{"id":34286,"date":"2019-12-10T07:55:09","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T15:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=34286"},"modified":"2019-12-10T07:55:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T15:55:09","slug":"the-afghanistan-pentagon-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/10\/the-afghanistan-pentagon-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Afghanistan Pentagon Papers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The war in Afghanistan, America\u2019s longest, has cost about 2,300 US lives, over 20,000 wounded, and about $1 trillion. Now, thanks to the persistence of the Washington Post<\/i><\/a>, we have an abundance of interviews which, like the Pentagon Papers, reveal the enormous wastefulness, ignorance, and deceit that make Afghanistan, like Vietnam, a chapter in the history of failed US interventions.<\/p>\n

In my October 2015 blog, \u201cTruth and Consequences,\u201d I cited a report at the time that Richard Nixon had complained to Henry Kissinger about the US failure to win the Vietnam War given all the firepower at its disposal. But that\u2019s not what Nixon said publicly. I concluded: \u201cWe are now witness in Afghanistan to the same scenario: public lies, private doubts.\u201d I also identified some of the problems with the US war effort in Afghanistan that the Post<\/i> documents now reveal \u2013 problems that should have led Obama to deliver on his promise to withdraw US troops. Instead, he continued the failed effort and passed Afghanistan on to Trump. Both presidents had plenty of bipartisan support from people who, as in Vietnam, use \u201cresolve\u201d and \u201ccommitment\u201d to justify the sacrifice of blood and treasure in a country they barely know. \u201cAfghanistan is blessed with a substantial number of lobbyists who seem incapable of thinking beyond war,\u201d I concluded in my blog.<\/p>\n

Vietnam Syndrome<\/b><\/p>\n

Decision making on Afghanistan, the interviews tell us, parallels that in Vietnam in several specific ways. Here are some symptoms of this seemingly chronic illness drawn from the Post<\/i> interviews:<\/p>\n

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