Stevenson’s army, April 17

-Why didn’t US win the Afghan war? NYT’s Max Fisher says we pursued a fundamentally conflicted policy – strong central government and no reconciliation with Taliban. Fred Kaplan  says it was unwinnable from the start.
– What about the contractors? Reuters says some will leave.
– Where’s the swagger now? State IG says Pompeo broke the rules.
– Who screwed up on refugee limits? NYT reports Administration disarray and political pushback.  Politico finds critics of HHS head.
– Why did Biden win? Academic study says losing down-ballot candidates boosted turnout in red states.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).