FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 9, 2019
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, a report from The Washington Post documented statements from U.S. officials who consistently and knowingly misled the public about the progress of the war in Afghanistan. Defense Priorities Senior Fellow Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, USA, Ret. issued the following statement in response:
“The U.S. went to war in Afghanistan to decimate Al-Qaeda and punish the Taliban for harboring those terrorists. That mission was accomplished shortly after the 2001 invasion. The subsequent nation building effort has been an ongoing failure, and today’s Washington Post report confirms top civilian and military leaders have long known it.
“In 2012, following my second deployment to Afghanistan, I shared an unclassified report on the true state of the war there so the public would know the truth. I did so because even back then U.S. officials were deceiving the public about the failures of our nation building efforts.
“The reality is the U.S. long ago achieved its security aims that justified the war there. Rather than accept victory and come up, the mission shifted to Afghan security and governance. Today, the war is drifting aimlessly with no clearly-identified, achievable military objective. No more U.S. lives or dollars should be sacrificed there for a mission that is not necessary and cannot succeed.
“This new report should compel the U.S. government to acknowledge reality and abandon its murky, impossible aims in Afghanistan. The wisest course of action is to end this endless war and bring all U.S. soldiers home.”
Defense Priorities report: Exiting Afghanistan
Defense Priorities explainer: U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan—with or without an agreement