The U.S. military's stats on deadly airstrikes are wrong. Thousands have gone unreported

[bananas]

Last edited Sun Feb 5, 2017, 11:41 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: Military Times

The American military has failed to publicly disclose potentially thousands of lethal airstrikes conducted over several years in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, a Military Times investigation has revealed. The enormous data gap raises serious doubts about transparency in reported progress against the Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban, and calls into question the accuracy of other Defense Department disclosures documenting everything from costs to casualty counts.

In 2016 alone, U.S. combat aircraft conducted at least 456 airstrikes in Afghanistan that were not recorded as part of an open-source database maintained by the U.S. Air Force, information relied on by Congress, American allies, military analysts, academic researchers, the media and independent watchdog groups to assess each war's expense, manpower requirements and human toll. Those airstrikes were carried out by attack helicopters and armed drones operated by the U.S. Army, metrics quietly excluded from otherwise comprehensive monthly summaries, published online for years, detailing American military activity in all three theaters.

Most alarming is the prospect this data has been incomplete since the war on terrorism began in October 2001. If that is the case, it would fundamentally undermine confidence in much of what the Pentagon has disclosed about its prosecution of these wars, prompt critics to call into question whether the military sought to mislead the American public, and cast doubt on the competency with which other vital data collection is being performed and publicized. Those other key metrics include American combat casualties, taxpayer expense and the militarys overall progress in degrading enemy capabilities.

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Read more: http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/airstrikes-unreported-syria-iraq-afghanistan-islamic-state-al-qaeda-taliban

[tenorly]

1. If they can't account for $8.5 trillion, accounting for all that would be far too much to ask.

Presumably these undeclared airstrikes were at least paid for by part of that $8.5 trillion (we can only hope).

[cstanleytech]

5. Oh I think I know where most of that money is, in the varies overseas bank accounts of the 1% in

this country.

[tenorly]

6. I don't doubt it.

I've never been religious; but the Whore of Babylon has to be in there somewhere.

[Equinox Moon]

2. Here is an accurate link to the article:

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/airstrikes-unreported-syria-iraq-afghanistan-islamic-state-al-qaeda-taliban

[bananas]

3. Thanks! Damn "infinite scrolling" changed the url while I was reading the article!

Updated the OP, thanks!

[notdarkyet]

4. Yeah, I was thinking about all that missing money tonight. The

MIC is a money pit and McCain and rump want to put another trillion in. I guess we know now we have been in a nonstop war since 911.