By now, most readers have probably heard of the critical report issued on Afghanistan by a serving Army Lt Colonel. For those readers who have not seen it, this email forwards it without commentary.
In the attached 84 page report (pdf), Lt Colonel Daniel Davis (US Army) opens with the following charge:
“Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the US Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable. This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan. It has likely cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars Congress might not otherwise have appropriated had it known the truth, and our senior leaders’ behavior has almost certainly extended the duration of this war. The single greatest penalty our Nation has suffered, however, has been that we have lost the blood, limbs and lives of tens of thousands of American Service Members with little to no gain to our country as a consequence of this deception.”
The remainder of this unclassified report, explains why he holds this view (he has also submitted a classified version to his chain of command and to Congress). The report has gotten wide publicity, and its unclassified form has was been released by the New York Times and Rolling Stone. This report was downloaded from the Rolling Stone web site. A good summary of the news coverage of the Davis Report can be found here.<
Chuck Spinney
Col Davis Draft Report on Dereliction of Duty in Afghanistan
Phi Beta Iota: We have been focusing on the lack of integrity in government — and particularly within the national security world (diplomatic, information, military, economic – DIME) for over a decade. INTEGRITY is everything. Not having intelligence and integrity is like constantly putting sand in the gears of a very complex machine. It may enrich the repairman (contractors) but it kills the Republic and that for which the Republic stands – the Constitution and the common welfare (Preamble to the Constitution). It merits mention that government intelligence and counterintelligence are required to embrace a larger and more holistic responsibility in part because the media has become totally corrupt — from Bloomberg to Fox to the Washington Post, they are generally publishing undiluted crap that could as easily be a press release from the party being reported on. When they do report usefully (e.g. Top Secret America) they water it down by avoiding the “true cost” economics and the personal accountability issues that really matter. For this reason, we view the new craft of intelligence, and the much expanded role of intelligence within government, as the seed crystal for a national renaissance.
See Also:
Reference: Truth, Lies and Afghanistan<
Winslow Wheeler: ONE COLONEL TELLS THE TRUTH – Major Investigation Called For + Meta-RECAP
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Corruption
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Dereliction of Duty (Defense)
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Disinformation, Other Information Pathologies, & Repression
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Empire as Cancer Including Betrayal & Deceit
Worth a Look: Impeachable Offenses, Modern & Historic
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Intelligence (Most)
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on War Complex—War as a Racket
