What I Learned From a Reclusive Taliban Commander

The Taliban commander wore sunglasses and a heavy wool coat, as if he might leave at any moment.Between us, on a plastic-covered table doused in fluorescent light, sat an untouched mountain of lamb and rice.It was our first encounter, in the winter of 2022, and he had chosen a guesthouse on a busy street to meet.

The shouts of merchants and the grind of traffic wafted through an open window as I explained why I had tracked him down.More than a decade earlier, 150 Taliban fighters had laid siege to an American base in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountain range.Nine soldiers died and two dozen were wounded in what became known as the Battle of Want (also referred to as Wanat), one of the deadliest attacks on U.S.

forces in the entire war.This man, Mullah Osman Jawhari, had led that assault.It was a miracle that he was alive, frankly.During the war, midlevel Taliban commanders were regularly killed.

But here he was.For more than 20 years, American journalists had largely covered one half of a war.As a former Afghanistan correspondent and Kabul bureau chief, I had, too.

Much of the country had been off limits.The Taliban perspective was often limited to their propaganda.

And the true story was unknown.I’d read every after-action report about the Battle of Want, every Lesson Learned.But now that the fighting was over, I wondered what we’d missed.

Maybe I could gain some insight into how the war had ended so poorly for the United States (and for many Afghans, most especially women).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....