New York Times Confirms Trump's Criticism Of Stupid Wars In The Middle East

"I Applaud Donald Trump"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/05/i-applaud-donald-trump.html

Spot-On Truth-Teller Donald Trump: The Most Important Thing Said At The Republican Candidates' Debate

https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/12/spot-on-honest-donald-trump-most.html

Iraq War Critique

Israeli War Historian, Martin van Creveld

the only non-American on the U.S. Military Officer Corps' required reading list.

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/costly-withdrawal-is-price-to-be-paid.html

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On The Iraq War
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2018/07/bushs-toxic-legacy-in-iraq.html

Must Reads: Sitting On A Secret About The Longest War In U.S. History Washington Post

By T.J. Ortenzi   Email Craig Whitlock has been looking over his shoulder for the past three years.  Back in 2016, the investigative reporter got a tip that Michael Flynn, the retired three-star Army general who would eventually plead guilty in the Mueller probe, had blasted U.S. failures in Afghanistan during an interview with a government agency.  When Whitlock asked government investigators for a record of Flynn’s scathing interview, officials at the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction were helpful. But things changed after President Trump won the 2016 election, and the agency stopped cooperating entirely when Trump assumed office. That’s when The Post’s legal team filed a lawsuit asking a judge to force the agency to handover Flynn’s interview. Soon after, the agency reversed course and decided to share Flynn’s interview as part of a legal settlement. Whitlock quickly realized the office wasn’t just sitting on Flynn’s interview, there were hundreds more just like it. And if they were anything like Flynn’s these conversations would show that U.S. officials had misled the public about the failures of the Afghan war. Whitlock and his editors had a decision to make. Would they publish the details of Flynn’s shocking interview in a story that might not live beyond a short news cycle, or would they wait and fight to acquire hundreds of similar interviews so that they could report the definitive story of the longest war in U.S. history — and Washington’s dishonesty? They decided to wait and The Post’s lawyers filed a second suit arguing that the agency should release the more than 400 interviews that were conducted, along with the unredacted names of the people who participated. But even when the agency started releasing documents in 2018, the reporter was on edge.  If another news organization found out about the lawsuit, they could have requested the same documents and uncovered a story that Whitlock had devoted years to reporting. As you now know, that didn't happen. This week The Post published The Afghanistan Papers. Whitlock said the response has been heartfelt and overwhelming. Here are just a couple of the messages he's received, which have been lightly edited for clarity: "I have many friends that either lost their life (or were wounded for life — myself included) to this War of no reason. To know that my brothers lost their lives in vain because of lies and smoke screens is downright shameful. The people responsible for the lies to the American public need to be outed and held accountable in a court of law for their actions." — David  "Having served in the USAF and deployed to Afghanistan in 2003, then 2010-2011 and returning as a contractor from 2016-early 2019, as I read through your timeline and think about where I was and what I was fighting for while this was all going on, I am gobsmacked.  I'm not naïve (well, I thought I wasn't) because we knew there was considerable corruption, but what you lay out in this article blows my mind. ... Sometimes the truth really hurts and this is one of those times for me." — K. Read The Afghanistan Papers to see how the U.S. government systematically misled the American public about the war and responses from people who experienced the conflict firsthand.  PART 1: At war with the truth U.S. officials constantly said they were making progress. They were not, and they knew it.   PART 2: Stranded without a strategy Bush and Obama had polar-opposite plans to win the war. Both were destined to fail.   PART 3: Built to fail Despite vows the U.S. wouldn’t get mired in “nation-building,” it has wasted billions doing just that   PART 4: Consumed by corruption The U.S. flooded the country with money — then turned a blind eye to the graft it fueled   PART 5: Unguarded nation Afghan security forces, despite years of training, were dogged by incompetence and corruption   PART 6: Overwhelmed by opium The U.S. war on drugs in Afghanistan has imploded at nearly every turn (Moises Saman/Magnum Photos) 1. Confidential documents reveal U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan For nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan, U.S. leaders have sounded a constant refrain: We are making progress. They were not, documents show, and they knew it. By Craig Whitlock  ●  Read more »