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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did Sen. Susan Collins ask Michele Flournoy at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing how the Obama administration would know if the troop surge was successful?

2. In 2008, how many soldiers and police did the Bush adminstration determine to field in Afghan?

3. Between 2002 and 2017, how much did the U.S. spend on drug interdiction in Afghanistan?

4. When was the second presidential election in Afghanistan?

5. After a long siege, when did insurgent forces seize Kunduz, Afghanistan's sixth biggest city?

Short Essay Questions

1. What problems were there with the quality of the Afghan recruits?

2. What did President Joe Biden say when he annnounced his decision regarding Afghanistan?

3. Why did the Afghan army and police forces look strong on paper?

4. What did James Dobbins believe was the key benchmark that revealed the success of the war efforts in Afghanistan?

5. How and why did Karzai steal the 2009 election?

6. What public image did Petraeus and McChrystal have?

7. What problems were there with the plan to rebuild the aging hydroelectric power station at the Kajaki Dam?

8. Why was Gen. David McKiernan fired in 2009?

9. What was Operation Iron Tempest, and why was it not successful?

10. In Chapter 16, why was Obama's war strategy failing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Setting is the place and time where a narrative takes place. What is the setting in The Afghanistan Papers? How does the setting evoke feelings or set the mood in the book?

Essay Topic 2

Whitlock used a variety of sources to write his book. Why was it important for Whitlock to reveal the sources he used when writing the book? How does knowing the sources he used impact what readers think about the veracity of his account?

Essay Topic 3

False narratives were created about the Afghan war. Were these narratives outright lies or a prevarication?

(see the answer keys)

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