Posted on 12/09/2019 1:11:48 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Senior U.S. officials knowingly lied to the public about their progress throughout the 18-year war in Afghanistan, consistently painting a rosier picture of the state of the war than they knew to be true, according to a cache of documents obtained by the Washington Post.
In private interviews conducted by a watchdog that span the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations – which the Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request -- U.S. officials frequently acknowledged a lack of understanding, strategy and progress in a war they regularly described publicly as being on the cusp of success.
“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,” retired Navy SEAL Jeffrey Eggers, a White House staffer in the Bush and Obama administrations, said in a private interview.
Interviewees also describe a deliberate disinformation campaign meant to spin discouraging statistics as evidence the U.S. was prevailing in the war.
“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 in 2013 and 2014, said in an interview.
“Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice cream cone,” he added.
In 2015, Ret. Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, who served as a top advisor on the war during the Bush and Obama administrations, told government interviewers, “We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan — we didn’t know what we were doing,” according to the Post.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
“We didn’t know what we were doing”
Kept taking the pay, though.
Nuke the whole country from orbit - its the only way to be sure.
Remember, Afghanistan was the Obama “Good War” and for Obama it was a great war to engineer his goal of the managed decline of America’s military power.
Obama’s policies in Afghanistan did great harm to the United States military and to the national security of the United States.
...during the Obama administration.
100 years ago the British found out how to do it. Pity we will not learn from them
Buy the strongest tribe, supply them with weapons and money and make them keep the peace. Don’t look at how they do it.
Nobody has ever tamed Afghanistan and nobody ever will.
We should never have set foot there.
30 days of B-52 daily missions was all the commitment needed.
Send these traitors to prison
This reminds me of those old Vietnam War “light at the end of the tunnel” reports. And that’s one reason I despise George W. Bush. He had all the lessons of Vietnam right in front of him. And yet he foolishly repeated most of the mistakes that LBJ had made.
And I suppose Afghanistan will end just like Vietnam did. There will be some sort of “peace treaty” to save face. Then in a few months helicopters will be rescuing folks from the US embassy roof.
By the way, I will not blame Obama for the Afghan mess. He is no more at fault than Nixon was for the Vietnam mess.
And the Obama administration lied about their progress and successes. This should be a national story. Obama should be hounded by reporters to explain why he misled the American public.
(Orders FBI to evacuate all Saudis while rest of America grounded; visits D.C. mosque while WTC smouldered to declare Islam 'the religion of peace;' Invades Iraq; bends over for Taliban godfather Musharraf; leaves Pakistan and Saudi Arabia alone)
Hijackers:
Saudis: 16
Iraqis: ZERO
Afghans: ZERO
The US tamed them to a degree when they supplied them with the weapons to beat Russia. Unfortunately, the US was not willing to follow through. Just deserted them afterwards with no support to rebuild/develop or advance into the 20th century
POSTS BUMP!
No, we armed them.
No amount of support will bring them out of the 7th century.
Sigh..
The saddest part is to compare how the greatest generation dealt with their Perl Harbor, versus how we dealt with our own Perl Harbor (9/11).
In the hands of the greatest generation, there would be few areas in the Middle East safe to set foot in for the next 250 years.
And the world would have been better for it.
Simple.
We lost.
this is what happens when you try to win a war by winning “hearts and minds” rather than just annihilating the enemy...
“ No amount of support will bring them out of the 7th century.”
.....
+1
Nor bring democracy.... sorry neocons
Nor change the tribal structure.
Nor stop corruption.
Nor stop the poppy biz.
Shrub sure pulled the wool over our eyes.
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