custody…

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reveal that Saddam Hussein aids
and protects terrorists…

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including members of al-Qaeda.

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We said very boldly, there is no
al-Qaeda relationships in Iraq.

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And a lot of people said,
"Yeah. They are. They're all over Iraq."

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"We might as well take care of them
while taking care of Afghanistan."

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Flawed. Very flawed.

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[Whitlock]
A lot of these neo-conservative,

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conservative hawks
in the Bush administration

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thought that in the first Gulf War

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it was a mistake
to leave Saddam Hussein in power,

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that the United States
should've taken him out ten years earlier…

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and had a chance to and missed it.

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And so, they saw this as an opportunity
to do something about it.

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[Soufan] We tried to convince
the whole world in the UN…

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that Saddam and bin Laden
are working on developing WMDs.

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That was the speech of Colin Powell.

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[Powell]
What I wanna bring to your attention today

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is the potentially
much more sinister nexus

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between Iraq
and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

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A nexus that combines
classic terrorist organizations…

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and modern methods of murder.

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[Soufan]
We knew at the time that this is baloney.

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But then we thought to ourselves,

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"Maybe they have intelligence
that we don't have."

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And later on we knew
where the intelligence was coming from.

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It was coming from Ibn Sheikh al-Libi.

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When he got caught, he was tortured
and tortured and tortured…

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to admit that bin Laden and Saddam
were working together to develop WMDs.

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Secretary Powell said
that the information came

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from Ibn Sheikh al-Libi.

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[Powell] I can trace the story
of a senior terrorist operative

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telling how Iraq provided training
in these weapons to al-Qaeda.

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Fortunately,
this operative is now detained.

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And he has told his story.

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[reporter]
Sixty-five thousand American troops

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are now poised in the Persian Gulf.

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If President Bush gives the order,

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that number would explode
to 250,000 within three to four weeks.

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[Cheney]
The United States made our position clear.

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We could not accept the grave danger
of Saddam Hussein and his terrorist allies

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turning weapons of mass destruction
against us or our friends and allies.

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[Bush] The policy of my government,
our government, this administration,

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is regime change.

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We will not allow
the world's worst leaders

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to threaten us
with the world's worst weapons.

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[Powell] We will not shrink from war.

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[Cheney]
Inspections are not an end in themselves.

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[Bush] A liberated Iraq could show
the power of freedom

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to transform the Middle East,

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by bringing hope and progress
to the lives of millions.

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[reporter]
From San Francisco to Oregon to Tampa,

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protesters rallied against war.

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[woman] I really think
the war against Iraq is wrong.

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[Whitlock]
There was almost unanimous public support

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to take military action
in Afghanistan after 9/11.

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Iraq was a very different situation.

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We had not been attacked by Iraq.

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There was a really impassioned,
even bitter, at times,

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public debate over what to do
about Iraq, if anything.

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[reporter] Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld said flatly today

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that however much the Iraqis may deny it,
they do have weapons of mass destruction.

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[Perle] Weapons of mass destruction
in the hands of Saddam Hussein,

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plus his known contact with terrorists,
including al-Qaeda terrorists,

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is simply a threat too large
to continue to tolerate.

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[Whitlock] There's no question at all

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that journalists should've been
more skeptical

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of the Bush administration's sales job

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on the idea that there were
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,

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and that Saddam Hussein
was prepared to use them.

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[Miller]
The US intelligence community believes

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that Saddam Hussein has deadly stocks
of anthrax, of botulinum toxin,

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which is one of the most virulent poisons
known to man.

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[reporter] He has contacts outside
in Sudan and Afghanistan with terrorists.

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They did, indeed, have a contact
between Atta and an Iraqi diplomat.

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[Rumsfeld] We do have solid evidence
of the presence, in Iraq,

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of al-Qaeda members.

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[Cheney] Simply stated, there is no doubt…

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that Saddam Hussein now has
weapons of mass destruction.

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[Bush] Well, the reason I keep insisting
that there was a relationship

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between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda,

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because there was a relationship
between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

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[dramatic music plays]

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[reporter]
Chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix,

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has issued his final report.

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He says UN inspectors found no evidence
of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

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When we went to Iraq and we realize
all these things were baloney…

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all of it was false…

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they went back to Ibn Sheikh, said,
"Why'd you lie?"

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He said, "Well, you were torturing me.
I gave you what you want."

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[Whitlock] In May of 2003,

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Rumsfeld goes to Kabul and declares
that major combat operations are over.

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And this was the same day that Bush
went on the aircraft carrier off San Diego

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to announce
"Mission Accomplished in Iraq."

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So it was this orchestrated moment
for the Bush administration

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to declare on the same day
that the wars were over, in effect.

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And, of course, they were wrong.

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[reporter] Crew in Iraq have been busy
washing the blood off the streets

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after bombers killed three American
soldiers and nearly two dozen Iraqis.

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The main reason we went
into Iraq at the time

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was we thought he had
weapons of mass destruction,

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It turns out he didn't.

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It appears that there were not
weapons of mass destruction there.

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[man] You said you knew where they were.

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I did not. I said I knew
where suspect sites were, and we were--

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[man] You said you knew where they were,
near Tikrit, near Baghdad,

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and north, east, south and west of there.

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Those are your words.

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[Whitlock]
The reason we went to Iraq, ostensibly,

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was 'cause of Saddam Hussein's
weapons of mass destruction.

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And that clearly turned out
to be completely false.

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[reporter] The number of US military
deaths has surpassed 2,000.

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[Whitlock]
Not only was it going badly in Iraq,

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but the whole reason behind it was wrong.

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Turned out to be not true.

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[interviewer] It turns out, 
none of the reasons stated or given

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about going to Iraq turned out to be true.

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I think that's a little bit
of a hyperbole.

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There-- There-- It--

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It wasn't only
about weapons of mass destruction.

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Um, yeah-- That--

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That wasn't the only reason.

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[Bush] Saddam Hussein
is a homicidal dictator

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who is addicted
to weapons of mass destruction.

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[Powell] If he understood the crisis

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that he has brought down
upon himself and his people

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00:14:21,653 --> 00:14:24,865
as a result of his developing
these weapons of mass destruction…

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[Cheney] He could decide secretly
to provide weapons of mass destruction

235
00:14:27,993 --> 00:14:29,786
to terrorists for use against us.

236
00:14:30,913 --> 00:14:34,082
[Card] They violated
the UN resolutions 16 times,

237
00:14:34,166 --> 00:14:36,418
16 different UN resolutions.

238
00:14:37,586 --> 00:14:38,921
They did not comply.

239
00:14:39,004 --> 00:14:41,340
They didn't let weapons inspectors--

240
00:14:41,423 --> 00:14:44,384
So, there was a non-compliance

241
00:14:44,468 --> 00:14:48,555
with at least 16 different resolutions
from the United Nations.

242
00:14:48,639 --> 00:14:53,518
And President Bush felt
there should be a consequence to that.

243
00:14:56,313 --> 00:14:58,273
[man] Strategic narcissism is the tendency

244
00:14:58,357 --> 00:15:00,233
to define the world
only in relation to us,

245
00:15:00,317 --> 00:15:02,277
and to assume that what we do

246
00:15:02,361 --> 00:15:05,072
will be decisive
to achieving a favorable outcome.

247
00:15:05,155 --> 00:15:07,741
And I think
while people oftentimes debate,

248
00:15:07,824 --> 00:15:10,911
"Should we have invaded Iraq in 2003?"

249
00:15:10,994 --> 00:15:13,246
I think it would be
more fruitful to debate,

250
00:15:13,330 --> 00:15:17,376
"Who the heck thought it would be easy?
And why did they think it would be easy?"

251
00:15:19,711 --> 00:15:22,547
Many of the policy decisions
that were made in that year,

252
00:15:22,631 --> 00:15:24,341
from 2003 to 2004,

253
00:15:24,424 --> 00:15:28,679
made what was already going to be
a very difficult situation much worse.

254
00:15:29,221 --> 00:15:31,932
[Bush] I wish the intelligence
had been different, I guess.

255
00:15:32,015 --> 00:15:33,934
[interviewer]
If the intelligence had been right,

256
00:15:34,017 --> 00:15:35,435
would there have been an Iraq War?

257
00:15:35,519 --> 00:15:37,270
[Bush]  If he had
weapons of mass destruction,

258
00:15:37,354 --> 00:15:38,438
would there have been a war?

259
00:15:38,522 --> 00:15:41,191
-Absolutely.
-No. If you had known he didn't.

260
00:15:41,274 --> 00:15:43,235
[Bush] I see what you're saying. Uh…

261
00:15:44,152 --> 00:15:48,532
You know, that's an interesting question.
That is a do-over that I can't do.

262
00:15:48,615 --> 00:15:50,617
It's hard for me to speculate.

263
00:15:59,292 --> 00:16:01,294
[crowd chanting]

264
00:16:03,005 --> 00:16:05,173
[Hoffman] Looking back
on the past two decades,

265
00:16:05,257 --> 00:16:08,760
I think it's hard to ignore that
the invasion of Iraq was, in some ways,

266
00:16:08,844 --> 00:16:12,097
the move that began
to unravel the success we're having

267
00:16:12,180 --> 00:16:13,932
in the war on terrorism.

268
00:16:15,559 --> 00:16:19,771
It wasn't only the invasion
that played into bin Laden's narrative

269
00:16:19,855 --> 00:16:23,567
that the West, led by the United States,
was waging war against Islam

270
00:16:23,650 --> 00:16:28,155
and was going to serially invade
Muslim lands and occupy them…

271
00:16:28,822 --> 00:16:30,657
but I think even more so,

272
00:16:30,741 --> 00:16:33,660
the images that were flashed
over TV screens

273
00:16:33,744 --> 00:16:35,829
throughout the world of Abu Ghraib,

274
00:16:35,912 --> 00:16:38,290
gave a material dimension to that,

275
00:16:38,373 --> 00:16:42,210
that underscored US claims
that they were liberating Iraq.

276
00:16:43,253 --> 00:16:46,214
[reporter] The military has described
these pictures of American soldiers

277
00:16:46,298 --> 00:16:49,468
abusing Iraqi prisoners
as the misdeeds of a few,

278
00:16:49,551 --> 00:16:52,137
but how many people knew what was going on

279
00:16:52,220 --> 00:16:55,015
at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad?

280
00:16:58,393 --> 00:17:00,812
[Hoffman]
The fact that we ended up invading Iraq

281
00:17:00,896 --> 00:17:03,565
has, I think, been heralded by many people

282
00:17:03,648 --> 00:17:07,652
as one of the most significant
foreign policy errors in American history.

283
00:17:07,736 --> 00:17:09,738
[crowd shouting]

284
00:17:16,536 --> 00:17:19,831
[Filkins] If you look back
and you ask yourself what went wrong,

285
00:17:19,915 --> 00:17:24,127
to me, really, the biggest turning point
was the war in Iraq.

286
00:17:24,211 --> 00:17:28,131
I mean, in 2001 and 2002,
Afghanistan was like…

287
00:17:29,049 --> 00:17:31,676
It was alive,
it was hopeful, it was happy.

288
00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:33,345
I mean really, it was amazing.

289
00:17:34,387 --> 00:17:37,974
But then what happened
was all the resources, all the attention,

290
00:17:38,058 --> 00:17:40,268
a lot of troops,
particularly the Special Forces,

291
00:17:40,352 --> 00:17:41,603
everything got moved out.

292
00:17:42,771 --> 00:17:46,358
A couple years after that begins
the really powerful Taliban resurgence.

293
00:17:46,942 --> 00:17:50,904
And those two events are not unconnected.

294
00:17:50,987 --> 00:17:53,031
[artillery fire]

295
00:17:54,533 --> 00:17:56,535
Allahu akbar!

296
00:17:56,618 --> 00:17:59,913
Now you've got two bad wars
going on at once,

297
00:17:59,996 --> 00:18:03,458
and the administration struggling
to cope with both at the same time.

298
00:18:03,542 --> 00:18:06,253
And for the remainder
of the Bush administration,

299
00:18:06,336 --> 00:18:10,215
Iraq was the focus
and Afghanistan was the afterthought.

300
00:18:21,852 --> 00:18:24,479
[woman 1]
They didn't talk English at all around us.

301
00:18:24,563 --> 00:18:27,190
[woman 2]
Your next-door neighbor could be anything.

302
00:18:29,693 --> 00:18:30,819
Allahu akbar.

303
00:18:32,195 --> 00:18:34,698
[Rauf] I was born in 1948.

304
00:18:35,949 --> 00:18:39,744
I had a vision that said,
"Feisal, you're gonna go to America."

305
00:18:39,828 --> 00:18:41,788
"You will live the rest
of your life there."

306
00:18:43,373 --> 00:18:47,878
"And your role will be
to introduce Islam and its spirituality…

307
00:18:48,461 --> 00:18:50,338
in the American vernacular."

308
00:18:52,215 --> 00:18:56,136
America at its ideal
is something very precious.

309
00:18:57,095 --> 00:18:59,806
This idea of the equality
of all human beings…

310
00:19:00,307 --> 00:19:03,226
is something which is
a very profound truth

311
00:19:03,310 --> 00:19:07,063
and something which actually expresses

312
00:19:07,147 --> 00:19:10,942
the universal value
of all religions in the world.

313
00:19:11,401 --> 00:19:12,903
[crowd shouting]

314
00:19:19,701 --> 00:19:24,331
After 9/11, I discovered
it's at these moments of crisis

315
00:19:24,414 --> 00:19:30,337
that we, who are seen as spokespeople
or leaders of our faith communities,

316
00:19:30,921 --> 00:19:34,090
need to engage, to explain.

317
00:19:36,635 --> 00:19:42,307
And I had a vision of establishing
an Islamic community center…

318
00:19:43,850 --> 00:19:46,895
that would be the Muslim version
of a YMCA.

319
00:19:47,604 --> 00:19:52,859
With programs like sports,
lectures, talks, panel discussions…

320
00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:56,363
to bring people
from these various faith communities

321
00:19:56,446 --> 00:19:58,740
to play together,
to get to know each other,

322
00:19:58,823 --> 00:20:00,492
to have fun together, et cetera.

323
00:20:00,575 --> 00:20:03,411
And from that comes a sense of community.

324
00:20:05,038 --> 00:20:07,916
[reporter 1] There's a massive turnout
expected today at a rally protesting

325
00:20:07,999 --> 00:20:11,795
the controversial Islamic center
that was recently approved to be built

326
00:20:11,878 --> 00:20:13,588
just steps from Ground Zero.

327
00:20:13,672 --> 00:20:15,924
[reporter 2] This battle
over the mosque at Ground Zero--

328
00:20:16,007 --> 00:20:17,550
[reporter 3] The mosque at Ground Zero--

329
00:20:17,634 --> 00:20:20,136
-[reporter 4] Ground Zero mosque.
-[reporter 5] Mosque on 9/11--

330
00:20:20,220 --> 00:20:21,888
[reporter 6] So-called Ground Zero mosque.

331
00:20:21,972 --> 00:20:23,348
[announcer] The Ground Zero mosque.

332
00:20:23,932 --> 00:20:28,103
[Rauf] Fox News knew
that calling us the "Ground Zero mosque"

333
00:20:28,603 --> 00:20:33,525
would arouse the kind of passion
that they wanted to arouse.

334
00:20:34,484 --> 00:20:36,987
Their arguments were not really coherent.

335
00:20:37,070 --> 00:20:39,781
[reporter 1] There is some indication
that the building of this mosque

336
00:20:39,864 --> 00:20:41,616
is actually
a Muslim Brotherhood operation.

337
00:20:41,700 --> 00:20:44,494
[reporter 2] We're calling it
a 9/11 Sharia recruiting center,

338
00:20:44,577 --> 00:20:46,079
because that's what he's doing.

339
00:20:46,162 --> 00:20:49,249
[man 1] If they put a mosque up right here

340
00:20:49,332 --> 00:20:53,753
in the shadow of the World Trade Center
before we've finished building it back up,

341
00:20:53,837 --> 00:20:54,754
what's next?

342
00:20:54,838 --> 00:20:58,508
[man 2]. No mosque.
Not here, not now, not ever.

343
00:20:58,591 --> 00:20:59,968
[crowd] No mosque!

344
00:21:00,677 --> 00:21:02,262
[woman] The mosque is inappropriate

345
00:21:02,345 --> 00:21:06,433
for the suffering and the sensitivities
of the 9/11 families.

346
00:21:06,516 --> 00:21:07,434
[crowd] USA! USA!

347
00:21:07,517 --> 00:21:09,602
[Giuliani] All this is doing
is creating more division,

348
00:21:09,686 --> 00:21:11,604
more anger, more hatred.

349
00:21:11,688 --> 00:21:14,190
[man] It's a spit in our face.
Go build it uptown somewhere.

350
00:21:14,274 --> 00:21:19,154
[woman] We should not be building
a mosque to reward the terrorists.

351
00:21:19,237 --> 00:21:20,989
[wistful music plays]

352
00:21:23,908 --> 00:21:27,203
[Rauf] I basically was forced
to give up that project.

353
00:21:33,251 --> 00:21:34,919
[sighs] It was painful.

354
00:21:36,046 --> 00:21:37,047
It was painful.

355
00:21:39,883 --> 00:21:45,388
Because I also knew that
it would've been an enormous success…

356
00:21:48,099 --> 00:21:50,560
and it would have been a model…

357
00:21:51,478 --> 00:21:56,358
of how to build communities
across differences…

358
00:21:56,858 --> 00:22:01,863
celebrating our differences,
and yet creating a sense of a community.

359
00:22:03,156 --> 00:22:06,242
Imagine if we can solve
this problem in America.

360
00:22:06,326 --> 00:22:08,870
How much good would result out of it?

361
00:22:22,050 --> 00:22:23,843
[jets roaring]

362
00:22:24,886 --> 00:22:29,682
[Obama] We've spent over $600 billion
so far, soon to be a trillion.

363
00:22:30,266 --> 00:22:34,729
We have lost over 4,000 lives,
we have seen 30,000 wounded,

364
00:22:34,813 --> 00:22:37,190
and most importantly,

365
00:22:37,273 --> 00:22:39,984
from a strategic
national security perspective,

366
00:22:40,068 --> 00:22:44,239
al-Qaeda is resurgent,
stronger now than at any time since 2001.

367
00:22:44,864 --> 00:22:46,574
We took our eye off the ball.

368
00:22:47,158 --> 00:22:50,495
[Chandrasekaran] When Barack Obama
was campaigning for the presidency,

369
00:22:50,578 --> 00:22:55,583
this young charismatic figure
who had never served in the military,

370
00:22:55,667 --> 00:22:58,837
who had already been clear
and on the record

371
00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:03,341
that the Iraq War was a mistake,
and intended, if elected,

372
00:23:03,425 --> 00:23:05,552
to withdraw troops from Iraq.

373
00:23:05,635 --> 00:23:09,305
He couldn't be seen
to be against both wars.

374
00:23:09,389 --> 00:23:15,645
So for him, Iraq was the bad war
and Afghanistan was the good war.

375
00:23:15,728 --> 00:23:19,566
[Obama] The people of Afghanistan
seek the promise of a better future.

376
00:23:19,649 --> 00:23:20,775
Yet once again,

377
00:23:20,859 --> 00:23:24,154
we've seen the hope of a new day
darkened by violence and uncertainty.

378
00:23:24,237 --> 00:23:25,947
[Chandrasekaran]
He embraced the Afghan War

379
00:23:26,030 --> 00:23:27,532
as the war that he'd get right.

380
00:23:27,615 --> 00:23:31,369
[Obama] After eight years, some of those
years in which we did not have,

381
00:23:31,870 --> 00:23:36,583
I think, either the resources
or the strategy to get the job done…

382
00:23:36,666 --> 00:23:38,460
it is my intention to finish the job.

383
00:23:40,753 --> 00:23:42,422
[Chandrasekaran] But then what happens?

384
00:23:42,922 --> 00:23:45,592
A few months after Obama is inaugurated,

385
00:23:45,675 --> 00:23:48,678
the calculus in Afghanistan
shifts for him.

386
00:23:49,304 --> 00:23:51,806
Stan McChrystal is sent out to Kabul,

387
00:23:51,890 --> 00:23:55,310
and he's given orders
to assess the situation on the ground

388
00:23:55,393 --> 00:23:56,686
and report back.

389
00:23:56,769 --> 00:24:00,106
"What do you need
to turn the tide in Afghanistan?"

390
00:24:00,190 --> 00:24:03,443
[McChrystal] It's very difficult,
and sometimes it requires patience,

391
00:24:03,526 --> 00:24:07,655
and sometimes you have to be willing
to accept more risks to do it.

392
00:24:08,156 --> 00:24:11,367
[Chandrasekaran]
He writes a highly confidential assessment

393
00:24:11,451 --> 00:24:14,871
that includes a recommendation
for troop increases.

394
00:24:14,954 --> 00:24:19,751
There's a high-end asking
for 80,000 to 90,000 additional troops.

395
00:24:19,834 --> 00:24:23,129
And there's a mid-level
that's in the 30,000 range.

396
00:24:24,631 --> 00:24:26,299
And it puts Obama in a box

397
00:24:26,799 --> 00:24:31,679
because the president is on the record
as saying Afghanistan is the good war.

398
00:24:31,763 --> 00:24:35,183
Afghanistan is the war
that he's going to turn around.

399
00:24:35,266 --> 00:24:40,730
And now the top American general
says he doesn't just need 10,000 troops,

400
00:24:41,231 --> 00:24:43,775
he needs tens of thousands of troops.

401
00:24:44,484 --> 00:24:50,281
The additional 40,000 would take us
to 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

402
00:24:50,365 --> 00:24:53,326
This is a huge commitment of resources

403
00:24:53,409 --> 00:24:57,956
in the time when the economy
is struggling or even failing.

404
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,171
The new approach was largely centered
on the principles of counterinsurgency,

405
00:25:05,255 --> 00:25:09,300
or COIN, if you will.
Terrible acronym, C-O-I-N.

406
00:25:10,301 --> 00:25:11,427
[speaking indistinctly]

407
00:25:11,511 --> 00:25:13,555
[man] Hello. How are you?

408
00:25:15,181 --> 00:25:18,560
[interviewer] So how is that different
from counterterrorism?

409
00:25:19,060 --> 00:25:22,689
Counterterrorism is more tactical.
It's about preventing attacks,

410
00:25:22,772 --> 00:25:26,150
it's about killing or capturing
or arresting the bad guys,

411
00:25:26,234 --> 00:25:29,028
just generally making it difficult
for terrorists to operate,

412
00:25:29,112 --> 00:25:32,699
and hardening the potential targets
that terrorists might strike at.

413
00:25:32,782 --> 00:25:35,535
Counterinsurgency is something different.

414
00:25:35,618 --> 00:25:39,539
It's not only the prevention of terrorism
or prevention of attacks,

415
00:25:39,622 --> 00:25:42,834
but it's the recalibration of societies

416
00:25:42,917 --> 00:25:48,381
so that the ideology that gives birth
to the desire to join extremist movements,

417
00:25:48,464 --> 00:25:50,633
to carry out these acts of violence,

418
00:25:50,717 --> 00:25:53,886
is somehow channeled
in a different direction, or changed.

419
00:25:54,554 --> 00:25:57,223
Basically you're trying
to re-makeover society

420
00:25:57,307 --> 00:26:01,603
so that the thought processes
that give rise to terrorist recruitment

421
00:26:01,686 --> 00:26:04,772
and radicalization are somehow tamped out,

422
00:26:04,856 --> 00:26:07,734
or somehow eliminated
by these profound changes

423
00:26:07,817 --> 00:26:11,613
that bring better governance,
education, greater literacy,

424
00:26:11,696 --> 00:26:14,449
and a higher socioeconomic
standard of living.

425
00:26:14,532 --> 00:26:16,451
[dramatic music plays]

426
00:26:20,913 --> 00:26:25,418
[Chandrasekaran] This then
commences a deeply deliberative process

427
00:26:25,501 --> 00:26:28,463
for the president
and members of his war cabinet.

428
00:26:29,172 --> 00:26:31,507
They convene
in the White House Situation Room.

429
00:26:31,591 --> 00:26:36,512
The table is filled
with Obama's top advisers.

430
00:26:36,596 --> 00:26:40,058
On his side is vice president
at the time, Joe Biden,

431
00:26:40,141 --> 00:26:42,185
Defense Secretary Bob Gates is there,

432
00:26:42,268 --> 00:26:44,896
Hillary Clinton,
Secretary of State is around the table.

433
00:26:44,979 --> 00:26:46,773
The CIA director is there.

434
00:26:46,856 --> 00:26:51,361
And it's a pretty healthy back and forth,
with military leaders arguing

435
00:26:51,444 --> 00:26:55,698
that a significant troop
commitment is necessary.

436
00:26:58,701 --> 00:27:01,287
[Hoffman]
Biden and others suggested an alternative,

437
00:27:01,704 --> 00:27:04,749
much more narrowly focused on al-Qaeda.

438
00:27:05,291 --> 00:27:07,293
[ominous music plays]

439
00:27:11,172 --> 00:27:13,508
It was a much more narrow objective.

440
00:27:15,051 --> 00:27:17,553
[Chandrasekaran] Things could
get a little tense at moments.

441
00:27:17,637 --> 00:27:19,806
There was really not
a whole lot of love lost

442
00:27:19,889 --> 00:27:22,308
between the generals
and Vice President Biden.

443
00:27:26,354 --> 00:27:29,190
And the president's decision
is to split the difference

444
00:27:29,273 --> 00:27:30,692
between what his generals want

445
00:27:30,775 --> 00:27:34,070
and what Vice President Biden
is counseling him to do.

446
00:27:36,114 --> 00:27:38,908
But he tells the military two things.

447
00:27:38,991 --> 00:27:42,370
One. That their mission has
to be narrowly focused.

448
00:27:42,453 --> 00:27:46,624
The second is that he's only gonna
surge forces for about 18 months,

449
00:27:46,708 --> 00:27:49,168
and then those troops
have to start coming home.

450
00:27:49,252 --> 00:27:50,795
So he puts a clock on it.

451
00:27:50,878 --> 00:27:54,424
[reporter] The president also sent
a high-powered salesforce to Capitol Hill,

452
00:27:54,507 --> 00:27:58,094
where they were on the defensive
over the president's controversial order

453
00:27:58,177 --> 00:28:01,889
to start pulling troops out by July 2011.

454
00:28:01,973 --> 00:28:06,185
[McCain] It's the wrong impression
to give our friends and enemies.

455
00:28:06,269 --> 00:28:08,896
It's the wrong impression
to give the men and women

456
00:28:08,980 --> 00:28:10,606
who wanna go over there and win.

457
00:28:12,483 --> 00:28:14,193
[McMaster] War is a contest of wills.

458
00:28:14,277 --> 00:28:17,613
We gave the enemy the timeline
for our withdrawal.

459
00:28:17,697 --> 00:28:19,907
We told the enemy years in advance

460
00:28:19,991 --> 00:28:23,286
exactly the number of troops we'd have,
what the troops would and wouldn't do.

461
00:28:23,369 --> 00:28:25,997
I mean, it's as if we wrote out
the script of the war

462
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,833
as we would like it to be,
and then gave it to our enemy

463
00:28:28,916 --> 00:28:31,169
in the hopes that
they would adhere to the script.

464
00:28:31,252 --> 00:28:32,253
Professionals…

465
00:28:32,754 --> 00:28:37,425
military officers like me
salute and execute.

466
00:28:37,508 --> 00:28:38,885
And that's what we did.

467
00:28:44,849 --> 00:28:48,019
[LaPorta] I didn't read the news.
I didn't know anything about politics.

468
00:28:48,102 --> 00:28:51,564
I just knew we were attacked
and I didn't even know by who.

469
00:28:52,023 --> 00:28:54,650
I didn't even understand
the political environment

470
00:28:54,734 --> 00:28:56,277
around 9/11, you know?

471
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:58,196
It was just sort of the call to serve,

472
00:28:58,279 --> 00:28:59,947
wanting to serve my country.

473
00:29:04,285 --> 00:29:06,788
So, ten days
after I graduated high school,

474
00:29:06,871 --> 00:29:08,664
I got into the Marine Corps.

475
00:29:09,916 --> 00:29:11,542
Shipped off to Afghanistan.

476
00:29:14,170 --> 00:29:16,172
[helicopter propellers beating]

477
00:29:17,924 --> 00:29:19,842
The speech we got from our
batallion commander,

478
00:29:19,926 --> 00:29:23,179
which was, you know, "The eyes
of the world are sort of upon you."

479
00:29:25,515 --> 00:29:27,892
[commander] It's time
to change the game in Afghanistan,

480
00:29:27,975 --> 00:29:31,979
to force the Taliban to react to us
instead of us reacting to them.

481
00:29:32,814 --> 00:29:36,108
[LaPorta] He was trying to instill upon us
the gravity of the moment,

482
00:29:36,192 --> 00:29:37,860
that this is an historic moment.

483
00:29:38,361 --> 00:29:42,156
That this is going to be
a significant event in the Afghan War.

484
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,992
-[interviewer] You are part of history.
-And that I'm a part of history.

485
00:29:54,043 --> 00:29:54,877
I'm sorry.

486
00:29:57,463 --> 00:30:01,175
It would be the largest helicopter
insertion since the Vietnam War.

487
00:30:03,594 --> 00:30:05,179
It's my first day of combat.

488
00:30:05,263 --> 00:30:07,640
I remember every moment
of that helicopter ride.

489
00:30:07,723 --> 00:30:09,934
You're packed in like sardines, you know,

490
00:30:10,017 --> 00:30:12,562
everybody is sort of almost sitting
on top of each other.

491
00:30:14,355 --> 00:30:16,315
You smell the diesel fuel.

492
00:30:16,399 --> 00:30:18,150
You can't even hear yourself think.

493
00:30:19,277 --> 00:30:22,029
In the back of our minds
were the speeches.

494
00:30:22,113 --> 00:30:23,948
People telling us, you know, like…

495
00:30:24,031 --> 00:30:25,324
"Look around."

496
00:30:25,408 --> 00:30:28,786
"Some of the people that you're
standing next to might not be here."

497
00:30:29,370 --> 00:30:31,956
So, we knew
we were walking into a gunfight.

498
00:30:34,458 --> 00:30:38,588
By 2009, the Taliban are ascendant.

499
00:30:38,671 --> 00:30:40,172
They are on the march.

500
00:30:40,256 --> 00:30:42,550
[man speaking indistinctly]

501
00:30:42,633 --> 00:30:47,054
[Petraeus] We had these maps that
would show who controls what districts

502
00:30:47,138 --> 00:30:50,725
within the different provinces
of Afghanistan.

503
00:30:50,808 --> 00:30:55,187
And the districts are gradually starting
to turn the color that we coded it

504
00:30:55,271 --> 00:30:57,607
for the Taliban,
or the other insurgent groups.

505
00:30:57,690 --> 00:30:59,317
[gunfire]

506
00:31:00,943 --> 00:31:04,322
The civil military campaign
on which we have embarked in Afghanistan

507
00:31:04,405 --> 00:31:06,949
will unfold over the next 18 months.

508
00:31:07,533 --> 00:31:09,243
And as many of us have observed,

509
00:31:09,327 --> 00:31:12,079
the going is likely to get harder
before it gets easier.

510
00:31:12,163 --> 00:31:14,165
[helicopter propellers beating]

511
00:31:17,293 --> 00:31:19,295
[indistinct shouting]

512
00:31:20,838 --> 00:31:22,131
[LaPorta] July 2nd, 2009.

513
00:31:23,549 --> 00:31:25,676
It's quiet for the first 20 or 30 minutes…

514
00:31:30,932 --> 00:31:33,267
and then we started taking fire.

515
00:31:33,351 --> 00:31:36,520
[soldier] Hey, keep moving!
Keep moving! We can't-- We can't stop.

516
00:31:36,604 --> 00:31:38,731
Let's go! Keep going!
Keep going! Keep going!

517
00:31:38,814 --> 00:31:41,400
[LaPorta]
They were engaging us at such a distance

518
00:31:41,859 --> 00:31:44,612
that I couldn't even see
where I was getting shot from.

519
00:31:45,863 --> 00:31:47,990
[soldier] Let's go!
They're in the top of that building.

520
00:31:48,074 --> 00:31:50,826
[LaPorta] It sounds like firecrackers,
except they're very close to you.

521
00:31:50,910 --> 00:31:52,536
[gunfire]

522
00:31:54,830 --> 00:31:58,209
We don't know who are the good guys
and who are the bad guys.

523
00:31:58,876 --> 00:32:01,128
The Taliban, they don't wear uniforms.

524
00:32:01,212 --> 00:32:03,506
They blend in with the local populace.

525
00:32:03,589 --> 00:32:06,300
-[man 1] Where are they shooting from?
-[man 2] They're shooting at us.

526
00:32:06,384 --> 00:32:08,761
-[man 3] They're good at ghosting.
-[man 4] You can't see 'em.

527
00:32:08,844 --> 00:32:10,137
[man 3] Can't see where they are.

528
00:32:10,221 --> 00:32:12,264
[LaPorta] We get the call
that the PJs are coming in.

529
00:32:12,348 --> 00:32:13,557
Which is pararescuemen.

530
00:32:14,976 --> 00:32:19,146
If they were coming in
that meant that someone had been shot.

531
00:32:19,230 --> 00:32:20,731
-[machine-gun fire]
-[men shouting]

532
00:32:20,815 --> 00:32:22,817
-[soldier 1] Now!
-[soldier 2] I got him! I got him!

533
00:32:22,900 --> 00:32:25,111
-[gunfire continues]
-[screaming, shouting]

534
00:32:26,529 --> 00:32:29,824
[LaPorta] The person that
had gotten shot was Lance Corporal…

535
00:32:32,743 --> 00:32:33,577
I'm sorry.

536
00:32:36,372 --> 00:32:40,167
It was Lance Corporal Charles Seth Sharp
of Adairsville, Georgia.

537
00:32:40,251 --> 00:32:43,212
-[soldier 1] Come on, Sharp!
-[soldier 2] What's the ETA on that bird?

538
00:32:43,295 --> 00:32:45,715
Let's go! Come on, Sharp! Come on, baby.

539
00:32:46,674 --> 00:32:47,925
Sharp! Sharp!

540
00:32:48,009 --> 00:32:53,723
His squad members are calling out his name
saying, "Sharp, wake up. Wake up, Sharp."

541
00:32:53,806 --> 00:32:55,099
And he's not waking up.

542
00:32:56,017 --> 00:32:57,393
Blood's pouring onto the dirt.

543
00:32:57,476 --> 00:32:59,687
-[soldier 1] We gotta go. Come on. Go.
-[soldier 2] Sharp.

544
00:32:59,770 --> 00:33:03,399
[LaPorta] Finally they pick him up
and these Marines run him down the road.

545
00:33:03,482 --> 00:33:07,153
They push into a building.
The corpsmen start working on him.

546
00:33:07,653 --> 00:33:08,946
Sharp bleeds out.

547
00:33:10,781 --> 00:33:12,116
So he doesn't make it.

548
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:16,412
[indistinct radio chatter]

549
00:33:18,539 --> 00:33:20,124
[LaPorta] "What am I doing here?"

550
00:33:21,667 --> 00:33:25,129
We had no idea what we were doing.
We didn't know what the objective was.

551
00:33:26,172 --> 00:33:27,923
[indistinct radio chatter]

552
00:33:29,425 --> 00:33:33,804
[LsaPorta] I didn't fire
a single round until July 31st of 2009.

553
00:33:33,888 --> 00:33:34,764
[dog barks]

554
00:33:38,601 --> 00:33:43,939
This guy steps out
from behind cover with an AK-47.

555
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:46,025
And it was clear as day.

556
00:33:46,817 --> 00:33:51,572
So I aimed down on him low
and I literally walked my rounds onto him.

557
00:33:53,657 --> 00:33:56,327
I've thought about that day a lot,
July 31st.

558
00:33:56,869 --> 00:34:01,832
The person that I shot
didn't look any older than 15.

559
00:34:04,919 --> 00:34:08,464
And I've thought
about what put us there in that moment.

560
00:34:08,964 --> 00:34:10,174
Who was this person?

561
00:34:11,383 --> 00:34:15,262
Were they really Taliban,
or were they forced to fight?

562
00:34:17,181 --> 00:34:20,601
What if someone was invading my country?
Would I take a shot at them?

563
00:34:23,229 --> 00:34:25,815
[Hekmatyar, in Pashto]
What's the difference between

564
00:34:25,898 --> 00:34:29,401
the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
and the American occupation?

565
00:34:30,236 --> 00:34:31,403
Is there any difference?

566
00:34:31,904 --> 00:34:33,614
Can we call that one an occupation…

567
00:34:35,783 --> 00:34:36,867
but not this one?

568
00:34:38,661 --> 00:34:42,414
Afghans are fighting
the US presence in Afghanistan

569
00:34:42,498 --> 00:34:46,877
with the same motivation
that they did the Soviets.

570
00:34:46,961 --> 00:34:49,171
There's no difference
between the two jihads.

571
00:34:49,255 --> 00:34:51,632
There's no difference
between the two occupations.

572
00:34:51,715 --> 00:34:53,676
There is no difference

573
00:34:53,759 --> 00:34:58,514
between the two resistances
against the occupations.

574
00:35:01,016 --> 00:35:04,979
Yesterday,
they called us freedom fighters.

575
00:35:05,062 --> 00:35:11,694
But when we do the same thing today,
they call us their enemies,

576
00:35:11,777 --> 00:35:14,947
and they call us terrorists.

577
00:35:18,909 --> 00:35:20,911
[explosion]

578
00:35:25,291 --> 00:35:27,376
-[soldier] Is anybody hit?
-[distant explosion]

579
00:35:27,459 --> 00:35:29,962
[man] The IED threat was so large

580
00:35:30,045 --> 00:35:34,758
that on every tour, there were multiple
double, triple and quadruple amputees.

581
00:35:34,842 --> 00:35:37,219
[reporter] Officials say
a US service member died Tuesday

582
00:35:37,303 --> 00:35:41,182
from injuries he received
in an IED attack in Western Afghanistan.

583
00:35:41,265 --> 00:35:43,809
His death comes
after seven other US service members

584
00:35:43,893 --> 00:35:47,271
were killed in Afghanistan,
in three separate attacks on Monday.

585
00:35:48,564 --> 00:35:51,775
[Anderson] Most of Helmand is mud,
and it's very easy to bury an IED,

586
00:35:51,859 --> 00:35:54,528
which is basically a water jug
full of explosive powder,

587
00:35:54,612 --> 00:35:57,656
and then a detonating cap,
and then something to ignite it.

588
00:35:57,740 --> 00:35:58,949
Very simple to make.

589
00:35:59,992 --> 00:36:03,495
The Taliban were claiming they could
bury them within three or four minutes.

590
00:36:03,579 --> 00:36:06,832
They would cover the IED in earth,
pour water on top of it,

591
00:36:06,916 --> 00:36:10,085
and 'cause the sun was so hot,
within five or ten minutes,

592
00:36:10,169 --> 00:36:12,504
I could literally say
there's an IED right in front of you,

593
00:36:12,588 --> 00:36:16,800
and there were no indicators whatsoever,
no signs that there was an IED there.

594
00:36:16,884 --> 00:36:19,345
So every single step you took,

595
00:36:19,428 --> 00:36:22,056
you were worried that
you might be stepping on an IED.

596
00:36:22,932 --> 00:36:26,435
They were in doorways,
alleyways, ditches, they were everywhere.

597
00:36:26,518 --> 00:36:27,978
[explosion]

598
00:36:30,189 --> 00:36:32,942
You imagine so vividly
stepping on one of these things

599
00:36:33,025 --> 00:36:35,653
and just having everything
blown apart and shredded.

600
00:36:35,736 --> 00:36:38,113
It was a horrible feeling.

601
00:36:39,114 --> 00:36:41,742
Because they had to be
so careful about IEDs,

602
00:36:41,825 --> 00:36:44,787
it would take them hours
to travel two or three miles.

603
00:36:45,287 --> 00:36:47,206
And the Taliban could
see them coming a mile off.

604
00:36:47,289 --> 00:36:48,874
[explosion]

605
00:36:52,294 --> 00:36:53,587
[indistinct chatter]

606
00:36:55,214 --> 00:36:58,425
US Marines had
a whole assortment of explosives,

607
00:36:58,509 --> 00:37:00,261
including a thing called a MICLIC,

608
00:37:00,344 --> 00:37:05,099
which was like a 30-foot-long sock
with a hand grenade every couple of feet.

609
00:37:05,182 --> 00:37:07,059
[explosion]

610
00:37:08,644 --> 00:37:10,229
[soldier] That was pretty cool.

611
00:37:10,729 --> 00:37:13,565
[Anderson] And that cleared
a short path for them to take.

612
00:37:14,066 --> 00:37:15,442
[explosion]

613
00:37:16,318 --> 00:37:18,988
That's how they were moving
through villages in Sangin.

614
00:37:19,071 --> 00:37:22,032
Regularly destroying Afghan's property…

615
00:37:22,658 --> 00:37:26,078
just so they knew they could walk
another 30 or 40 feet safely.

616
00:37:26,161 --> 00:37:28,414
[soldier]
It's definitely a ******* hole, though.

617
00:37:28,497 --> 00:37:31,292
Nice ******* hole. Proud of myself.

618
00:37:32,334 --> 00:37:35,087
[Anderson] That's why so many Afghans,
especially in Sangin, said to me,

619
00:37:35,170 --> 00:37:36,463
"The Taliban don't do this."

620
00:37:36,547 --> 00:37:39,800
"You guys have been
promising security for so long,

621
00:37:39,883 --> 00:37:42,177
but it's getting worse."
And it was getting worse.

622
00:37:52,062 --> 00:37:54,898
[Whitlock] I'm an investigative reporter
for The Washington Post.

623
00:37:55,733 --> 00:37:59,361
I got a tip that Michael Flynn
had given an interview

624
00:37:59,445 --> 00:38:02,948
to the inspector general
for Afghanistan about the war.

625
00:38:03,449 --> 00:38:06,368
So we thought, "That's newsworthy.
I'd like to see what Flynn said."

626
00:38:06,452 --> 00:38:09,621
Flynn had a reputation
for being very blunt and forthright.

627
00:38:10,414 --> 00:38:12,499
We file a lawsuit in federal court.

628
00:38:13,167 --> 00:38:16,670
This takes a while to wind its way
through, and they gave us the interview.

629
00:38:18,630 --> 00:38:21,884
[Flynn] You know,
every measurable activity is failing.

630
00:38:24,178 --> 00:38:27,222
Afghanistan is really better
today than it was?

631
00:38:29,683 --> 00:38:32,561
You know, the Taliban
has completely retaken Marjah,

632
00:38:32,644 --> 00:38:34,646
they're about to retake Lashkar Gah.

633
00:38:35,147 --> 00:38:38,400
[Whitlock] He's withering in his criticism
of how things were really going,

634
00:38:38,484 --> 00:38:40,402
and how the people in charge of the war

635
00:38:40,486 --> 00:38:42,780
weren't being realistic
about how things were going.

636
00:38:42,863 --> 00:38:47,284
[Flynn] And I'm telling you,
this is from 2002 until today.

637
00:38:49,119 --> 00:38:51,538
Everybody did a great job,
we're all doing a great job.

638
00:38:52,206 --> 00:38:53,040
Really?

639
00:38:53,540 --> 00:38:57,169
So if we're doing such a great job,
why does it feel like we're losing?

640
00:38:58,504 --> 00:39:00,672
[Whitlock] He's totally contradicting

641
00:39:00,756 --> 00:39:03,467
what US officials
have been saying in public for years.

642
00:39:05,594 --> 00:39:10,432
There was one story in public delivered
to the American people year after year

643
00:39:10,516 --> 00:39:12,559
that things were going well.

644
00:39:13,602 --> 00:39:16,271
[interviewer]
Is the US winning the war in Afghanistan?

645
00:39:16,355 --> 00:39:19,566
[McChrystal] Well, I think in the last
year we've made a lot of progress.

646
00:39:19,650 --> 00:39:23,987
[Gates] We have had a great deal
of success in achieving the mission.

647
00:39:24,071 --> 00:39:26,323
[Obama]
We are on track to achieve our goals.

648
00:39:27,366 --> 00:39:33,038
Even though these people knew all along
there were all these major problems

649
00:39:33,122 --> 00:39:35,207
that were gonna prevent us from winning.

650
00:39:35,958 --> 00:39:40,129
Then we find out the inspector general
had interviewed hundreds of other people

651
00:39:40,212 --> 00:39:42,464
for the same program,
called "Lessons Learned."

652
00:39:44,425 --> 00:39:46,593
We got into a long, drawn-out fight

653
00:39:46,677 --> 00:39:48,762
over three years
with the inspector general.

654
00:39:48,846 --> 00:39:53,517
But in the end, we pried loose notes
from more than 400 interviews,

655
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:55,769
a lot of transcripts of audio recordings

656
00:39:55,853 --> 00:39:58,981
with all these people who'd been involved
at some level in the war.

657
00:40:01,692 --> 00:40:04,695
[Dobbins] You know, we don't invade
poor countries to make them rich.

658
00:40:04,778 --> 00:40:07,698
We don't invade authoritarian countries
to make them democratic.

659
00:40:07,781 --> 00:40:10,200
We invade violent countries
to make them peaceful.

660
00:40:10,284 --> 00:40:13,203
And we clearly failed in Afghanistan.

661
00:40:14,204 --> 00:40:15,747
[explosion]

662
00:40:16,915 --> 00:40:20,043
[Whitlock] There was a general
from Britain, General David Richards.

663
00:40:20,127 --> 00:40:21,628
He was the NATO commander

664
00:40:21,712 --> 00:40:26,925
of US NATO forces
in Afghanistan, 2006, 2007.

665
00:40:27,009 --> 00:40:30,012
His interview said,
"We did not have a strategy."

666
00:40:30,095 --> 00:40:31,763
"We did not have a proper strategy."

667
00:40:31,847 --> 00:40:34,641
"We had a lot of tactics.
We didn't have a strategy."

668
00:40:34,725 --> 00:40:37,060
He's the war commander
saying they didn't have a strategy.

669
00:40:37,811 --> 00:40:39,605
Next general who replaces him,

670
00:40:39,688 --> 00:40:42,441
General Dan McNeill,
US Army, four-star general.

671
00:40:43,442 --> 00:40:45,152
"We didn't have a strategy."

672
00:40:46,111 --> 00:40:50,365
"I tried to get people to tell me
to define winning before I went over."

673
00:40:50,449 --> 00:40:52,951
He's talking about people
at the White House or at NATO.

674
00:40:53,035 --> 00:40:54,453
And nobody could.

675
00:40:55,204 --> 00:40:58,415
"We didn't have a strategy, we didn't have
a definition of what winning meant."

676
00:40:58,499 --> 00:41:00,876
These are the generals
in charge of the war.

677
00:41:00,959 --> 00:41:04,296
That's astounding to read those comments.

678
00:41:04,379 --> 00:41:09,301
That is not what the American people
were being told year after year.

679
00:41:09,384 --> 00:41:10,552
Complete opposite.

680
00:41:11,136 --> 00:41:13,764
This is Chris Kolenda.
He's talking about corruption.

681
00:41:13,847 --> 00:41:16,016
He says, "By 2006,

682
00:41:16,099 --> 00:41:20,270
the Afghan government
had self-organized into a kleptocracy."

683
00:41:20,354 --> 00:41:23,565
Kolenda says,
"I'd like to use a cancer analogy."

684
00:41:24,191 --> 00:41:26,318
"Petty corruption is like skin cancer."

685
00:41:26,401 --> 00:41:29,530
"There are ways to deal with it,
and you'll probably be just fine."

686
00:41:30,614 --> 00:41:34,660
"Corruption within the ministry's
higher level is like colon cancer."

687
00:41:34,743 --> 00:41:38,497
"It's worse, but if you catch it in time,
you're probably okay."

688
00:41:38,997 --> 00:41:42,668
"Kleptocracy, however,
is like brain cancer. It's fatal."

689
00:41:42,751 --> 00:41:45,837
And he's saying in 2006,
it was a kleptocracy.

690
00:41:45,921 --> 00:41:48,632
It was at a fatal case of brain cancer.

691
00:41:50,217 --> 00:41:51,176
[man shouting]

692
00:41:51,260 --> 00:41:54,096
[Chandrasekaran] The American
exit strategy from Afghanistan

693
00:41:54,179 --> 00:41:57,933
has been predicated upon
the development of Afghanistan's army.

694
00:41:58,809 --> 00:42:00,310
All this sounds good on paper. 

695
00:42:00,394 --> 00:42:03,730
Let's help build them an army,
sort of on the model of our army

696
00:42:03,814 --> 00:42:05,148
because that's what we know.

697
00:42:05,857 --> 00:42:09,903
Problem is that it just didn't work
in Afghanistan.

698
00:42:09,987 --> 00:42:12,155
[indistinct chatter]

699
00:42:15,284 --> 00:42:18,662
[man] The very low level of literacy
in the Afghan population

700
00:42:18,745 --> 00:42:21,540
meant that we undertook
in recruit training,

701
00:42:21,623 --> 00:42:23,458
boot camp if you will, for the Afghans…

702
00:42:24,167 --> 00:42:29,673
training of the Afghan forces to be able
to read and count at a first-grade level.

703
00:42:29,756 --> 00:42:31,216
That's how basic this was.

704
00:42:32,009 --> 00:42:33,844
So we're undertaking

705
00:42:33,927 --> 00:42:37,973
just the creation of a minimum of literacy
amongst the Afghan forces,

706
00:42:38,056 --> 00:42:40,350
while we're continuing
to train those forces,

707
00:42:40,434 --> 00:42:43,395
while we're continuing to push them
into the lead for combat operations.

708
00:42:43,478 --> 00:42:45,480
[man speaking indistinctly]

709
00:42:46,898 --> 00:42:49,526
[Anderson] I mean, they were smoking
joints in the middle of battles.

710
00:42:50,277 --> 00:42:53,739
They weren't wearing protective equipment.
They were committing crimes regularly.

711
00:42:53,822 --> 00:42:57,451
They were selling fuel, weapons,
and vehicles they'd been supplied with.

712
00:43:00,370 --> 00:43:02,331
I went with them on visits to checkpoints,

713
00:43:02,414 --> 00:43:05,334
where guys were so high on heroin
that they couldn't stand up.

714
00:43:05,417 --> 00:43:06,460
Literally nodding out.

715
00:43:08,712 --> 00:43:11,757
It was extremely common,
especially in the south and the east,

716
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:15,093
but all over the country,
for the Afghan army in some cases,

717
00:43:15,177 --> 00:43:19,139
but certainly the Afghan police
to have chai boys, tea boys.

718
00:43:20,390 --> 00:43:22,392
[dramatic music plays]

719
00:43:23,727 --> 00:43:26,188
So US Marines would visit bases
and have meetings,

720
00:43:26,271 --> 00:43:28,815
and these boys would literally
be serving them tea.

721
00:43:29,274 --> 00:43:33,111
And these boys
were always 11, 12, 13 years old.

722
00:43:33,195 --> 00:43:37,949
Often very pretty looking,
and it was absolutely known by everyone

723
00:43:38,033 --> 00:43:42,454
that these boys were not only servants
during the day, but sex slaves at night.

724
00:43:44,247 --> 00:43:48,210
They were young boys that'd been abducted
by the local police or national police

725
00:43:48,293 --> 00:43:50,087
specifically for that purpose.

726
00:43:53,507 --> 00:43:57,052
The narrative at the time was,
Taliban are the bad guys,

727
00:43:57,135 --> 00:44:01,890
Afghan police and army and government
are the good guys, and we're winning.

728
00:44:02,891 --> 00:44:05,602
But you speak to Afghans
and that's just not the case at all.

729
00:44:08,814 --> 00:44:11,983
[man] We spent too much money, too fast,

730
00:44:12,067 --> 00:44:15,612
in too small a country,
with too little oversight.

731
00:44:15,696 --> 00:44:18,281
SIGAR is an office of inspector generals.

732
00:44:18,365 --> 00:44:23,787
And our job is to oversee how the money
for reconstruction, only reconstruction,

733
00:44:23,870 --> 00:44:25,789
in Afghanistan is spent.

734
00:44:25,872 --> 00:44:29,418
So we investigate fraud, waste, and abuse.

735
00:44:29,501 --> 00:44:32,754
We've been there
for 18 years in Afghanistan…

736
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:35,799
and have spent more money
on reconstruction

737
00:44:35,882 --> 00:44:38,301
than we did on the Marshall Plan
to rebuild all of Europe.

738
00:44:40,554 --> 00:44:41,722
When I came in there,

739
00:44:41,805 --> 00:44:45,267
most of the money had gone out the door
with very little oversight.

740
00:44:46,601 --> 00:44:50,105
Out of that $140 billion,

741
00:44:50,188 --> 00:44:53,567
about 80% has gone to security.

742
00:44:54,109 --> 00:44:57,571
Paying the salaries of police,
hiring the police,

743
00:44:57,654 --> 00:45:02,743
paying for uniforms, their bullets,
their guns, their hospitalization.

744
00:45:05,662 --> 00:45:10,125
The local politicians,
the local warlords got all the contracts.

745
00:45:10,667 --> 00:45:14,421
The average Afghan realizes
that the power brokers

746
00:45:14,504 --> 00:45:19,468
are the ones who are being paid
by the US government, paid by the allies,

747
00:45:19,551 --> 00:45:21,678
who are making a lot of money.

748
00:45:24,639 --> 00:45:28,852
We found many contracts that didn't work
that were total disasters.

749
00:45:28,935 --> 00:45:30,979
I think one of the biggest ones

750
00:45:31,062 --> 00:45:35,650
was the purchase of a military
support airplane for the Afghans.

751
00:45:35,734 --> 00:45:37,527
It's called the G-triple-two.

752
00:45:37,611 --> 00:45:39,780
It's a small cargo airplane.

753
00:45:39,863 --> 00:45:42,741
We spent about $400 million on the plane.

754
00:45:42,824 --> 00:45:46,411
And we bought these
out of a boneyard in Italy.

755
00:45:46,495 --> 00:45:48,288
The Italians offered it up.

756
00:45:48,371 --> 00:45:50,415
They basically couldn't fly.

757
00:45:53,168 --> 00:45:54,878
It was just a total disaster.

758
00:45:54,961 --> 00:45:58,465
Basically, all of the airplanes
were turned into scrap.

759
00:45:59,966 --> 00:46:04,513
Another example,
and this is an example of MilCon,

760
00:46:04,596 --> 00:46:06,097
military construction,

761
00:46:06,181 --> 00:46:08,475
was what we call "64K."

762
00:46:09,476 --> 00:46:12,145
Sixty-four thousand square-foot building.

763
00:46:12,229 --> 00:46:16,316
It was a headquarters building
built in Camp Leatherneck.

764
00:46:16,399 --> 00:46:19,861
And the Marine Corps general
who was in charge of the surge

765
00:46:19,945 --> 00:46:22,280
down in the south, told the military,

766
00:46:22,364 --> 00:46:24,658
"I don't want it. I won't use it."

767
00:46:24,741 --> 00:46:27,536
"I won't be here when it's finished.
Don't build it."

768
00:46:27,619 --> 00:46:32,916
But the military did anyway. And I believe
that was a $36-million disaster.

769
00:46:32,999 --> 00:46:35,001
-[interviewer] That never got used?
-Never got used.

770
00:46:37,587 --> 00:46:41,216
[interviewer] There was an effort to
invest in Afghanistan's cashmere industry.

771
00:46:41,299 --> 00:46:44,386
-[laughs] Yes.
-[interviewer] What's that all about?

772
00:46:45,262 --> 00:46:49,558
[Sopko]
One of their concepts was to fly over

773
00:46:49,641 --> 00:46:54,479
rare Italian white-colored goats

774
00:46:54,563 --> 00:46:58,567
to breed with the host goats

775
00:46:58,650 --> 00:47:02,112
and create, um… happy goats.

776
00:47:02,195 --> 00:47:04,990
Uh, and could improve
the cashmere industry.

777
00:47:05,073 --> 00:47:06,992
They wanted a fast turnaround.

778
00:47:07,075 --> 00:47:09,286
The person who was hired to run this,

779
00:47:09,369 --> 00:47:12,747
who actually knew something
about breeding of goats

780
00:47:12,831 --> 00:47:14,124
and the cashmere industry,

781
00:47:14,207 --> 00:47:18,211
quit in disgust because she said
you can't do in a year or two years

782
00:47:18,295 --> 00:47:20,463
what takes ten. As far as we could tell,

783
00:47:20,547 --> 00:47:23,383
a lot of the goats had to be culled
because of illness.

784
00:47:23,466 --> 00:47:29,931
Because either the way they were kept
or the environment, they couldn't survive.

785
00:47:30,015 --> 00:47:30,974
Some were eaten.

786
00:47:31,057 --> 00:47:34,853
And a year afterwards,
we couldn't find any of the goats.

787
00:47:34,936 --> 00:47:36,938
[crowd singing]

788
00:47:38,732 --> 00:47:41,443
We, being the US military,

789
00:47:41,526 --> 00:47:46,823
decided to provide camouflage uniforms
to the Afghan army.

790
00:47:48,909 --> 00:47:52,913
We allowed the general
in charge of the Afghan military

791
00:47:52,996 --> 00:47:56,750
to pick the design
of the camouflage uniform.

792
00:47:56,833 --> 00:48:01,546
He liked a design which is called,
I think, forest green.

793
00:48:03,131 --> 00:48:07,552
Problem is, less than four percent
of Afghanistan is forest.

794
00:48:07,636 --> 00:48:10,555
Secondly, he picked a design out of a book

795
00:48:10,639 --> 00:48:14,142
that the US military
doesn't own the pattern.

796
00:48:14,225 --> 00:48:17,479
We have to pay extra
to somebody else for the pattern.

797
00:48:18,229 --> 00:48:20,440
So we bought and paid for,

798
00:48:20,523 --> 00:48:24,152
I think 30, 40% above
what a normal uniform would cost,

799
00:48:24,235 --> 00:48:28,740
we bought the wrong uniform
at higher cost for the Afghan military.

800
00:48:30,742 --> 00:48:34,829
I would keep getting asked,
"So, how much money have we wasted?"

801
00:48:35,330 --> 00:48:40,335
We had a group of individuals look at it
and say, "Well, was this waste?

802
00:48:40,418 --> 00:48:43,004
"Was this fraud? Was this just stupidity?"

803
00:48:44,130 --> 00:48:49,302
We only looked at,
I think, 70 billion or 60 billion.

804
00:48:49,803 --> 00:48:56,059
And we came up with a figure of about 30%
of the money that we looked at,

805
00:48:56,142 --> 00:48:58,812
we could actually identify
as having been lost

806
00:48:58,895 --> 00:49:00,480
to fraud, waste, and abuse.

807
00:49:06,194 --> 00:49:09,823
[Filkins] Karzai was the president
of the country for 13 years.

808
00:49:09,906 --> 00:49:10,865
That's a long time.

809
00:49:12,033 --> 00:49:13,034
It's too long.

810
00:49:13,118 --> 00:49:15,453
Karzai came in, this very mild-mannered,

811
00:49:15,537 --> 00:49:19,040
very kind of soft-spoken,
local leader from Kandahar.

812
00:49:19,541 --> 00:49:25,005
And when he leaves 13 years later,
he's this kind of immensely powerful,

813
00:49:25,088 --> 00:49:27,465
very arrogant, kind of potentate,

814
00:49:27,549 --> 00:49:32,178
and presiding over
this spectacularly corrupt

815
00:49:32,262 --> 00:49:35,682
kind of criminal enterprise which is,
you know, the Afghan government.

816
00:49:39,185 --> 00:49:40,812
The Americans had a name for it.

817
00:49:40,895 --> 00:49:43,690
You know, the military
has an acronym for everything.

818
00:49:44,566 --> 00:49:47,694
And the acronym
for the Afghan government was VICE.

819
00:49:47,777 --> 00:49:53,033
V-I-C-E, and that stood for "Vertically
Integrated Criminal Enterprise."

820
00:49:54,617 --> 00:49:58,788
Karzai was, you know, no more or less
corrupt than the rest of them,

821
00:49:58,872 --> 00:50:01,791
but he presided over this thing
and he kind of protected it.

822
00:50:01,875 --> 00:50:05,462
We came to believe,
I think incorrectly, we the Americans,

823
00:50:05,545 --> 00:50:08,631
that he was indispensable
and so we can't upset him.

824
00:50:08,715 --> 00:50:12,594
We must give him what he wants,
give him what he needs, and so we did.

825
00:50:13,470 --> 00:50:17,599
We created this monstrous kind of beast
that preyed on ordinary Afghans,

826
00:50:17,682 --> 00:50:20,643
and basically drove them to the Taliban.

827
00:50:24,647 --> 00:50:26,691
[McMaster]
We with our aid and our contracts,

828
00:50:26,775 --> 00:50:31,112
empowered some of the biggest predators
in Afghan society.

829
00:50:31,196 --> 00:50:35,742
Predators who had been responsible
for the breakdown of law and order

830
00:50:35,825 --> 00:50:39,120
and security that led
to the rise of the Taliban.

831
00:50:39,204 --> 00:50:41,206
[ominous music plays]

832
00:50:47,212 --> 00:50:50,924
[Linehan] My brigade got tapped
for RC South, Kandahar.

833
00:50:54,094 --> 00:50:56,930
And the closer we were getting,
the more real it got.

834
00:51:01,184 --> 00:51:04,437
We met guys who were coming out
of the area that we were going into.

835
00:51:04,521 --> 00:51:08,858
And I was talking to one of them
and he was just, like, super gaunt.

836
00:51:08,942 --> 00:51:10,944
Face was, like, real ruddy.

837
00:51:11,027 --> 00:51:15,865
And he said, "You guys are gonna--
You're gonna lose people over there."

838
00:51:15,949 --> 00:51:19,869
"Like, they're gonna--
Some of you are gonna get killed."

839
00:51:19,953 --> 00:51:23,331
And they were like, "If y'all are
looking to get in some shit,

840
00:51:23,414 --> 00:51:25,917
you can get in some shit down here."

841
00:51:28,128 --> 00:51:32,215
We get down to this little,
tiny outpost in the middle of nowhere.

842
00:51:32,298 --> 00:51:35,635
The most rural place
that I've ever seen in my life.

843
00:51:35,718 --> 00:51:37,762
It looked like a children's picture Bible.

844
00:51:38,346 --> 00:51:42,600
Mud dwellings,
poppy fields, and grape rows.

845
00:51:48,648 --> 00:51:52,569
The guys that we replaced
had gone off the reservation.

846
00:51:52,652 --> 00:51:56,114
The cut-off sleeves, beards.

847
00:51:56,197 --> 00:51:59,117
They, like, were operating
under very little supervision.

848
00:52:01,828 --> 00:52:05,248
[reporter] If the charges are proven,
this was the platoon from hell.

849
00:52:05,748 --> 00:52:09,169
Five American soldiers
accused of murdering Afghan civilians

850
00:52:09,252 --> 00:52:11,087
just because they could.

851
00:52:11,171 --> 00:52:12,881
Seven more involved in the cover-up.

852
00:52:12,964 --> 00:52:17,594
Plus, mutilating corpses,
taking potshots at Afghan civilians,

853
00:52:17,677 --> 00:52:21,306
smoking hash, and beating up
a private who blew the whistle.

854
00:52:22,432 --> 00:52:25,935
[Linehan] They were the same guys
that had been killing civilians.

855
00:52:26,019 --> 00:52:28,104
Killing them, and they were
mutilating their bodies.

856
00:52:28,188 --> 00:52:29,480
And the locals knew.

857
00:52:29,564 --> 00:52:32,317
And then it became, like,
an international news story.

858
00:52:34,068 --> 00:52:38,448
We were going into, like, a situation
where Americans weren't very popular.

859
00:52:39,449 --> 00:52:43,703
You know, it was never really explained
to us exactly what the mission was.

860
00:52:43,786 --> 00:52:45,788
[dramatic music plays]

861
00:52:52,795 --> 00:52:55,590
A few months into our deployment
we went into this village

862
00:52:55,673 --> 00:53:00,261
that we were told was, like,
where the Taliban movement started.

863
00:53:04,724 --> 00:53:09,145
On our way back, a suicide bomber walked
into our formation and just detonated.

864
00:53:09,229 --> 00:53:10,647
[explosion]

865
00:53:13,650 --> 00:53:17,278
He was dressed
like a normal local farmer guy

866
00:53:17,362 --> 00:53:20,073
in a robe carrying a bunch of logs,

867
00:53:20,156 --> 00:53:23,993
and he decimated
the middle part of our formation.

868
00:53:26,454 --> 00:53:28,831
That was a big wake-up call for all of us.

869
00:53:28,915 --> 00:53:31,376
It was, like, the moment
when everything got real.

870
00:53:32,835 --> 00:53:37,090
He killed five people.
Three Americans and two Afghan soldiers.

871
00:53:38,925 --> 00:53:43,513
It completely changed our whole approach
to soldiering in Afghanistan,

872
00:53:43,596 --> 00:53:46,557
it changed our relationship
with the locals,

873
00:53:46,641 --> 00:53:51,062
and it also killed any,
whatever idealistic idea we had

874
00:53:51,145 --> 00:53:55,108
about, like, what was
being achieved in our deployment.

875
00:53:59,404 --> 00:54:02,282
Now if civilians, like, walk to us,

876
00:54:02,365 --> 00:54:04,867
even if they're saying hi,
point your gun at them.

877
00:54:09,247 --> 00:54:11,249
Not gonna win hearts and minds that way.

878
00:54:20,049 --> 00:54:25,096
I was taught as a teenager
that we're the best country in the world,

879
00:54:25,179 --> 00:54:26,973
and the reason people would attack us

880
00:54:27,056 --> 00:54:30,768
is because they're jealous of us,
because they hate us for our freedoms.

881
00:54:32,729 --> 00:54:35,732
I commissioned as an officer in 2011.

882
00:54:39,610 --> 00:54:41,612
When I was stationed in Afghanistan,

883
00:54:41,696 --> 00:54:44,824
I really believed that we were there
to help the Afghan people.

884
00:54:47,452 --> 00:54:51,039
But you can't take an institution
that's designed for violence

885
00:54:51,122 --> 00:54:54,208
and use it to build up
healthy and safe communities.

886
00:54:58,296 --> 00:55:02,008
I once saw
an infantry company commander cry.

887
00:55:02,091 --> 00:55:04,010
And that's rare in the Army.

888
00:55:04,510 --> 00:55:06,471
He was given the mission…

889
00:55:07,472 --> 00:55:11,225
"You need to build relationships
with folks in the area."

890
00:55:11,309 --> 00:55:12,185
So he did.

891
00:55:12,268 --> 00:55:17,273
He built all this trust for that year,
and had all these intense experiences.

892
00:55:17,982 --> 00:55:22,028
And then he was ordered
to destroy everything that they had built.

893
00:55:26,491 --> 00:55:31,996
[voice breaking] And he broke down
in his office because he knew…

894
00:55:33,206 --> 00:55:36,709
like I did, what a betrayal
that was to the Afghan people

895
00:55:36,793 --> 00:55:40,004
that we were supposedly there
to help and to serve.

896
00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:44,801
[man] Can you talk to her and let her know
I don't want the children to be scared?

897
00:55:44,884 --> 00:55:47,428
You know what I mean?
Just let them know what we're gonna do.

898
00:55:48,638 --> 00:55:51,557
[Linehan] Maybe at the start
of our deployment, we had a chance.

899
00:55:51,641 --> 00:55:55,019
But certainly by the end
of the deployment, they did not like us.

900
00:55:56,604 --> 00:56:00,274
They figured out that we didn't
really care about Afghanistan that much.

901
00:56:02,527 --> 00:56:04,278
That's why you have this phrase

902
00:56:04,362 --> 00:56:08,074
that was really embraced
by the post-9/11 generation of soldiers,

903
00:56:08,157 --> 00:56:11,077
which is, "I do it for the guys
to my left and right."

904
00:56:11,744 --> 00:56:13,413
"We're a band of brothers."

905
00:56:14,997 --> 00:56:19,752
Oh, so that's your purpose.
You're fighting literally to just not die.

906
00:56:21,587 --> 00:56:24,382
In that suicide bombing incident,

907
00:56:24,465 --> 00:56:28,970
one of the youngest guys in our platoon
was among the soldiers who were killed.

908
00:56:29,053 --> 00:56:30,680
[machine-gun fire]

909
00:56:32,473 --> 00:56:36,894
Being a medic, 30 minutes
before when we were getting shot at,

910
00:56:36,978 --> 00:56:40,815
this soldier said to me, like,
"Doc, I don't wanna die."

911
00:56:41,482 --> 00:56:44,777
I mean, he was this really tough kid,
and it was like,

912
00:56:44,861 --> 00:56:47,738
"Listen to me."
Like, "I don't want to die."

913
00:56:48,489 --> 00:56:52,368
Thirty minutes later,
when I came upon his body,

914
00:56:52,452 --> 00:56:57,582
it felt as if he had been saying,
"Don't let me die. Don't let me die."

915
00:56:57,665 --> 00:56:59,584
[gunfire]

916
00:57:02,545 --> 00:57:06,549
In the absence of any kind of
coherent narrative around these wars…

917
00:57:07,341 --> 00:57:10,136
it's easy for soldiers
to assume responsibility

918
00:57:10,219 --> 00:57:12,013
for things that aren't their fault.

919
00:57:12,096 --> 00:57:17,393
And to shrink the war down
to their own small, horrific experiences.

920
00:57:17,477 --> 00:57:19,437
And it just became, like, my war.

921
00:57:23,274 --> 00:57:25,735
And in my war, like, I was the bad guy.

922
00:57:29,363 --> 00:57:33,284
And the narrative
that my brain ultimately settled on

923
00:57:33,367 --> 00:57:39,290
was this story of a medic
who didn't save his friend.

924
00:57:43,211 --> 00:57:45,755
[LaPorta] Our platoon sergeant,
he gathers the platoon and he says,

925
00:57:45,838 --> 00:57:49,759
"You're about to go through
the hardest part, which is going home."

926
00:57:51,177 --> 00:57:54,263
[laughs] And we're like, "What are you--?"

927
00:57:54,764 --> 00:57:57,016
All of us were like,
"What are you talking about?"

928
00:57:57,099 --> 00:57:59,185
"The hardest part, like, is over."

929
00:57:59,268 --> 00:58:03,356
You know, but he was, like, "The hardest
part is coming up, and it's gonna--"

930
00:58:04,524 --> 00:58:05,358
Jesus.

931
00:58:05,983 --> 00:58:06,817
Um…

932
00:58:07,735 --> 00:58:09,153
"It's gonna be the going home."

933
00:58:09,237 --> 00:58:12,490
And none of us knew
what the hell he meant when he said it.

934
00:58:14,575 --> 00:58:16,577
And he was absolutely right.

935
00:58:17,495 --> 00:58:18,913
He was absolutely right.

936
00:58:18,996 --> 00:58:20,998
[dramatic music plays]

937
00:58:24,168 --> 00:58:28,089
I didn't see it until later,
how much I had changed.

938
00:58:29,048 --> 00:58:31,884
There are, to this day…

939
00:58:35,846 --> 00:58:39,934
there is a part of me
that died in Afghanistan…

940
00:58:41,852 --> 00:58:43,312
that I'll never get back.

941
00:58:44,772 --> 00:58:46,983
[Linehan] I remember specifically,

942
00:58:47,066 --> 00:58:49,652
like, one night in a guard tower
in Afghanistan,

943
00:58:49,735 --> 00:58:51,988
realizing what it was, American freedom.

944
00:58:52,071 --> 00:58:54,657
What did we mean
by "freedom" in this country?

945
00:58:54,740 --> 00:58:56,909
And it was the freedom to pretend.

946
00:58:58,160 --> 00:59:00,329
We feel entitled to our fictions.

947
00:59:00,413 --> 00:59:02,748
[soldier 1] They're shooting
from the left side of that wall!

948
00:59:02,832 --> 00:59:03,708
[soldier 2] I see 'em.

949
00:59:03,791 --> 00:59:06,752
[Linehan] And when you go to Afghanistan,

950
00:59:06,836 --> 00:59:09,755
all of it,
it's like the curtain comes down.

951
00:59:11,048 --> 00:59:12,550
[explosion]

952
00:59:21,392 --> 00:59:22,977
[machine-gun fire]

953
00:59:23,686 --> 00:59:25,938
[soldier 3] We're gonna get--
Kill that fucking gun!

954
00:59:27,315 --> 00:59:28,941
[soldier 4] Get back! Go!

955
00:59:29,900 --> 00:59:30,901
[slug shatters rock]

956
00:59:30,985 --> 00:59:31,944
[soldier 5] Fuck!

957
00:59:33,279 --> 00:59:35,239
-[man 1] Help!
-[man 2] Help me!

958
00:59:38,326 --> 00:59:40,453
[soldier 6]
I finally got to make a phone call today…

959
00:59:41,287 --> 00:59:44,707
expecting it to be like,
"Oh, I miss you so much."

960
00:59:44,790 --> 00:59:46,876
And all kinds of stuff.

961
00:59:46,959 --> 00:59:48,628
No. I call home…

962
00:59:49,587 --> 00:59:53,466
and it's, "Yeah.
Everything's fine. I'm partying."

963
00:59:53,549 --> 00:59:55,676
"I'm having a good life down here."

964
00:59:56,177 --> 00:59:58,179
Doesn't even ask me how I'm doing.

965
00:59:59,305 --> 01:00:00,806
So, that's when I realized

966
01:00:00,890 --> 01:00:03,559
that people don't give a shit
about what we're doing here.

967
01:00:04,185 --> 01:00:05,019
Like…

968
01:00:06,854 --> 01:00:09,565
no one even, like,
really mentions 9/11 anymore…

969
01:00:10,608 --> 01:00:13,235
and to me that's the whole reason
that I'm over here.

970
01:00:18,616 --> 01:00:21,202
[man] This is the longest war
in American history.

971
01:00:24,664 --> 01:00:27,208
And that's where we are.
Nobody can figure a way out.

972
01:00:35,132 --> 01:00:37,802
During the early period
of the war in Afghanistan,

973
01:00:37,885 --> 01:00:41,013
there was an opportunity
where bin Laden might have been located

974
01:00:41,097 --> 01:00:42,264
in the Tora Bora region.

975
01:00:43,474 --> 01:00:48,145
Once that opportunity was missed,
we never again came anywhere close

976
01:00:48,229 --> 01:00:51,315
to achieving
that level of specific resolution

977
01:00:51,399 --> 01:00:53,067
on where he might be located,

978
01:00:53,150 --> 01:00:56,529
and how an operation might be conducted
to bring him to justice.

979
01:00:59,031 --> 01:01:03,869
The CIA comes to the White House
around Labor Day in 2010,

980
01:01:03,953 --> 01:01:07,081
and informs the president
that there is a compound of interest.

981
01:01:09,375 --> 01:01:11,544
Questions are buzzing
around people's minds.

982
01:01:11,627 --> 01:01:14,880
Might be, could be, Osama bin Laden.

983
01:01:17,174 --> 01:01:19,677
[ominous music plays]