In this TIME essay, Elliot Ackerman argues that responsibility for the failed Afghanistan War extends beyond presidents, policymakers, and military leaders to the American public that allowed the conflict to continue for nearly two decades.

The Afghanistan Papers

Ackerman examines the release of the Washington Post’s Afghanistan Papers, a collection of interviews conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction that documented failed strategies, misleading public statements, corruption, and the growing recognition that the war had become unwinnable.

Government Deception and Public Indifference

Although senior officials concealed the extent of the war’s failures, Ackerman questions whether Americans truly lacked the facts needed to understand the conflict. After years of mounting casualties, rising costs, and repeated strategic setbacks, he argues that the deeper problem was widespread public disinterest.

Who Bears Responsibility?

Policymakers and military professionals deserve blame, but Ackerman contends that citizens also bear responsibility for wars conducted in their name. Americans elected the leaders, funded the military, accepted deficit spending, and allowed an increasingly isolated professional force to carry the burden.

A War With the Truth

The essay concludes by asking whether the greatest deception came only from government institutions or from a society unwilling to confront its own complicity in America’s longest war.

Read the Original Essay

Read “All Americans Bear the Blame for the Failed Afghanistan War” at TIME →