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Slow Boring ·For the curious

Who Lost Afghanistan?

by Matthew Yglesias

Published 2026-10-01 10:03:31+00:00

Did America lose the war in Afghanistan the moment it decided to invade Iraq?

0:00 / 14:30 · Narrator Algieba

Context

A quarter-century after the September 11 attacks, a familiar consensus has settled over American politics: the United States failed because it overreacted. But a Slow Boring essay published on 1 October 2026 points to the Taliban's return to power to disrupt that narrative. The tragedy of the Afghan war looks less like a massive overreach and more like a fatal lack of attention, driven by the sudden distraction of invading Iraq. Instead of a war that could never be won, the early years in Afghanistan start to look like a tragic missed opportunity.

Show notes

An argument that the United States lost the war in Afghanistan not by overreacting to the September 11 attacks, but by underreacting to its initial victory. Tracks early troop deployments and diplomatic relations with Pakistan to show how diverting military resources to Iraq allowed the defeated Taliban to regroup across the border and launch a successful insurgency.

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