Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story

摘要

The missed story referred to in Roy Gutman's narrative involves the process by which Osama bin Laden effectively hijacked the Afghan state and so set out the basis for his international terrorist operations. If news and current affairs journalists had more assiduously covered happenings in Afghanistan during the 1990s, his infiltration into the Taliban regime may well have been given greater attention by governments in the West, and the assaults of 2001 could possibly have been averted. For Gutman, though, the strategic failure is to be found in US foreign policy and the refusal to take bin Laden seriously enough as a political force. When, following 9/11, the Taliban were ousted from power, two significant developments occurred: many Taliban leaders and al Qaeda fighters escaped, and the presence of US troops in Afghanistan paved the way for a revival of the Taliban as a military challenge.