killed seven people: Carlotta Gall, “Bomb Kills 7 Near NATO’s Afghan Headquarters,” New York Times, August 15, 2009.
women-only voting stations: United Nations Development Programme Afghanistan: Enhancing Legal & Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow, “Annual Progress Report–2009,” 31.
tunics for poll workers: Ibid., 29–30.
Taliban attacks was extremely high: The BBC reported that ISAF said there were 400 attacks, but in 2012 the Congressional Research Service reported that there were roughly 280 (“NATO/ISAF announced that there were about 380 total attacks, about 100 more than in 2009”). Katzman, “Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government,” 28.
90 percent of the polling sites: The IEC website indicated that it opened “95.1% of the planned number” of polling centers, but this turned out to be a slight overestimate. Originally, there were 6,970 polling centers planned, but before election day that number was whittled down to 6,210 due to security concerns. A further 760 polling centers were closed the day of the election, again for security reasons. “Press Release of the Independent Election Commission with Reference to Announcement of Preliminary Results of 2009 Presidential Elections,” Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan website, September 16, 2009.
threats inactivated just 12 percent: Ibid.
39 percent of voters turned out: Voter turnout was at 38.7 percent according to the IEC (ibid.); it was 35 percent according to the Congressional Research Service (Katzman, “Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government,” 24).
“a lot of talk in Washington”: The full transcript of the interview, parts of which aired in the episode “Obama’s War” on October 13, 2009, is available on the Frontline website.
CHAPTER 19: DECIDE
From our vehicles: My recollection of these events was confirmed and augmented by interviews with two team members present on this trip.
“We need these kinds of operations”: The dialogue of this scene comes from a publicly available video of the meeting. “Stanley McChrystal in Kunduz After 2009 Air Strike” (video), YouTube, May 22, 2009.
my team contacted them: Interview with a senior military officer involved in coordinating the civilian advisers.
lowered to 328,000: These numbers reflect our calculations at that time and come from notes taken by a team member on October 6, 2009.
approved to grow to 134,000: Numbers for the Afghan National Army come from an annex in my assessment, an unclassified version of which was printed by the Washington Post. McChrystal, “Commander’s Initial Assessment,” Annex G, 1.
84,000 strong: Ibidi., Annex G, 2.
than any other force: In 2008, 880 ANP policemen died; 646 died in 2009 and 961 in 2010; 155 American troops died in 2008; 312 in 2009; and 499 in 2010. Ian S. Livingston, Heather L. Messera, and Michael O’ Hanlon, Afghanistan Index, Brooking’s Institution, March 30, 2012, 14, 11.
“a war of necessity”: These comments by the president—“This will not be quick, nor easy. But we must never forget: This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity”—were delivered on August 17, 2009, during a veterans convention. “Remarks by the President at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention,” White House website, August 17, 2009.
districts along Pakistan’s border: Details of the TTP come from a fuller account of their rise by Hassan Abbas, “A Profile of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan,” CTC Sentinel, January 2008.