The Takeaway from 91,000 Leaked Secret Documents on Afghanistan: It's Bad. Very Bad. Time to Go

[unhappycamper]

The Takeaway from 91,000 Leaked Secret Documents on Afghanistan: It's Bad. Very Bad. Time to Go
AlterNet / By Will Durst

August 3, 2010 | To say the release of 91,000 classified documents has revealed a disconnect between our public position on Afghanistan and the actual situation on the ground is like inferring a disparity between yoga and bayonets. Dawn dishwashing liquid and green olive tapenade. A tray full of Southern Comfort old-fashioned sweets and a herringbone Segway.

Unlike the Pentagon Papers, we can’t even work up a good outrage, mainly because come on, 91,000 documents. That’s like reading all seven Harry Potter books thirty times over. I don’t care how authentically rustic your wand is, nobody’s doing that. There’s even questions as to whether it’s 91,000 documents, 92,000 documents, if all the documents have been released or more are being held in reserve for we mere Muggles.

I know. What’s a thousand documents amongst friends? Well, there’s your problem. We don’t have any friends. Corruption over there is endemic, pandemic and epidemic. Our allies aren’t necessarily allied on our side. The fighting is going badly and a halfway decent deep-dish pizza crust remains a concept the Afghanis seem unable or unwilling to embrace. Not to mention Democracy.

Unplug the drain and the ring around the tub is we’ve been there 8 years and things are so not getting better. As a matter of fact you could say the movement more resembles whatever is the opposite of getting better. Don’t even mention quagmire. Hah. Hah. We sneer at your quagmire. Our Afghanistan participation makes a quagmire look like a refreshing dip in a spring fed pool with buckets of frosty beer within reach and cold cucumbers slices on our eyelids. Spa spangled bog.

This dastardly document dump also managed to tick off Pakistani officials who dispute claims that the ISI, their intelligence agency, is collaborating with the Taliban. “These allegations are always repeated.” Hmm. Curious as to why those allegations would always be repeated, eh what? Maybe because, like the sun and those silly allegations about the rising in the East, they’re… TRUE?

[old mark]

1. I read that the number of Taliban in the area is MORE than what were there

9 years ago...so this has been for nothing.

Get it over and come home now.

Rec.

mark

[ixion]

2. Yes, we've mucked it up, but good... can get out yet?

Or are we determined to stay there and make matters worse?

[aquart]

3. Amazing. I knew that the day we decided to go in.

Didn't have to read anything but a history book.

[democrank]

4. Bring the troops home now

and if we really need boots on the ground, send the war-favoring politicians, every last one of them.