for 20 years, presidents of both parties told us again and again that we were winning in afghanistan. that all the money we poured into the afghan military was worth it. that the 2300 american troops killed there since 2001 hadn t died in vain. george w. bush said it. barack obama said it. donald trump said it. joe biden said it. just in april. we have trained and equipped a standing force of over 300,000 afghan personnel to date and hundreds of thousands over the past two decades and they ll continue to fight valiantly on behalf of the afghans at great cost. and yet, here we are. because no one wanted to tell the simple truth that american ingenuity in dollars and weaponry cannot remake the world in our image. our leaders knew. the washington post 2019 investigation into the afghanistan papers, a trove of classified interviews with u.s.
into the military was worth it. but the troops killed since 2001 hadn t died in vain. george w. bush said it. barack obama said it. donald trump said it. joe biden said it. just in april. we have trained and equipped a standing force of over 300,000 afghan personnel to date and hundreds of thousands over the past two decades and they ll continue to fight valiantly on behalf of the afghans at great cost. and yet, here we are. because no one wanted to tell the simple truth that american ingenuity in dollars and weaponry cannot remake the world in our image. our leaders knew. the washington post 2019 investigation into the afghanistan papers, a trove of classified interviews with u.s. and afghan officials showed that those officials knew victory was an illusion, but they told the american public otherwise.