Events - Event View

Craig Whitlock, Investigative Reporter with The Washington Post will discuss his reportorial triumph, &quot;The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War.&quot; After conducting thousands of interviews and suing the government for emails and other documents under the Freedom of Information Act, his book tells the story of strategic bungling, distorted statistics, a nation-building project doomed to failure and the victory of drugs and corruption in the longest war in American history through the voices of those who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground.<br /><br />Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains startling revelation after revelation from people who played a direct role in the war, from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government’s strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government.<br /><br />Craig Whitlock has covered the global war on terrorism since 2001. He specializes in national security issues and has covered the Pentagon, served as the Berlin bureau chief and reported from more than 60 countries. He joined The Washington Post in 1998. Craig received the George Polk Award for Military Reporting, the Scripps Howard Award for Investigative Reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Freedom of Information Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for international reporting.<br /><br />Register with Little Falls Village: www.littlefallsvillage.org/Afghanistan