The Trillion Dollar War
The U.S. Effort to Rebuild Afghanistan
Abid Amiri
DOI: 10.56686/9781737040569
ABOUT THE BOOK
What if the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan was fought not by the military but by educating the Afghan youth, and what if the trillion dollars had been spent instead on economic development in Afghanistan rather than on bombs and fighter jets? The Trillion Dollar War helps explain the United States’ efforts to rebuild Afghanistan during the last 20 years. The book outlines the successes and failures of both Afghans and Americans in this endeavor. In addition, it provides an in-depth analysis of the cost of America’s longest war, and it asks whether spending more on education and infrastructure than on weapons of war would have resulted in a different outcome.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abid Amiri is an Afghan American working as an economist in Washington, DC. Previously, he served as a policy advisor to the Afghan minister of finance and as a director of national infrastructure policy at the Ministry of Finance in Kabul. Prior to joining the ministry, Amiri worked as the economic affairs officer for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington. He is fluent in Pashto, Dari, and English.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapters
1) The European Recovery Programs
2) The Marshall Plan 2.0: Afghanistan
3) Development Projects: The Security Sector Reform Program
4) The Obama Doctrine: The Counterinsurgency Strategy
5) The Cost of War
6) Legitimizing the Taliban: The Surrender–to–the–Taliban Strategy
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography