US media exposed the truth of the war in Afghanistan.
"Everyone knows that the United States is failing in Afghanistan, but everyone insists that the United States will win." Successive US leaders and almost all senior officials have been concealing the truth of the war from the people during the 18 year war in Afghanistan. After it was exposed by the media, the Atlantic Monthly website expressed such feelings. On the 9th local time, the Washington Post published a long report entitled "the truth about the war", saying that the 2000 page government confidential documents it obtained showed that the U.S. government had lied to mislead the public for a long time on the war in Afghanistan and concealed the fact that the war was "unable to win".
The war in Afghanistan has lasted for 18 years and is the longest war in American history. The war killed more than 2300 U.S. troops and injured more than 20000 U.S. soldiers. It directly cost about $1 trillion, of which $133 billion was used for the 'reconstruction' of Afghanistan, even exceeding the cost of the 'Marshall Plan' for the reconstruction of Europe (at comparable prices). The focus of heated debate in the American media is that all this has not brought much benefit to the United States. Bill middot, an American social and political activist; Fan & middot; Okun wrote on the Internet that the whole Afghan war is' war crime and disaster based on lies'.
'the American people have always been deceived '
Agence France Presse said that the Washington Post exclusively published a number of government secret documents on the 9th. These documents' completely contradict the chorus of long-standing public statements by the president, military commanders and diplomats of the United States. These people reassure the American people year after year that they are making progress in Afghanistan and claim that this is a war worth fighting '. However, these documents clearly show that' when the U.S. government and officials issue optimistic statements, they clearly know, All this is false, and they hide evidence that it is impossible to win the war '.
These documents were written under the auspices of the 'office of the special inspector general for the reconstruction of Afghanistan' of the United States Congress. The title of the document is' lessons to be learned '. The US' political 'news network said that the project cost US $11 million to examine why the US Afghanistan policy failed, so that' the next time the United States invades a country or tries to rebuild a broken country, it will not repeat the mistakes'. These documents, which are 2000 pages long, are mainly the conversation records of personnel related to the Afghan war, including senior U.S. military officials, diplomats, aid workers, Afghan officials and other personnel who played a direct role in the Afghan war. The Washington Post was able to make these documents public after a three-year lawsuit in the name of the us freedom of Information Act.
According to the Washington Post, a number of respondents said that it is common to create the illusion that the United States is winning the war by tampering with data at the White House or the U.S. military command in Kabul. Colonel Crowley, who served as a senior adviser to the U.S. commander in Afghanistan in 2013, said: "every data has been changed to present the best possible side." "The American people have always been deceived," said sopko, the special inspector general for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, who is responsible for the investigation.
It is reported that several officials acknowledged in the interview that the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan has "fatal defects". U.S. three star general Rupert, who was in charge of the war in Afghanistan under the Bush and Obama administrations, attributed the failure of the war to the "collapse of the bureaucracy" in Washington, saying that the cause of the problem was the lack of "basic understanding" of Afghanistan by the United States. "We don't have a basic understanding of Afghanistan - we have no idea what we're doing," he said
The United States spends $2 trillion,
Who are the beneficiaries
For the report of the Washington Post, the Pentagon issued a statement on the 9th saying that it "has no intention" to mislead Congress and the public. Defense Department officials "have been unremitting in informing local progress and challenges". The Department of defense also regularly submits reports to Congress to emphasize these challenges. Pentagon spokesman Campbell said: 'most of the respondents' comments are based on & lsquo; Hindsight & rsquo; In other words, although these comments can also make us think about previous policies and revise our strategy. "
U.S. Democratic lawmakers took this opportunity to criticize the opponent republican government, although the last democratic Obama administration has also maintained the war in Afghanistan. Democratic congressman Ted tweeted: "the war in Afghanistan is an epic defeat of both parties in the United States. I've been calling for the withdrawal of American troops from that quagmire. Now it seems that the government has obviously deceived the public in this war. It's time to leave Afghanistan. Leave now. "
The most distressing thing for the American media is that the United States has spent a lot on Afghanistan, a "failed country", but there is no gain. According to the American aviox website, the war cost plan of Brown University estimates that the Pentagon and USAID spent $934 billion to $978 billion in Afghanistan, of which $133 billion was used for Afghanistan's' reconstruction ', which exceeded the original cost of the' Marshall Plan 'for the reconstruction of Europe. In addition, the CIA and the Department of Veterans Affairs spend more money.
"The United States spent $2 trillion in Afghanistan and what benefits did it get?" The New York Times said that in addition to the direct costs of the war, in order to pay the war expenses, the United States has borrowed a lot. By 2023, the United States will pay more than $600 billion in interest on these loans. In addition, the United States has paid more than $170 billion for medical and disability care for war veterans in Afghanistan, and another $1.4 trillion will be spent in the next 40 years.
The New York Times blames the "corruption, incompetence and backwardness" of the Afghan government and people for such huge U.S. spending. Retired U.S. Colonel Brenda said that Afghanistan "is full of thieves in the whole government. The focus of the Afghan government's rule is not to establish good governance, but to maintain this kind of thief rule". Of the more than 130 billion dollars spent by the United States on Afghanistan's "Reconstruction", 87 billion dollars are used to train Afghan security forces and police. However, the US military said that half of these Afghan military police were 'drug addicts or Taliban'. The report quoted a former State Department official as saying that the United States wants to use itself as a template to build a new democratic Afghanistan, but in Afghanistan based on tribalism and Islamic Sharia law, 'this can't be done at all' and 'a strong Afghan regime can only be established in 100 years'.
On these statements of the American media, American netizen Klinger said on the social networking website: "there is a reason for the United States to enter and stay in Afghanistan - this is the oil wealth of the whole Central Asia and occupy this important geographical position." Netizen Eric said: 'these wars are to create chaos, gain a foothold in the region and grab resources and profits.' Another netizen said: "the powerful class in the United States has got what they want from the war. The war in Afghanistan has brought huge profits to defense contractors and American companies."
'This & middot; Bin Laden may laugh in the grave '
The website of the Atlantic Monthly said that the Washington Post called these secret documents' Afghan documents', which was compared with the 'Pentagon documents' of that year. It is reported that the "Pentagon document" shocked the whole United States and decisively reversed the wave of public opinion in the Vietnam War. Now, 'what's shocking is that the report of the Washington Post is not shocking at all'. Long term polls show that most Americans believe that the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting and is losing. However, the collective response of Americans to the government's lies is only a shrug. The report also said that such a political and social environment was not created by current president trump. But trump did benefit and worsen it.
American social and political activist Okun wrote online on the 10th that the so-called spending in the United States mainly flows into the pockets of corrupt politicians and contractors, and the Afghan people neither need nor want these funds. Reported that now in Afghanistan, only the massacre is escalating. According to United Nations statistics, 3804 Afghan civilians were killed in the war last year. Us air strikes killed 579 civilians in the first 10 months of this year.
'This & middot; Osama bin Laden may laugh in his grave ". German television said on the 10th that trump assured us military officers and soldiers during his surprise visit to Afghanistan not long ago:" no one in the world can defeat the great military power of the United States ". But the reality in Afghanistan looks different from what he said. It is reported that trump finally wants to turn back, but the United States has to give up another original goal: defeating the Taliban. " What did we get with our $1 trillion effort? " "Considering how much money we spent in Afghanistan, Ben & middot; Bin Laden may laugh in his grave. " Source: Global Times