The Afghanistan Papers

This book by Craig Whitlock came up once on Joe Rogan in the episodes we index. That mention was a genuine on-air recommendation, not just a passing reference. The people who brought it up: Jack Carr. Every occurrence below links to the episode page and to the exact second it was said on YouTube.

The groundbreaking investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about the longest war in American history by Washington Post reporter Craig Whitlock, a three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: to defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives.