Washington Post: US lied about war in Afghanistan

The newspaper “Washington Post” has published a report based on the US government's confidential documents, which said the three administrations of the White House had deceived the public about the shortcomings and failures of the 18-year war in Afghanistan.

The report reveals that the war in which 2,300 American soldiers were killed has cost nearly $1 trillion.

About 400 officials involved in the issue, who have been interviewed under the report, have shown criticism involving: Washington's increasingly changing strategy in Afghanistan, shortcomings in developing an effective Afghan war force, failures to defeat the Taliban, and to fight corruption in the Afghan government.

“We didn't understand Afghanistan essentially we didn't know what we were doing, said Douglas Lute, an army general who served at the White House as the leader of the war in Afghanistan during the administrations of former presidents, George Bush and Barack Obama.

The interviews were part of a project by the Special Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Between $938 and $978 billion have been spent since 2001 in Afghanistan by the Department of Defence, State Department and the American Agency for International Development, according to Neta Crawford, a political science professor and co-chairman of the Kostove War Project at Brown University.

According to documents, no comprehensive account of the U.S. government for war spending has been carried out, followed.

Moreover, some of those interviewed said that statistics at the main military centre in Kabul and the White House had been distorted to give the impression that the United States was winning the war.