My Share of the Task(277)

                durable drug cartel: Giustozzi and Ullah, “‘Tribes’ and Warlords,” 12–13.

                checkerboard of roadblocks: Hafvenstein, Opium Season, 131.

                the Karzais: Giustozzi and Ullah, “‘Tribes’ and Warlords,” 12.

                Taliban program took hold: Coghlan, “The Taliban in Helmand,” 124–25.

                Taliban showed themselves unqualified: Ibid., 124.

                mustered networks of aggrieved: Ibid., 125

                posterboy of insurgents’ propaganada: Ibid., 126

                brigade-size task force: The overall task force contained 3,500 personnel, but only 600 infantrymen. Anthony King, “Understanding the Helmand Campaign,” International Affairs (March 2010), 314.

                married two sisters: Giustozzi and Ullah, “‘Tribes’ and Warlords,” 13.

                eased the population: Coghlan, “The Taliban in Helmand,” 140.

                as a fourth tenet: This was originally a suggestion of Jeff Eggers in his memo, “Patience Is Paramount but Time Is of the Essence” (memorandum), June 5, 2009.

                last four summers: Stephen Grey, “Cracking On in Helmand,” Prospect (September 2009), 46–51.

                Nawa and Garmsir districts: Dressler, Securing Helmand, 38.

                “Soviet Invasion of 1979”: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, “Abstracts of Master of Military Art and Science (MMAS) Theses and Special Studies, Annual Edition 1987–88,” 16–17.

                left them feeling spurned: A 1993 New York Times article notes: “For five years, the Reagan and Bush Administrations certified that Islamabad did not possess the cability [sic] to detonate a nuclear bomb, a finding widely considered to be a good will effort toward a country that was helping guerrillas fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan. In 1990, after Soviet soldiers had withdrawn from Afghanistan, the Bush Administration stopped protecting Pakistan from the amendment’s sanctions and the aid was cut off.” Steven A. Holmes, “Clinton Plans Change in the Law Banning Military Aid to Pakistan,” New York Times, November 27, 1993.

                crisis of confidence: Stanley A. McChrystal, “Commander’s Initial Assessment,” International Security Assistance Force, August 30, 2009, section 1, 1.

                “continued underresourcing”: Ibid., Section 2, 1.

                “focusing on force”: Ibid., Section 1, 1.

                “from all threats”: Ibid., Section 1, 1-3. Emphasis in original.

                “per square foot”: Ibid., Appendix F, 1.

                more insurgents: For more on this, see Steve Coll, “Ink Spots,” New Yorker, September 28, 2009.

                aggressive use of fires: Chapter 5 of Gilles Dorronsoro’s Revolution Unending is an informative take on the Soviets’ later approach and the Najibullah regime they left in place. Gilles Dorronsoro, Revolution Unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the Present (Columbia University Press, 2005), 173–201.

                thirty-two candidates: Kenneth Katzman, “Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance,” Congressional Research Service, March 30, 2012, 22.

                burst the cinderblocks: Interview with U.S. military officer present at the scene.