That was not clear to me when I was in Afghanistan. I think the Afghanistan I was living in, which is the Afghanistan many Americans perceive or discuss to this day when they talk about things like cowardice or dishonor among the ANSF, was actually a vibrant fantasy world on par with that of Westeros or Middle Earth. Our Afghanistan, which resembled America in some senses, was a country where people fought to the death for their ideas, like we did in World War II.

Many Americans shared in the mass delusion: the people I deployed with, military leadership, the commentariat and political leaders. I don’t think many Afghans were taken in by the lie. Looking back on things, most of the Afghans I met used the lie opportunistically, as a way of getting something they wanted.

“There is a government of Afghanistan,” influential local politicians or military leaders would say, in deference to my connection to the lie, when we were meeting. “Hamid Karzai is its president.” I don’t blame the Afghans for this deception. Many Afghans died for the lie; far more of them have died (and will die) for the lie than Americans. It’s only right that some of them should have gotten something out of the arrangement.