The US military plainly failed in Afghanistan. The generals need to answer for it.

ANDREW J. BACEVICH

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The US military hasn't been defeated in Afghanistan, but it was nowhere near to accomplishing its mission.

As US forces leave Afghanistan, the generals who led them need to explain how the war reached such a dismal end.

Andrew J. Bacevich is the president of the Quincy Institute.

David Petraeus - remember him? - recently confided to a nationwide television audience that prospects in Afghanistan are looking grim.

"The situation on the ground," the retired general told CNN's Fareed Zakaria, "has become increasingly dire with each passing week."

Mustering all the authority of a former soldier once ranked alongside such immortals as Grant and Sherman, Petraeus went even further.

"I fear we will look back and regret the decision to withdraw," he said. "Sadly, we may regret that sooner than I had originally thought."

"Regrets? I've Had a Few." The lyric is from "My Way," the song that became a Sinatra trademark. America's war in Afghanistan, along with its companion in Iraq, does indeed offer plentiful cause for regret.

But rather than an anticipatory lament for what fate may befall Afghans in the weeks or months just ahead, what American citizens need - and American soldiers deserve - is a forthright explanation for how a 20-year-long war undertaken by the strongest military on the planet appears headed for such a dismal conclusion.