Since at least 2014, top US policymakers have received completely distorted information about what is happening in Afghanistan. An analysis by the Center for Strategic Studies points out that since that year, the distortions have been completely systematic. The structure of the reports was adjusted so that they continued to capture direct combat engagements (in which the Americans or Afghan army special forces won almost every time), but stopped addressing who actually controlled the territory. Other information has also disappeared from the reports, completely obscuring the fact that an insurgency is underway and that the insurgents are clearly in the ascendancy. Instead, an image has been created of a fairly stable country where, although there are occasional terrorist attacks, the situation is generally manageable.
Other information has also disappeared from the reports, completely obscuring the fact that an insurgency is underway…
And it was far from the only falsification. In other projects, the construction of schools was reported, but it was no longer said that Afghan families refused to send their children to these schools.
Indeed, the people who made the decisions at the highest level may have had the idea of a more or less modernised country with fairly free conditions, where the population is being constricted by the Taliban and other terrorist groups, but can cope. So it was logical that they dealt with a peaceful exit, not a retreat in panic. And that they left equipment and other resources to the Afghan government – otherwise they would have faced criticism for abandoning their ally.
People who made the decisions at the highest level may have had the idea of a more or less modernised country with fairly free conditions…
Meanwhile, something completely different was happening in Afghanistan.
Several readers have written to me that such forgery is not possible. There were tens of thousands of people involved in the occupation forces and they rotated quite often. It is not possible that no one has brought out information about how things are really going in Afghanistan.
Tomorrow I will use this opportunity to explain the difference between a fantasy-conspiracy theory and a description of human behavior using general rules.
