Will We Learn Anything from Afghanistan? William R. Polk, Part 1

Will We Learn Anything from Afghanistan? William R. Polk, Part 1

from Master Feed : The Atlantic by James Fallows

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/02/will-we-learn-anything-from-afghanistan-william-r-polk-part-1/273448/ 

William R. Polk's first appearance as an Atlantic author came 55 years ago. While Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House, while Americans were absorbing the impact of the launch of Sputnik, while the showdown over integrating Little Rock Central High School continued, he wrote an article for us in 1958 called [yes] "The Lessons of Iraq." You can read it here and note how much of the analysis still applies.

In the years since then Polk has been a scholar and diplomat concentrating mainly on Middle Eastern affairs. Three years ago he made a return visit here to report on his latest trip to Afghanistan.

Now he has written a two-part essay on what Americans should take from their past decade-plus combat in Afghanistan. Through all these decades, a central theme in Polk's writing has been the crucial importance of recognizing and learning from strategic mistakes, but also the seeming impossibility of doing so. His dispatches will come in two parts, of which this #1, concentrating on the lessons of the Soviet Union's struggles in Afghanistan. This first one is about 3500 words long, or the scale of a medium-sized Atlantic story. I turn the stage over to William R. Polk.