NATO officials have repeatedly insisted over the past several weeks that the situation in Afghanistan is improving markedly, claiming a decrease in attacks and a “long sustained downward trend” over the record violence in 2010.

As usual, NATO’s estimation of the situation on the ground is the exact opposite of what the data shows, as the United Nations issued their latest report on Afghanistan showing a 21 percent increase in “security-related events” nationwide over 2010.

The UN report concluded that there was “considerable political volatility and disconcerting levels of insecurity” in Afghanistan, but NATO shot back that their own studies “count the numbers differently.”

Of course, NATO has been claiming improvements or impending improvements in Afghanistan for years, and over a decade into the occupation there is no end in sight. Likewise despite their repeated claims of having weakened the Taliban, the group never seems to be markedly smaller, or less able to launch attacks.

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