Keeping Americans in the dark on Afghanistan

The American military command in Afghanistan has decided to keep secret key figures related to the growth and progress of local security forces, redacting the numbers at the behest of Afghan officials from the latest report by the government’s watchdog for spending.

The move clouds measures of progress for the Afghan security forces, the primary benefactor of the $120 billion that the United States has spent on reconstruction since the start of the war and the linchpin of President Trump’s new strategy in Afghanistan.

  NYT

Measures of progress?? Measures of regress, maybe.

Among the details being kept private in the report are the number of people in the Afghan army and police force, how many of them have been wounded or killed and the state of their equipment.

“The Afghans know what’s going on; the Taliban knows what’s going on; the U.S. military knows what’s going on,” John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan, whose office compiled the quarterly report, said in an interview. “The only people who don’t know what’s going on are the people paying for it.”

[...]

The information has been classified only once before, in 2015, as the Obama administration was trying to portray the war in Afghanistan as all but over.

[...]

[M]ost of the data categories redacted in the latest release have been available to the public since the inspector general started putting out the reports in 2008. This time, the numbers were kept secret as Mr. Trump ramps up the conflict, authorizing the deployment of thousands more troops and an expanded C.I.A. paramilitary campaign as well as overseeing a volume of airstrikes not seen since 2012.

It's not immediately clear whether Army Maj. Gen. James B. Jarrard misspoke or, in fact, divulged information that reflects the true scope of U.S. military activity in Syria. The Pentagon says there are 500 U.S. troops in the war-torn country.

  WaPo

So how many did Jarrad say are there?

[The] commander said Tuesday that 4,000 American troops are on the ground in Syria [...] while briefing Pentagon-based reporters via satellite from Baghdad.

[...]

When asked to confirm the 4,000 figure, Jarrard appeared to be caught off guard. He then apologized and said the number is about 500.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.