How the United States lost the “forever war”

The recent withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan ended twenty years of military conflict begun after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. By almost every reasonable definition, the United States lost this conflict. Such an outcome should not have been likely given the resources and military might of the United States against non-state actors and lesser developed countries. Here we provide an examination of how and why America lost the war on terror in order to better understand how America ended up worse off than it began, hoping that similar mistakes might be avoided in the future.