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On Monday, December 9, the Washington Post revealed many interviews of people involved in the war in Afghanistan and the highlighting of the failure of US projects, known to Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
" We lacked the most basic understanding of Afghanistan, we had no idea what we were doing ," Douglas Lute, the US three-star general responsible for overseeing the war in Afghanistan, told the Bureau in 2015. of the Special Inspector General for Reconstruction in that country.
In all, more than 600 actors of the war testified before this American governmental agency, set up in 2008. These explosive interviews were revealed this Monday by the Washington Post under the title " Afghan Papers ". They demonstrate 18 years of American groping in Afghanistan.
But these documents reveal above all how three American presidents, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, promised great things in and for Afghanistan, knowing full well that they did not correspond to reality.
A lack of visibility
Launched in 2001 by George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the mission of American soldiers in Afghanistan continues to change over the years. Should we turn this country into a democracy? Or reshape the balance of regional powers? Who is the enemy? Al Qaeda or the Taliban? And what about the Islamic State group? Is Pakistan a friend country or an opponent? " Successive American governments have never been able to answer these questions, " the Washington Post writes.
Already in September 2003, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complains in an internal memo: " I have no visibility on who the bad guys are ".
The presidents in the confidence
The daily's revelations also point to the failure of US development projects, in which huge sums of money are injected, the failure to reduce rampant corruption, or the building of a competent Afghan army and police force.
The facts are there and three presidents knew. Yet, backed by their military commanders and diplomats, they knowingly distorted statistics to assure Americans, year after year, that they were making progress in Afghanistan and that this war was worth the effort.
US officials misled public about Afghan war, confidential documents reveal https://t.co/3yYjnZwRDn
The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 9, 2019