Pentagon officials are continuing to react dismissively to questions about the Afghanistan Papers, and the revelation that the Pentagon systematically lied about the state of the war. This is leading the experts to conclude that the Pentagon does not intend to change its policies.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper echoed comments from other spokesmen, who say that they weren’t entirely familiar with the stories in the media, but that instead of looking back on their misdeeds, they want to look forward into the future of the war.
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman surprisingly attacked the primary point of the papers, that the Pentagon was misleading the public, and used that to dodge questions about whether the Pentagon would be more honest in the future. He said the reports of dishonesty were just what people “believed at the time.”
In other words, he isn’t promising that the Pentagon won’t keep lying in the exact same manner. The only indication that things might be different is that since the papers came out,the Pentagon has been refusing to provide any details at all, which seems to be one way to prevent them from lying to the public for the time being.
Analysts say they don’t believe the Pentagon sees any upside to addressing the complaints, and so they are just ignoring it, and pointing out that most people keeping track of the Afghan War knew about this dishonesty long ago.
18+ years into the Afghan War, the Pentagon has largely claimed things are going well, and that they are just about to turn the corner. The Afghanistan Papers show that officials knew this was never the case, but kept telling the public it was anyhow.
Add congressional crickets, and you get “business” as usual. Maybe in ten years the NY Times will cough up the Iranian Papers.
Shut down the pentagon, bring all the troops home, and make the world safer.
And make the US safer too.
Our wars, occupying troops, support for Saudi Arabia, Israel and other oppressors, arms proliferation and regime-building is the very source of the terror threat we face here. We inspire millions to seek revenge for the murders and chaos we commit. The War on Terror self-sustaining. Pull the plug, we’ll be safer.
In the meantime . . .
locate all those “tough guys and gals” who were such great cheerleaders for the invasion back in 2001 and 2002 . . .
and draft them into the military NOW, and send them to Afghanistan ASAP. Doesn’t matter if they agree.
There would be no need for training them, since — per them — they already knew how to handle things.
Some of these warmongers are pretty old by now, but . . . SO WHAT ?
They used to call those guys Blackwater…..
As one person noted in another piece, I would support all out troops if the would simply develop a cohesive conscience (which in fact is beginning to actually happen and it has the Pentagon very worried that so many service member see Russia as a country we should be friends with) and overthrow these idiots at the top. It happened in Rome all the time. Why not in the US Empire?
The Pentagon cornerstone was laid in a Masonic ceremony on September 11, 1941. 50 years later, George Bush’s NWO Speech was on September 11, 1991. 60 years after the founding, was September 11, 2001. 60, the sexagismal fullness of Babylon. And you think they let “the people” decide things? 911 corresponds with the helical rising of Sirius, on 9/11/01, it was the New Year’s Day according to the ancient Egyptian calendar. They even sacrificed a real dog named Sirius on that day in the towers. Get a clue, America. Your medal of honor is an inverted Satanic pentagram, for crying out loud.
Why change policy when there is no penalty for perfidy or failure and the money keeps pouring in?
Yeah, it’s not like “We the People” can do anything.
unsurprisingly….
We have certainly turned the corner, at least 6 times. And we’ll know when the Pentagon is lying to us, it’s when they actually say something.
As article states and as many comments below reflect, the bottom line is that the pentagon will just keep on lying and lying and lying. So what, they ask and think, what is the risk? Answer=none.
Until the gutless and corrupt congress “watchdogs” (sic) heh, heh, step up and challenge these endless lies, nothing will happen. And when will the challenge occur, again, heh, heh, not anytime soon, maybe like never, as the money sloshing around is just too huge. Bankruptcy of the empire is the only answer and if they can continue to print worthless money and some fool(s) continues to buy the debt, well what a wonderful they live in.
I neglected to mention that there are a few congress people who do make an attempt to challenge but they can prob be counted on one hand.
There is one congress woman, retired naval officer, who has attempted to challenge the navy, calling the $13 bil and counting floating hulk, the carrier Ford, as a berthing barge-it cannot complete successfully sea trials after more than two years.
Yeah, right! Everything in the Afghanistan Papers is a lie… The Pentagon lunatics should keep telling themselves that…
What else is new?
Even at the start, there was no evidence that Afghanistan (ie the government, and certainly the mass of the people) had any responsibility for the “event” of 11 September 2001. Lots of information soon became available that an attack on the country was already planned, and if not, the sudden invasion in October could probably not have been arranged so swiftly. Since then there has been nothing that could be called a success for military might, and certainly not for the Afghan people, especially women and children. We just cannot bear to end any war.
Look forward : more to come , more to happen, more will get disclosed. Yes we are talking about death assassination and corruption .
I wonder if that attitude will work in criminal court, “True, Judge, I may have shot that liquor store clerk – but can’t we look forward instead of dwelling on a past that is so littered with bad feelings!”