A massive tranche of documents published by the Washington Post on Monday shows that over the 18 years of the war in Afghanistan, officials from three administrations have consistently misled the public about the level of progress, ignored or downplayed the festering problem of corruption, and lacked a clear strategic objective for what is now America’s longest war.
The papers are being released just as the U.S. is restarting talks with the Taliban. Donald Trump, who has expressed a desire to bring the war to an end since he took office, shocked diplomats in September by calling off talks that had been in progress for nearly a year.
The war is nowhere near over—more Afghan civilians were killed last year than in any other year of the war so far—but at least since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, it has often been sidelined by other priorities in terms of both government attention and media coverage.
Article submitted by, dewater.
