Henry Kissinger: America 'lost strategic focus' in Afghanistan with unattainable goals

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger bemoaned America's failure in the tragic turn of events in Afghanistan in a new opinion piece for The Economist, arguing that at some point in its 20-year campaign, the U.S. military lost strategic focus.

He identified unattainable goals as the fundamental cause of the collapse. "The United States has torn itself apart in its counterinsurgent efforts because of its inability to define attainable goals and to link them in a way that is sustainable by the American political process," Kissinger wrote. "The military objectives have been too absolute and unattainable and the political ones too abstract and elusive. The failure to link them to each other has involved America in conflicts without definable terminal points and caused us internally to dissolve unified purpose in a swamp of domestic controversies."