The Afghanistan Papers: Out Today

        Don't miss this opportunity to read about all the good things going on in Afghanistan, a country where the residents enjoy living in the Dark Ages.
        So, the Washington Post published what they call "The Afghanistan Papers", unpublished documents chronicling the US involvement in the war in Afghanistan that has continued without interruption since October 2001.  The papers are the result of a research effort by the Office of the Inspector General to examine our collective efforts to bring peace to the nation of Afghanistan, a turbulent state of the 3rd world as defined by legitimate observers.
       The basis of the research includes interviews with over 400 participants, including generals, statesmen/women, soldiers, Marines, A.I.D. personnel, Afghans, and various representatives from N.A.T.O. forces who work alongside US ground forces.   Most of those interviewed have had their names redacted from the reports/interviews to protect them from retaliation.  The Post has gone to Federal Court seeking the release of the identities of these individuals.   A decision should be handed down in months.
      Comparisons to the Pentagon Papers of the Vietnam War are easily made.  The Vietnam papers were a research project asked for by then Sec. of Defense Robert S. McNamara, who sought a definitive appraisal of efforts made in that country before he arrived in Washington, D.C. from Ford Motor Co. where he was CEO.   He had the result classified as Top Secret, limiting the exposure of the report  to but a few bureaucrats and White House policy makers.   Daniel Ellsberg was the Rand Corp. researcher who smuggled those documents that eventually found their way to the New York Times.   Despite Pres. Richard Nixon's attempts to prevent publication, he was over ruled by the Supreme Court.
     In this case, since the report was not originally classified, those attendant problems will not suppress this report.   From a cursory first read, it appears the situation in Afghanistan is not good, was never good, and never will be good despite the US spending almost a $trillion dollars of taxpayer money to do something to change the situation.   What did the taxpayer gain there?  Apparently, nothing, nothing at all.
     How long will taxpayers tolerate the lying by the leadership?  Not much longer.