FP Book Club: Peter Bergen's The Longest War

An FP discussion on counterterrorism expert Peter Bergen's latest book. A decade after 9/11, is the war on terrorism a war we can win?

JANUARY 17, 2011

FP's panel of experts and participants in the war on terrorism takes on Peter Bergen's major new book. Looking back on a decade of war between America and al Qaeda -- literally the longest war in America's history -- Bergen offers a damning, step-by-step assessment of how a shadowy, often misinformed enemy managed to pull the world's biggest superpower into a sometimes catastrophic and frequently damaging worldwide combat. So what have we learned from fighting this war? Bergen argues: Not as much as we should have.

• Daniel Byman:OK, So We Don't Like the Old System: But What Now?
• Karen Greenberg: What's the Difference Between Bush and Obama on Fighting Terror?
• Thomas E. Ricks: Why Bergen's GWOT Book Is Better Than Mine Would've Been
• Blake Hall: Did All Those Soldiers Really Need to Die?
• Hugh Pope: Give the Taliban a Bit More Credit
• Peter Bergen: Yes, It Would Matter If We Lost to the Taliban