{"id":188368,"date":"2019-05-15T06:11:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T06:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=188368"},"modified":"2019-05-18T06:01:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T06:01:16","slug":"classifying-defeat-hiding-data-on-the-losing-afghan-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=188368","title":{"rendered":"Classifying Defeat: Hiding Data on the Losing Afghan War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danny Sjursen \u2013 Checkpoint Asia May 9, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The longest war in U.S. history has cost 2400 American lives and nearly a trillion dollars. Still, the government in Washington conceals the truth and most of the populace yawns.<\/strong>\u00a0By now there should be no doubt that America has lost the battle for Afghanistan, placing it in good company with the British and Soviet empires that failed to conquer that famously xenophobic country.\u00a0I just wish the Trump administration \u2013 as self-touting \u201ctruth-tellers\u201d \u2013 would admit it. Seriously, a public acceptance of defeat would be strangely refreshing.<\/strong>\u00a0But don\u2019t count on it!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u201cAlmost every indicia, metric for success or failure is now classified or nonexistent\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Trump and company have a better idea. They\u2019ll just stop telling the American people\u00a0<\/strong>anything<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0about how this perpetual war is going.<\/strong>\u00a0Seriously, the powers that be have taken just about all the relevant, measurable data on the war and either\u00a0stopped tracking it<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>or\u00a0deemed it classified<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. How\u2019s that for some Orwellian political spin?<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing is, I kind of get it. The news out of Afghanistan is so awful, and \u201cprogress\u201d so fitful, that I wouldn\u2019t want to report it either.<\/strong>\u00a0Too bad these are life and death matters and that in an (ostensible) republic the people are owed the truth about the wars fought in their name. Call me old fashioned but I still value facts and transparency.<\/span><\/p>\n

So let us consider what exactly they are hiding from us. It began with last year\u2019s\u00a0announcement<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) \u2013 the congressionally mandated watchdog on all aspects of this war \u2013\u00a0would no longer report Afghan Security Force (ASF) casualty data. It\u2019s now classified. I wonder why.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Could it be that the US trained and equipped (to the tune of some $70 billion) Afghan military is suffering\u00a0unsustainable<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>casualties, is losing troops faster than it can recruit?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe its because Washington finds it inconvenient to admit that the ASF is\u00a0nowhere near<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0its target personnel strength, that desertions and absence without leave are rampant in the ranks, and that the Afghan GDP is insufficient to pay for its own security forces.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all,\u00a0every president from Bush to Obama to Trump has told us that advising the ASF is America\u2019s number one priority and the key to a successful exit.<\/strong>\u00a0Given that, one would think it rather important to face the truth about the utterly insufficient Afghan military and police force. Instead it\u2019s classified.\u00a0You\u2019re no longer allowed to know that discomfiting truth.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Then, last week, we were told that the US military\u00a0will\u00a0no longer track<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>district-level insurgent or government control or influence. In other words,\u00a0data on what percentage of the country is controlled by the Afghan government versus the Taliban.<\/strong>\u00a0Sounds like vital info, no? Apparently, according to the US command in Afghanistan, that district data \u201cwas of limited decision-making value to the Commander.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s news to me! Even as a company commander, a lowly captain, I tracked and reported data on the relative security and stability of even individual villages in my sector. It\u2019s how we knew if we were making progress or not!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So why would the Trump administration\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0decide to hide, or just stop tracking, this pivotal information? Could it be that the Taliban has been progressively gaining ground and now\u00a0control or contest<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0more of the country \u2013 about 50 percent \u2013 than at any time in this 18-year-old war?\u00a0Surely it\u2019d be rather inconvenient to admit that the U.S.-backed regime in Kabul is losing control of half the country. The solution: stop keeping track altogether.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Seriously, rather than assess the data and decide either 1) that the situation on the ground demands a new strategy or more American investment; or 2) that the war is unwinnable and it was always an absurd pipe dream to think we could forge a Jeffersonian Democracy in remote Central Asia, and thus cut our losses and withdraw. Now, I\u2019m a strong proponent of option two and have\u00a0said so<\/a>\u00a0time and again. Still, at least option one would grapple with reality rather than ignore it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Look, SIGAR is a government-sanctioned watchdog agency, not a touchy-feely human rights nonprofit. These aren\u2019t hippie peaceniks, not by a long shot. Perhaps we should listen to what they have to say, because, well, it is really disturbing. Last week, John Sopko, the inspector general himself, asserted that \u201cAlmost every indicia, metric for success or failure is now classified or nonexistent\u2026<\/strong>Over time, it\u2019s been classified or it\u2019s no longer being collected \u2026 The classification in some areas is needless.\u201d Translation: we are losing the war and hiding that fact from the people! That\u2019s a big deal, America!<\/span><\/p>\n

There are other indicators that this war has run off the rails, and one suspects this data will also soon be classified or \u201cno longer tracked.\u201d For example, the fact that 2018 was the first year in which U.S. and allied Afghan forces\u00a0killed more civilians<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0than the Taliban. So much for winning hearts and minds.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems Washington has taught Kabul to fight in its own image, confident \u2013 despite all the historical\u00a0evidence<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the contrary \u2013 that it can bomb its way to victory. Too bad killing innocent civilians is a sure way to alienate the populace and feed an insurgency. If you didn\u2019t know any better, you might think Washington is\u00a0trying<\/em>\u00a0to prolong the war indefinitely.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember that the owners of this country \u2013 the real owners in the corporate military-industrial complex \u2013 count on your apathy.<\/strong>\u00a0They count on a distracted populace. They count on you not caring so they can perpetuate ill-advised, counterproductive (but quite profitable) wars indefinitely. We\u2019re through the looking glass, folks \u2013 sleepwalking to defeat on the inertia of uniquely American forever war. If we\u2019re not careful we might lose our republic along with the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I say lets demand better for once. That we demand transparency and the truth about the war in Afghanistan. That we demand to know what is done in our name and what thousands have sacrificed their lives for. That would mean millions of calls to our congressmen, marching in the streets, shutting down the system if necessary. I can see it, almost like a dream \u2013 a sea of Americans saying no to a losing war, no to the plunder of our treasury, no to gradual roll back of our civil liberties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only then I wake up from my daydream, gaze around the airport, and\u2026everyone is too busy on their iPhones to care. And\u00a0that\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0the real America. So the war must go on\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Danny Sjursen served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Afghan War is lost. America just won\u2019t openly admit it. So Americans will continue to die until Washington learns to swallow its pride and withdraw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Afghanistan","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188372,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188368\/revisions\/188372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}