After a 3 year long legal battle, the Washington Post has won the release of government documents compiled by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, containing more than 2000 pages of unpublished transcripts and notes of 428 interviews concerning the war in Afghanistan. In it, many senior U.S officials and others frequently gave a very pessimistic view of the Coalition war effort, citing massive problems with it such as
- Widespread corruption within the Afghan government at all levels with much of it stemming from the $133 billion dollars given as aid by the U.S for nation building, flooding the country with far more aid than it can handle
- The general incompetence and ineffectiveness of the Afghan police and military
- Trying to impose a strong centralised government on a country that was much more accustomed to tribalism
- The $9 billion dollar effort by the U.S to curb the thriving opium industry, a massive source of income for the Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan being a complete failure
- The war goal for the Coalition becoming less clear as the conflict dragged on
Despite this, the U.S government throughout the 18 year long conflict had consistently spinned and manipulated information to make it seem like the war was a success, for example portraying the Taliban suicide bombings in Kabul as a sign of desperation and that they were too weak to engage in direct combat.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...ial-documents/
Also peace talks between the U.S and Taliban have resumed but have been paused after a major suicide car bomb and gun attack on Bagram Airfield, the largest American military base in Afghanistan, mostly striking a nearby clinic which killed 2 civilians and injured 80 others.
https://www.voanews.com/south-centra...pause-few-days