Watchdog: State Dept. and Pentagon withholding critical information about Afghanistan

[SouthBayDem]

Source: Axios

The U.S. government's Afghanistan watchdog on Friday slammed the State Department and Pentagon for withholding what he said was crucial information about U.S. operations during the 20-year war.

Why it matters: The details "almost certainly would have benefited Congress and the public in assessing whether progress was being made," Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko said at an annual conference for military reporters and editors in Arlington, Virginia.

[...]

He accused the Defense Department of restricting public access to information on Afghan security forces and their operational readiness going back to 2015.

"In essence, nearly all the information you needed to know to determine whether the Afghan security forces were a real fighting force or a house of cards waiting to fall," Sopko said.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/afghanistan-state-defense-taliban-watchdog-61c4f197-cdf9-42f1-a575-553fe951a149.html

[twin_ghost]

1. Oh brother. The Afgahanistan war & incursion is over.

It's is time to close the books and ignore it. It was a stupid idea that America practiced for twenty god damn years.

[quakerboy]

2. Ignore it?

Ignoring what we did there is leaving the republicans free to blame all the resulting issues on Biden, and leaves everyone who benefited from the whole thing free to repeat the playbook in another decade or so.

[orleans]

3. oh sure. let bygones be bygones.

too bad about all those deaths and all that money. let's just move on. no lessons learned. we'll go forward. blindly.

[twin_ghost]

5. Yes, That is the best way to deal with it.

Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan were waste of human lives on both sides. Peace is the only solution.

[orleans]

15. um... i guess what i wrote wasn't clear. it was complete

"peace is the only solution"
and that doesn't happen when you let war pigs get away with this shit and not hold them accountable.

[Sherman A1]

8. I disagree

As a taxpayer I want to know the particulars of where my hard earned money went and who decided what.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

4. The Pentagon hiding the financial waste of yet another failed foreign adventure?

Isn’t that the usual procedure for the near trillion dollar a year war industry?

[Raster]

6. THIS!!!

[Sherman A1]

7. Yup,

It is all about the dollars 💵.

[NCjack]

9. Yeah, and hiding the names of the big looters of the Treasury.

[McKim]

16. Yes, Just Like Vietnam!

Yes, just like Vietnam, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, and Latin America!

[Lonestarblue]

10. The corruption needs to be exposed, much of it by private contractors.

Republicans have pushed to privatize as much of the government as possible so they can enrich people like Erik Prince. One contractor built a single gas station in Afghanistan for $43 million, most it being company “overhead.” It is the money that needs to investigated and how so much of it was wasted, along with either the lack of real intelligence about the willingness of the Afghan army to fight the Taliban or the military leaders’ decision to ignore the evidence.

Our military is hugely bloated, and we need to stop throwing more money at them while they waste it. We could have healthcare for all instead, along with many other programs that benefit the majority of people instead of the stockholders in companies that are part of the military industrial complex. We need to end for-profit prisons as well.

[jimfields33]

11. We need to get our troops out of foreign countries

I find it hard to believe that no one questions why foreign countries have free medical and we don’t. It’s because we are paying the foreign countries military bills. So stupid.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

13. The foreigners thank you for their universal health care and kindergarten, sick leave etc.

[McKim]

17. Thank You, Lonestarblue!

The cash cow of our military must end. We need Health Care, Day Care, Cultural Centers, Free Quality Education cradle to grave and. help for families.

[Midnight Writer]

12. I recall that just before 9-11 Rumsfeld announced that an audit revealed trillions of military $

were unaccounted for.

Then that story disappeared, and our defense budget exploded upwards.

How much have we spent on Star Wars Missile Defense Shield? Does it work yet? Don't hear anything about it anymore, but we sure seem worried that a rogue nation like N Korea may lob a primitive missile at us.

Now we get Space Force. At the same time billionaires are developing their own private space programs. Coincidence?

I've come to believe our sensitive secrets in the name of National Security are largely in place to protect our military contractors.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

14. The sacred cow of military spending needs an overdue visit to the abattoir for a trimming.

Why isn’t vital domestic spending taken from a shank of the fattened military? The cow wouldn’t even notice a missing limb.