Lt. Colonel Daniel L. Davis thinks that our leaders are telling a story with regard to Afghanistan. In his opinion things are really bad there. So bad that he has "submitted a Department of Defense Inspector General complaint against select senior leaders of the Armed Forces for so being so deceptive to the US Congress and American people that the truth is no longer recognizable". He has also written two detailed reports - one classified, the other unclassified - on what he saw and learned in his deployments in Afghanistan. He has been waiting a few weeks to receive permission to publish the unclassified report on his web site.
His article in Armed Forces Journal is an overview of his findings:
- I saw the incredible difficulties any military force would have to pacify even a single area of any of those provinces; I heard many stories of how insurgents controlled virtually every piece of land beyond eyeshot of a U.S. or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base.
- I saw little to no evidence the local governments were able to provide for the basic needs of the people. Some of the Afghan civilians I talked with said the people didn’t want to be connected to a predatory or incapable local government.
- From time to time, I observed Afghan Security forces collude with the insurgency.
- According to the cavalry troopers, the Afghan policemen rarely leave the cover of the checkpoints. In that part of the province, the Taliban literally run free.
- They don’t have a lot of confidence that the leadership two levels up really understands what they’re living here, what the situation really is.
There are reports that Congress will be reviewing Davis' claims today, February 7, 2012.
1 comment:
It's about time someone stood up and told the truth about Afghanistan, other than independent journalists, who've been doing it for years.
Post a Comment