In Afghan War, Officer Becomes a Whistle-Blower/New York Times

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

I have a feeling this Colonel won't be making general.

We lost. Get out (NOW!). Get over it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/world/asia/army-colonel-challenges-pentagons-afghanistan-claims.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=afghan%20whistle&st=cse

“How many more men must die in support of a mission that is not succeeding?“ Colonel Davis asks in an article summarizing his views titled “Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down.” It was published online Sunday in The Armed Forces Journal, the nation’s oldest independent periodical on military affairs. “No one expects our leaders to always have a successful plan,” he says in the article. “But we do expect — and the men who do the living, fighting and dying deserve — to have our leaders tell us the truth about what’s going on.”

Colonel Davis says his experience has caused him to doubt reports of progress in the war from numerous military leaders, including David H. Petraeus, who commanded the troops in Afghanistan before becoming the director of the Central Intelligence Agency in June.

Last March, for example, Mr. Petraeus, then an Army general, testified before the Senate that the Taliban’s momentum had been “arrested in much of the country” and that progress was “significant,” though fragile, and “on the right azimuth” to allow Afghan forces to take the lead in combat by the end of 2014.

Colonel Davis fiercely disputes such assertions and says few of the troops believe them. At the same time, he is acutely aware of the chasm in stature that separates him from those he is criticizing, and he has no illusions about the impact his public stance may have on his career.

[atreides1]

1. We didn't lose

I don't believe there was ever any real plan to win...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. No to mention the obvious incapability to win.

Al-Queda lost a guy and is growing in power.

We have squandered thousands of lives, over a trillion dollars, and have been weakened.

I'd call that a loss.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. kick

[T S Justly]

4. Thank you, Colonel, for telling the truth ... and thanks for posting this, T_y_L. K&R (nt)