Whistle-Blowing U.S. Army Officer Says Public Is Being Lied To About Progress In The Afghan War

[Better Believe It]

January-February 2012
Truth, lies and Afghanistan
How military leaders have let us down
By LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS


I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

Instead, I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level.

.... when having to decide whether to continue a war, alter its aims or to close off a campaign that cannot be won at an acceptable price, our senior leaders have an obligation to tell Congress and American people the unvarnished truth and let the people decide what course of action to choose. That is the very essence of civilian control of the military. The American people deserve better than what they’ve gotten from their senior uniformed leaders over the last number of years. Simply telling the truth would be a good start.


Damning report: Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis said he 'witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level'

Please read the full article at:

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2012/02/8904030


---------------------------------------------------------------------




In Afghan War, Officer Becomes a Whistle-Blower
By SCOTT SHANE
February 5, 2012

On his second yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis traveled 9,000 miles, patrolled with American troops in eight provinces and returned in October of last year with a fervent conviction that the war was going disastrously and that senior military leaders had not leveled with the American public.

Since enlisting in the Army in 1985, he said, he had repeatedly seen top commanders falsely dress up a dismal situation. But this time, he would not let it rest. So he consulted with his pastor at McLean Bible Church in Virginia, where he sings in the choir. He watched his favorite movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” one more time, drawing inspiration from Jimmy Stewart’s role as the extraordinary ordinary man who takes on a corrupt establishment.

And then, late last month, Colonel Davis, 48, began an unusual one-man campaign of military truth-telling. He wrote two reports, one unclassified and the other classified, summarizing his observations on the candor gap with respect to Afghanistan. He briefed four members of Congress and a dozen staff members, spoke with a reporter for The New York Times, sent his reports to the Defense Department’s inspector general — and only then informed his chain of command that he had done so.

“How many more men must die in support of a mission that is not succeeding?“ Colonel Davis asks in an article summarizing his views titled “Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down.” It was published online Sunday in The Armed Forces Journal, the nation’s oldest independent periodical on military affairs. “No one expects our leaders to always have a successful plan,” he says in the article. “But we do expect — and the men who do the living, fighting and dying deserve — to have our leaders tell us the truth about what’s going on.”

Read the full article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/world/asia/army-colonel-challenges-pentagons-afghanistan-claims.html?_r=1


---------------------------------------------------------------------

US Paints False Picture of Afghan War: US Army Officer
“I’m going to get nuked”
By Common Dreams staff
February 7, 2012

A US Army officer has accused the American military of painting a misleading picture of progress in the war in Afghanistan while glossing over the Kabul government's many failings.

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis broke ranks with the official portrayal of the war after spending a year in the country, issuing a grim assessment and accusing his superiors of covering up the harsh realities that plague the mission.

"When it comes to deciding what matters are worth plunging our nation into war and which are not, our senior leaders owe it to the nation and to the uniformed members to be candid — graphically, if necessary — in telling them what’s at stake and how expensive potential success is likely to be. U.S. citizens and their elected representatives can decide if the risk to blood and treasure is worth it."

"Likewise when having to decide whether to continue a war, alter its aims or to close off a campaign that cannot be won at an acceptable price, our senior leaders have an obligation to tell Congress and American people the unvarnished truth and let the people decide what course of action to choose. That is the very essence of civilian control of the military. The American people deserve better than what they’ve gotten from their senior uniformed leaders over the last number of years. Simply telling the truth would be a good start."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/07


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[girl gone mad]

2. This is such an important story.

Thank you for posting it.

[Old and In the Way]

3. There is no mission to be won.

The reason we went in there was to get the perps responsible for 9/11 - primarily OBL. Mission accomplished. Declare victory and start the exit process now.

[libodem]

4. Victory

Call it that and get out. You are correct. I feel sorry for the civilians.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. Great way to "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS"

[Better Believe It]

6. Yes it is. Telling the truth about the war is always the best thing to do for the troops.

Lying about the war harms the soldiers and the public.

[noise]

9. Support for the President

and his talking points is the only patriotic way to support the troops. We all know that the most important thing (above soldier safety) is that the President not be embarrassed.

[A Simple Game]

7. No one has ever won a war against Afghanistan.

They may have occupied the country for awhile, but they never defeated them.

Not that as far as I am concerned anyone has ever won a war, any war. The only thing that comes out of a war is two losers.

[DevonRex]

8. Consulted his pastor at McLean Bible Church in

Virginia before doing this.

That is a red flag. Bible churches are fundamentalist churches. First thing I would do is check into this lite colonel's background before taking it at face value.

[noise]

10. Totally

Especially considering that his critique is so off mark.

[DevonRex]

11. Oh no.

I don't think his critique is off the mark. Just that his motivation might not be what we would like it to be. For that reason I would be cautious until I felt comfortable with the source.

[ProSense]

12. Reading

this over and over, from the NYT piece.

<...>

Last March, for example, Mr. Petraeus, then an Army general, testified before the Senate that the Taliban’s momentum had been “arrested in much of the country” and that progress was “significant,” though fragile, and “on the right azimuth” to allow Afghan forces to take the lead in combat by the end of 2014.

Colonel Davis fiercely disputes such assertions and says few of the troops believe them. At the same time, he is acutely aware of the chasm in stature that separates him from those he is criticizing, and he has no illusions about the impact his public stance may have on his career.

<...>

Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, one of four senators who met with Colonel Davis despite what he called “a lot of resistance from the Pentagon,” said the colonel was a valuable witness because his extensive travels and midlevel rank gave him access to a wide range of soldiers.

Moreover, Colonel Davis’s doubts about reports of progress in the war are widely shared, if not usually voiced in public by officers on duty. Just last week, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said at a hearing that she was “concerned by what appears to be a disparity” between public testimony about progress in Afghanistan and “the bleaker description” in a classified National Intelligence Estimate produced in December, which was described in news reports as “sobering” and “dire.”

Obviously, it doesn't require a whistleblower to state what the NIE and others have stated. Still, here's what I'm not getting: Does he support getting out of Afghanistan or is his point to counter public statements?

His comment included a peculiar point for someone who wants the war to end:

"Likewise when having to decide whether to continue a war, alter its aims or to close off a campaign that cannot be won at an acceptable price, our senior leaders have an obligation to tell Congress and American people the unvarnished truth and let the people decide what course of action to choose. That is the very essence of civilian control of the military. The American people deserve better than what they’ve gotten from their senior uniformed leaders over the last number of years. Simply telling the truth would be a good start."

In any case, if the NIE is the more accurate portrayal, fine. It's still time to get out, and the sooner the better. It seems to me that some of the arguments are to counter the withdrawal efforts.

Dianne Feinstein criticizes W.H.’s Afghanistan assessment
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72251.html

Analysis: Politics drives exit from Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-politics-drives-exit-afghanistan-182012855.html

[noise]

14. How is that peculiar?

He is saying if you continue this war stop being dishonest about the true status on the ground. He will probably be labeled an al Qaeda appeaser in the next few days.

The same information can be found in the Frontline documentary Obama's War.

[ProSense]

17. That's

"He is saying if you continue this war stop being dishonest about the true status on the ground."

...not how I read it. Still, the NIE and other assessments will vary.

I don't think the WH is using its assessment to prolong the war. In fact, it's moving in the opposite direction.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002252846

Like I said, those countering the WH's assessment in new reports are arguing that the withdrawal is political.

[Better Believe It]

13. What do you know about the specific church he attends? His anti-war views should be questioned ..

because he goes to church?

Is everyone in that congregation pro-Afghan war or is the congregation divided on the issue?

I would think it is divided as most churches are, even fundamentalist ones.

[DevonRex]

15. Hahaha. I was raised as a fundy. I know what "Bible"

churches are. Baptist churches are too LIBERAL for them. I have a brother who is pastor of a bible church. One thing I can tell you: there are NO liberals in bible churches. And they are more political than churches in denominations. Much more. And not in any good way.

This is a fact. There is no disputing it. There are quite a few of us ex fundies here. It traumatized some of us. We know what we are talking about re Bible churches.

[sabrina 1]

16. And sometimes, politics is the last thing on the mind of a soldier who sees

his buddies dying for a lost cause. Sometimes it's the humanity of a person that forces them to tell the truth. Did we question eg, Kevin Benderman's refusal to return to Iraq during the Bush years? Airc, no one questioned his motivation, nor should they have considering he was telling the truth about what he saw and even his COs could not dispute his facts. He went to jail, but most of the charges against him were dropped, with only one remaining.

The fact that he was originally gung-ho about the Iraq War and a Bush supporter, made him a likely poster boy for the far right warmongers. UNTIL he faced reality and decided his conscience would not allow him to participate in that war anymore. They questioned his motives, suspecting he might be a 'democrat' etc. etc. The truth was, he woke up and he believed it was his duty to tell the truth. Politics were trumped by principles in his and many others' cases.

Seems to me this soldier also believes in the oath he took. I doubt he was thinking about politics.

[Better Believe It]

19. So this officer is the exception to your rule or is he just fooling us?

We should consider him to be a right-wing Republican warhawk who is cleverly concealing his true feelings with his anti-war article.

Sure thing.

I'll buy that.

[bluestate10]

20. Modern fundamentalist churches are rightwing hellholes.

Based upon just that, I question the goal of the whistle blower. BTW, you have been to form once again, lots of verbiage to cover a naked attack on President Obama's integrity.

[lovuian]

18. Lt Colonel Davis love ya

It is the TRUTH
no matter how long and how much
Afghanistan will remain the same

America is bankrupt
and it is a futile war



Kucinich was right

[Better Believe It]

21. Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis: The Next Victim in the US Government’s War on Whistleblowing

The Next Victim in the US Government’s War on Whistleblowing
By: Kevin Gosztola
February 9, 2012

The report has forced the Pentagon to make official statements downplaying it. The lackey they have trotted out to minimize the contents of Davis’ report to Congress, Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparotti, the “No. 2 US Commander in Afghanistan,” has tried to reassure the public that there truly has been “significant” and “steady progress,” despite what Davis might be saying.

After a couple days of Scaparotti fielding press interest in Davis’ report, the Pentagon is moving to the next phase, which involves having unnamed officials make anonymous statements to the press about Davis and his report. NBC News chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski has chosen to enable the sleazy officials tasked with launching a smear campaign. Miklaszewski writes:

Additionally, Pentagon and military officials claim that two years ago while he was stationed in Germany, Davis wrote a letter to Petraeus, advising Petraeus on how to fight and win a war against Iran. The officials say Davis also asked Petraeus to help him skip a rank and get promoted to brigadier general so he could help shape the strategy for a war against Iran.

This is pure fabrication, but, of course, a Pentagon correspondent isn’t questioning these statements. That might make it harder to get quotes from these officials for a future story that may or may not involve spreading more disinformation.

Read the full article at:

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/02/09/the-next-victim-in-the-us-governments-war-on-whistleblowing/

[juajen]

22. Historically speaking, we didn't have a prayer in that inhospitable country. This is truly what is

meant by "If you don't know History, you are doomed to repeat it." No one survives in that mountainous country except the natives. No amount of training can prepare our troops for the higher elevations; so, the enemy always has a hiding place and is home free. My historian husband and I talked about this all the time, and he was writing a book about it before he died. I am not sure what we need to do to become friends of the Afghans, but boots on the ground is not it.

[Better Believe It]

23. You can pray and that's about it.

[Better Believe It]

24. Bo. 2 U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Response to Lt. Col. Daniel Davis Article

General: US advisory teams heading to Afghanistan
CBS News
February 10, 2012

The No. 2 U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday that U.S. military advisory teams will start deploying to Afghanistan this year to help Afghan combat forces as they take a more prominent role in fighting the Taliban.

The plan described by Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti envisions U.S. and other international troops beginning to step back from their leading role, so that responsibility for the war is fully in Afghan hands by the end of 2014.

His remarks stand in marked contrast to an assessment published in the private Armed Forces Journal, titled "Truth, Lies and Afghanistan," in which Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis accused U.S. military leaders of misleading the public by overstating the degree of progress toward stabilizing Afghanistan.

Asked about Davis' article, Scaparrotti said, "It's one person's view of this," adding that he remains confident that his own cautiously optimistic view is based on a solid foundation of information and analysis.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501706_162-57374953/general-us-advisory-teams-heading-to-afghanistan/