While Democratic presidential and congressional candidates carp about the rich not paying enough, they’re sitting on top of a scandal of almost unimaginable proportions. It involves 18 years of war, almost a million deployed troops, 2,400 lives lost, 20,000 injured soldiers, and a trillion wasted dollars – all in the name of what they knew was an unwinnable war. Most of the people who are demanding more of you in taxes voted repeatedly to fund this mess. I’m speaking, of course, of the war in Afghanistan.
New documents, acquired by the Washington Post, paint a picture of an impotent government that was unable, or unwilling, to do the job it set out to do. Instead of admitting that simple truth, it opted to lie to the American people, issuing confident reports that painted a portrait of success that hid a reality of backbiting, infighting, bureaucracy and failure.-- excerpt, rest at link above --
Well, it will certainly be interesting to look into at some point.... as long as the documents weren't created by WaPo, but rather just obtained by them....
U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army base in Logar Province, Afghanistan, August 7, 2018. (Omar Sobhani / Reuters)
Newly revealed government documents show that senior U.S. officials painted an overly optimistic picture of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan that some officials said amounts to lying to the American public.
The more than 2,000 pages from a federal investigation examining what went wrong during the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan, the longest armed conflict in American history, contain candid observations from more 400 people close to the conflict expressing frustrations and doubts about the U.S. role in the region. The Washington Post obtained the documents following a three-year Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
“The American people have constantly been lied to,” said John Sopko, head of the agency conducting oversight on Afghanistan reconstruction, which conducted the interviews....
“Who will say this was in vain?” Lute wondered. “We didn’t have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking.”-- excerpt, rest at link above --
Some old guy once said something about being wary of the Military Industrial Complex. Apparently that Plutocrat eff up Bush II didn't get the memo on that.
QuoteMore than 775,000 U.S. troops have been sent to Afghanistan since 2001, resulting in 2,300 deaths and and 20,589 soldiers wounded in action, according to the Defense Department.