In what’s already being hailed as a defining and explosive “Pentagon papers” moment, a cache of previously classified documents obtained by The Washington Post show top Pentagon leaders continuously lied to the public about the “progress” of the now eighteen-year long Afghan war.
The some 2,000 pages of notes from interviews of senior officials who have shaped US strategy in Afghanistan confirm that “senior US officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false… hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable,” according to the bombshell Post report.
The internal interviews and statements were unearthed via Freedom of Information Act request and span the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. The trove further confirms that US leaders knew vast amounts of money was being wasted in a futile attempt to “Westernize the nation”.
Watchdog groups commonly estimate total US spending on the war has hit $1 trillion by end of 2019. More importantly, America’s ‘endless war’ has cost at least 2,351 American lives and over 20,000 wounded.
The internal Pentagon project conducted by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) had sought to get as honest assessment as possible as to the status of America’s longest running quagmire panning multiple administrations. It was to be a classified “Lessons Learned” assessment of sorts to prevent future missteps.
“What did we get for this $1tn effort? Was it worth $1 trillion?” one retired Navy SEAL who had advised the Bush and Obama administrations observed in one of the documents. “After the killing of Osama bin Laden, I said that Osama was probably laughing in his watery grave considering how much we have spent on Afghanistan.”
Here's more undeniable evidence that you were lied to about the war in Afghanistan, for anyone who needed more undeniable evidence that you were lied to about the war in Afghanistan.https://t.co/3AVYnBNKch
— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) December 9, 2019
Another top official, former White House Afghan war czar Douglas Lute under Bush and Obama, confessed, “We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan – we didn’t know what we were doing.” He added that “we didn’t have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking” after the 2001 invasion.
“If the American people knew the magnitude of this dysfunction … 2,400 lives lost,” he added.
Two major consistent themes from the documents are—
- the manipulation on a mass scale of statistics fed to the public in order to hide the true disastrous nature of the war; and…
- US leaders “turning a blind eye” to large scale theft of US tax payer dollars by corrupt Afghan officials.
US aid was looted “with impunity” according to the released documents, and provide undeniable evidence that top defense officials knew years of rosy public statements were a mountain of lies.
Almost hard to get infuriated about the blatant spinning by government agencies anymore. The effort to cover up the failures of US foreign policy whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria or Yemen has worn us down. Hard to remember what honesty is. https://t.co/PFDiAmwveQ
— Joshua Landis (@joshua_landis) December 9, 2019
“Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible,” Bob Crowley, an Army colonel and senior counterinsurgency adviser to U.S. military commanders testified.
Over 400 people close to the decision-making process were interviewed as part of the internal DoD investigation; however among those 366 names were redacted, given that as more damning testimony was given, the Inspector General deemed they should be treated as ‘whistleblowers’ and informants.
But for all the hand-wringing and outrage Monday’s WaPo bombshell will unleash this week, it must be remembered that the establishment in both parties have consistently pushed to stay at war, not to mention going to war in the first place.
As independent journalist David Mizner observes of the new ‘Afghan Papers’ it remains that “US politicians lie to stay at war, every time. The real crime was going to war in the first place — and almost no US politicians, pundits, and or journos with large platforms opposed the war.”
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And, this is supposed to surprise us!!!!
What will be surprising will be if anyone in the MSM actually gives this report more than 2 seconds of coverage (actually 2 seconds would be shocking).
Shocked. Shocked I Tell You. Shocked.
I’m sure Trump is being made aware of this and will pull the troops out of Afghanistan pronto!
Nah – he’s a pinhead, owned by the deep state and will not only not pull the plug on the ME, but will add more cannon fodder to the quagmire to get reelected. Just another scumbag.
Keep voting people. Every election so far has yielded nothing but more of the same. Everyone that votes in a Federal election is a certified moron.
your so negative.
SAO….speaking of learning nothing from experience….you are just retreading the trite old BS….OK…you are 100% correct…..now what?
Give us the Obvious Solutions you seem reluctant to share….
Kill the Fed Gov. All states get together and cancel the contract that created the Fed Gov.
This will happen, but in a round about way. The Fed Gov will fail when the US Dollar goes to toilet paper, which isn’t that far off.
Then violence for a period of time.
Then the states tell the Fed Gov to FO and we get new countries.
Then experiments start to see which new country has the best ideas and people vote with their feet to go where they feel they have the best opportunity. The elimination of the monopoly Fed Gov allows for lots of trial and error and in short order, winners and losers will surface.
This will take some time, probably 2 or more years but the empire will expire.
Now, if the morons in the military want to keep the empire alive, then this could take 10 years or more. My crystal ball is a bit foggy that far out. My guess is that the military starts a dictatorship take over but it won’t last. Lots of dead people in the interim.
Now, lets hear some word of wisdom from you. Don’t be shy, tell us all how you see things playing out.
Basically, I agree.
But there are 194 wildcards to consider.
Let’s not even get into the facts that the Afghan government had NOTHING to do with 9-11, that all the Taliban was looking for was some EVIDENCE of Osama bin Laden’s involvement (which was NEVER provided – nor was 9-11 EVER mentioned on his FBI most wanted listing even up till the supposed day of his death) in order to turn him over, or that the CIA has been in control of the poppy fields and the lucrative heroin distribution pipeline out of Afghanistan since the invasion…..and so much more.
They would have to had rolled up Saudi Arabia to punish those responsible.
I would have nuked the top 10 Islamic capitals, Mecca, Medina and Qom by 10AM that morning….good thing I am not in charge because even that would have missed the highest level perps in DC, NYC etc
The Afghan war was predicated on the official story of 9/11, which itself was all lies, not that the MSM will breathe a word of this.
Just more proof upon the mountains of proof pointing to the absolute conclusion that the US government is a criminal organization . What now?
people asked all these same questions in the late 60’s and early 70’s about the Vietnam war.
I think they made a black granite memorial in DC, for their effort.
First they came for the towers, and I did nothing.
then they came for the pentagon, and I did nothing.
then they came for a field in PA, and all I could do is wonder,
what the fuck happened to this country?
Do they really think we are that stupid?
yes, yes they do.
The majority is that stupid as evidenced by these people still being in power.
You’ve got to be kidding me! Didn’t know what they were doing???? Don’t these knuckleheads read ANY history? Just ask the empires of the last 500 years and the Soviet Union. They can tell you want it was like trying to subdue Afghanistan. None of them could.
This also just in: the sun rises from the east.
Followed by Norah O’Donnell. CBS
Ford announces Active Duty Military Super Discount, just in time for Christmas. Now get that special $20,000 off the all new 2020 F-150, and let your dependents “ride in style” while you are deplored protecting the world’s best opium poppy growers, can you say American Strong.
The US is in Afghanistan for one reason, and that is to protect opium poppy production.
The Taliban wiped out the poppy fields in Afghanistan, and with them a good portion of the CIA’s drug dealing income. The CIA depends on illegal drug dealing to finance their many off budget wars and clandestine operations.
The CIA is the biggest drug cartel in the world. If it were not for the Poppies and the heroin produced from them, the US military would have no interest in Afghanistan whatsoever…
Many conservative s’ that worship the military will just let this go in one ear and out the other. I guess I’m beating a dead horse to get military people to realize they have been abused as pawns; fighting the wrong enemies for a hundred + years.
I said it a long time ago. The only way to “win” in Afghanistan is to leave and make the whole country radioactive.
What has anyone from Afghanistan ever done to you?
Why would this news story drop concurrently with the Inspector General report regarding Midyear Exam?
Afghanistan has swallowed the Romans/British/Russians/and now the U.S.
As on person there said,”We have all the watches/but the country has all the time in the world.