Pakistani General Hamid Gul explains that the US war in Afghanistan was doomed from the start. As a military professional with a distinguished career, he identifies the key factors that determine success or failure in war, and shows that the US is failing in almost every area, including long and insecure lines of communication, an insurmountable intelligence failure due to the almost total lack of reliable human intelligence, the serious underestimation of the Taliban’s strength, use of corrupt elements in key operations, repeated changing of objectives, ineffectiveness of firepower, and the total inability to overcome the key advantages the Taliban hold in manpower, control of the countryside and time.