$547 Million Can't Paper Over Failure of Afghanistan War

[unhappycamper]

$547 Million Can't Paper Over Failure of Afghanistan War
Derrick Crowe
Political Director, Brave New Foundation
Posted: September 2, 2010 07:56 PM

The Pentagon's public relations machine is working overtime these days trying to sell a theme of "progress" in Afghanistan to push back against calls to end the war. The message machine behind this push is gargantuan, costing $547 million and employing more than 27,000 people. But, as our latest Rethink Afghanistan video shows, all that wasted P.R. money can't paper over the fact that the Afghanistan War isn't making us safer, and it's not worth the cost.

So far, we've seen General David Petraeus give headline interviews on NBC, CBS, BBC, FOX News and schedule an upcoming headline interview on ABC. He's given interviews to the New York Times and the Washington Post. He's kicked the Pentagon's P.R. apparatus, especially that of the U.S. 3rd Army and its paid contractors, into gear, churning out articles to push his narrative of "progress."

An investigation last year by the AP uncovered the staggering reach of the Pentagon's P.R. apparatus:

This year, the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations -- almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department... he Pentagon's rapidly expanding media empire... is now bigger in size, money and power than many media companies.

$547 million goes into public affairs, which reaches American audiences. And about $489 million more goes into what is known as psychological operations, which targets foreign audiences.

unhappycamper comment: I'm guessing these are the dudes who 'requested' I post only one paragraph of stuff from the military rags.

[Iterate]

1. So many screw-ups, so little time.

Small wonder it takes so many bodies to camo-wash it. The bigger the lie, the louder you need to shout.

The irony is, that at each of the 100++ policy cockups it took to get us here now, it was the "left", such as it is, who had a correct, or more correct, view of the better path.

But in ten years, or twenty, when the old Afgan vets meet in Pentagon seminars to discuss what went wrong, I doubt that point will be on the agenda.

BTW, your efforts and fortitude are more appreciated than you will ever know.