President Chirac, Gen. Petraeus, and my 2002 report on Afghanistan This week the Middle East Institute in Washington published an English edition of the report on Afghanistan that French President Jacques Chirac asked me to complete almost exactly 20 years ago. It appears with a foreword by Gen. David Petraeus, the former head of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. My commission came in the wake of Sept. 11 and the assassination, two days before, of Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. An international coalition led by the United States had just defeated the Taliban and their monstrous regime. In his office at the Elysée Palace, the French president told me of his regret at not having heeded the warning that Massoud…