'The Afghanistan Papers' or RON PAUL WAS RIGHT!

[tfurrh]

There is usually some good in all but the worst cultures and there are definitely worse cultures than Mexican culture, but there are definitely better cultures.

Anywhere north of Tennessee

[Swordsmyth]

Anywhere north of Tennessee

Yankees are pretty bad.

[susano]

The interviews are the byproduct of a project led by Sopko’s agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Known as SIGAR, the agency was created by Congress in 2008 to investigate waste and fraud in the war zone.

That's nice.

[susano]

Anywhere north of Tennessee

It's pretty nice up here in the Great Lakes! Damn cold, though, so there's that.

[Anti Globalist]

Afghanistan.

Where empires go to die.

Look no further than the Soviet Union when it comes to that.

[Warlord]

Look no further than the Soviet Union when it comes to that.

Don't forget the British Empire before then.

[Valli6]

Michael Flynn was one of the persons interviewed.
No wonder the deep state went after him!
From the first paragraph of Flynn's interview:

Never mind not accompllshing our mission, but the severity of corruption in our own system, I think is just unbelievable. The waste that I saw is unbelievable...

...There is a machinery that is behind what we do, and it keeps us participating in the conflict because It generates wealth all around and on both sides...there are more than two sides.

Michael Flynn, Lessons Learned interview from 11/10/2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...el_ll_11102015

Scroll to the bottom of the article to see other interviews. There are 611 different interviews.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...ents-database/ I noticed Petraus, Richard Haas...
--------
ALSO:
Rand Paul is calling for hearings.
He was on Martha McCallum’s show (Fox), Monday evening 12/9/19, but I can't find video.

AND:
Ron Paul & Daniel McAdams discussed this today on The Liberty Report. They read off some quotes from interviews, including Michael Flynn, and noted the "Inter-agency" concept - which had been brought up repeatedly by democrats impeachment witnesses during the hearing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OYD7ovu1xQ

(I had actually posted about this article yesterday) http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post6894637)

[Valli6]

Let the hearings begin.

Kentucky politicians call for debate on US role in war after 'Afghanistan Papers' report
Billy Kobin, Louisville Courier Journal - Published 11:30 a.m. ET Dec. 10, 2019 | Updated 2:04 p.m. ET Dec. 10, 2019

After the Washington Post published Monday its "Afghanistan Papers" report detailing how U.S. officials misled the public about the nation's longest-running conflict, multiple members of Kentucky's delegation on Capitol Hill demanded an end to American involvement in the Afghanistan war.

Sen Rand Paul, a Republican who has tended to take anti-war positions while in Washington, called on Congress to hold a "full, open debate on whether or not we should still be at war."

Paul made his remarks Monday in a Fox News appearance on "The Story with Martha MacCallum" after the Washington Post published more than 2,000 pages of interview notes on the war that the newspaper obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The interviews, conducted by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), showed how many top U.S. officials held sharply negative views of America's entry into Afghanistan and had little optimism for the war's prospects for success.

That pessimistic sentiment regarding the Afghanistan invasion was kept largely hidden from American citizens who were instead led to believe the war had a rosier outlook, according to the Washington Post's investigation.

John Sopko, who heads the federal office which conducted the interviews starting in 2014, told the Post that "the American people have constantly been lied to" since U.S. troops first arrived in Afghanistan 18 years ago.

The interviews reveal that officials noticed fatal flaws in virtually every aspect of America's approach to Afghanistan, from the initial invasion in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks to the failure to tackle widespread corruption that flourished as U.S. money flowed in to the country.

According to the Post, more than 600 people were interviewed for the project, including U.S. generals, diplomats and Afghan officials.

The newspaper obtained notes and transcripts from 428 of them.

"I think our young men and women that we send to war, our best and our brightest, they deserve better," Paul said Monday. "They deserve an open airing of what is the mission. I've been saying for several years now that I can't meet a general anywhere who can tell me really what is the mission we're trying to accomplish in Afghanistan."

Paul added that he was initially "for that war to punish those who attacked us on 9/11, but this is a far different mission now."

The Pentagon late Monday issued a statement in response to the Washington Post report, saying there had been no intent to deceive Congress or the public.

A Defense Department spokesman said the interviews in the "Lessons Learned" study from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction have been used by the military to revise its strategy and to seek a negotiated settlement to the war.

Still, Paul said the report raises fresh questions about whether America should maintain its overseas entanglements.

The ongoing war in Afghanistan has resulted in the death of roughly 2,500 American troops and more than 100,000 Afghan security forces and civilians.

"I think after 19 years, the government of Afghanistan needs to step up. The people of Afghanistan need to step up," Paul told Martha MacCallum while on Fox News. "And ultimately, I think Islam needs to police Islam. It can't be Americans always doing the job for everyone."

Requests for comment from other members of Kentucky's congressional delegation were sent out Tuesday morning.

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican who represents Kentucky's 4th Congressional District, told The Courier Journal that the Washington Post report "wasn't really that shocking to me" thanks to his good relationship with Sopko, the SIGAR leader who conducted the hundreds of interviews with officials over Afghanistan.

"We should get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible," Massie said. "For me, tomorrow wouldn't be soon enough."

Massie said he's quoted "Sopko's reports in committees and in conversations with the public and on social media" during his seven years in office.

Massie said Sopko told him in person that the Taliban halted its efforts to blow up a hydroelectric dam that the U.S. helped build in Afghanistan after U.S. officials agreed to give the Taliban one-third of the dam's electricity output.

"That should outrage Americans if they're paying the light bill for the Taliban," Massie said.

The congressman added that he forced a vote earlier in his House tenure on an amendment to defund anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan after learning that the U.S. spent $8 billion trying to eradicate opium in the country.

But production of the drug increased after that infusion of American money, Massie said.

Massie also noted that the war in Afghanistan costs the U.S. roughly $50 billion each year, which is the same amount of money the federal government spends through its Highway Trust Fund.

He added that roughly 3,500 U.S. contractors have died during the war in Afghanistan, more than the number of victims in the 9/11 terrorist attacks that prompted the longrunning war.

"More attention needs to be paid to that," Massie said.

But Massie said Sopko shared with him how many metrics used to track spending and casualties and other issues in Afghanistan are either classified or unreported.

"Part of the solution to this embarrassing situation, I guess, is to just report less of it," Massie said.

This story will be updated with more comments from Kentucky's members of Congress

https://www.courier-journal.com/stor...ry/4383476002/

[polomertz]

Ron Paul Was Right

“As the U.S. bumbles from one failed war to another, the desire of each president to "save face" is always there.
President Trump is continuing this tradition.
Yet, "face" is never "saved." The casualties just continue to mount.
That's enough with "saving face." Bring the troops home and *save their lives* instead. Save their families from unnecessary anguish.
That's what "supporting the troops" should really mean.
Keep them alive.
Bring them home.”

-Ron Paul

[Pauls' Revere]

But you knew it all along. It's just to hear THEM admit it.

Other than the American revolution, has there been one war that the US should have engaged in? I say no.

sigh,...your right. And the fact that even this revelation won't change a thing.

[Pauls' Revere]

But you knew it all along. It's just to hear THEM admit it.

Other than the American revolution, has there been one war that the US should have engaged in? I say no.

I did, its also the scope of it all. 18 friggin years and where are we at? The narrative is the same from one party to the next. Everything is just a distraction as this engine chugs along in the background validating these political $#@!s.

[shakey1]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...ial-documents/

confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.

... and yet, here we are.

[enhanced_deficit]

Even if OP report claim is accepted on face value, to be fair to Deep Neocons, following was an exception though:

This Photo of Afghan Women in Miniskirts Helped Convince Trump to Send More Troops



Related


Surprise
Afghanistan in 1970s, before US radicalization intervention

[Aratus]

He was correct. What went down was worse than what we were told. He was right.

[Aratus]

Doctor Ron Paul was correct. Spot on. He had asked the better questions....over the years.

[devil21]

Looks like some interesting stuff in there about how much money was stolen and how the public faces were knowingly lying, but of course things like the CIA's interest in restarting the poppy/heroin trade is glossed over. Since it's from WaPo and being released now, spin and ulterior motives are to be expected but interesting nonetheless.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...MezsDF8fWpXmIg

[jon4liberty]

Why?

Shill. Shekels for a good shill

[TheCount]

Shill. Shekels for a good shill

That's rude of you to say that about @Swordsmyth

[Sammy]

But you knew it all along. It's just to hear THEM admit it.

Other than the American revolution, has there been one war that the US should have engaged in? I say no.

The Mexican-American war.
Barbary Wars
All other wars were dumb.
I even opposed ww2!

[Marenco]

Bad for we the people, but good for those who stand to profit from it...

War is good for business and organized crime: Afghanistan’s multibillion dollar opium trade:

https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/ge...ar-opium-trade