Funding the Enemy

”“Sober, sad, and important, Funding the Enemy peels back the layers of American engagement in Afghanistan to reveal its rotten core: that United States dollars meant for that country’s future instead fund the insurgency and support the Taliban. Paying for both sides of the war ensures America’s ultimate defeat, and Wissing’s book tells the story.”-Peter Van Buren, Former State Department Foreign Service Officer and author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People”Wissing presents a compelling viewpoint of how national security objectives are pursued and how war is waged in the modern, asymmetric battlespace. In particular, his insightful analysis of the Afghanistan war-its funding mechanisms, lack of coherent strategy, and weak interagency cooperation and synergy-should be required reading for all. One of his most poignant phrases, ‘The United States couldn’t kill its way to victory, nor could it buy it, ’ suggests that how we have traditionally waged war isn’t working, implicitly asking this question: What can we do to clean up our act?“-Maj. Gen. Arnold Fields, USMC (ret.), Former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction”[A] sobering account of the attempts by several US administrations to both wage war in and provide aid to Afghanistan, often with confusing and contradictory results. Backed by extensive interviews as well as on-the-ground embedded-reporter experience, the book illustrates the nearly impossible task of nation building in a country with a long history of factional friction and transactional corruption.“-Lee H. Hamilton, Former Indiana congressman and co-chair of the Iraq Study Group”Wissing’s meticulous marshaling of … devastating facts along with cogent perspectives gleaned from actors on the ground is timely and of considerable value. [His] blunt, succinct, yet responsible style leaves the reader with no doubts that new ways forward must focus on the people of Afghanistan who have been ill-served by their friends as well as their leaders for too long… .[A]n honest reading of Funding the Enemy should be required … as new paths are forged.“-Nancy Hatch Dupree, Executive consultant to the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University

Douglas Wissing is an award-winning independent journalist. His work has appeared in numerous media outlets including the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, the independent on Sunday, and the BBC.

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