A new Op-Ed from Caleb Carr appeared in the Los Angeles Times this morning. An excerpt from the piece, entitled “If France wants to succeed against Islamic State, it should study the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan,” is included below, along with a link to the full Op-Ed.
The wisdom of the U.S. decision to keep troops in Afghanistan on a semi-permanent basis will be long debated. What is beyond debate is the brilliance of the post-9/11 invasion, which holds lessons for the French people following the massacres of Nov. 13 in Paris and the similarly appalling loss of life in the former French colony of Mali on Nov. 20.
After 9/11, instead of opting for the kind of knee-jerk bombings that had too often been ordered by the Clinton administration after Al Qaeda attacks against U.S. embassies and the destroyer Cole, the Bush administration (or, more truthfully, the Department of Defense led by Donald H. Rumsfeld) moved carefully, devising one of the more innovative military campaigns in modern American history.
For visitors who may be unaware, Mr. Carr is a military historian who has taught at Bard College and has authored a number of non-fiction works including The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians in 2002. You can read more about The Lessons of Terror in the Other Books section of 17th Street.
