| President Barack Obama needed to buy more time for U.S. troops to build up the shaky Afghan army so it would not collapse, as the Iraqi forces had. He also wanted to create leverage for the government in Kabul to persuade the Taliban to negotiate an end to the conflict. To make it all work, Obama conjured up an illusion. He and his administration unveiled a messaging campaign to make Americans think that U.S. troops still in Afghanistan would stay on the sidelines. But U.S. troops would fight and die in combat in the country for many years to come.
This account is adapted from "The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War," a Washington Post book written by Craig Whitlock, which will be published Aug. 31 by Simon & Schuster. | 
