Afghan Taliban Surprised to Hear Petraeus Claims of ‘Progress’

Amid Record Violence, Taliban Says Claims Are 'Baffling'

The latest claims that the Afghan war is going really well and that the Taliban are on the run have come as a surprise to many, but perhaps none moreso than the Taliban themselves, who called Gen. Petraeus’ claims “baffling.”

Gen. Petraeus and Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave a series of interviews this weekend claiming that the war had turned the corner, and Vice President Joe Biden claimed that it had gone “as planned.”

But while the number of reported civilian killings by NATO troops seem to be on the rise, the record Taliban violence is also continuing apace, and there seems to be no indication that it is slowing down.

Flat out lies about the Afghan War are nothing new, and false claims of progress were among the most noteworthy aspects of the WikiLeaks documents, which showed that the military didn’t believe the war was going as well as they were telling Congress. But with the war becoming more and more unpopular by the minute it seems the urge to claim that the corner has been turned is still greater than the prospect of embarrassing revelations that those claims are nonsense.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.