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Officer breaks ranks on Afghan war
Agence France Presse - February 8, 2012
Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Davis deliberately 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.
"What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by US military leaders about conditions on the ground," Colonel Davis wrote in an article published in Armed Forces Journal, a private newspaper not affiliated with the Pentagon.
"Instead, I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level," he wrote under the headline, "Truth, Lies And Afghanistan: How military leaders have let us down".
Local Afghan government officials were failing to serve the Afghan population and their security forces were reluctant to fight insurgents or were colluding with the Taliban, he wrote. "How many more men must die in support of a mission that is not succeeding.. ?" he said in his article.
Colonel Davis has also reportedly shared his pessimistic view with members of the US Congress and written a classified version of his article for the Defence Department."I'm going to get nuked," he was quoted by The New York Times as having said. The Pentagon politely disagreed with Colonel Davis' portrayal of the war.
"Lieutenant-Colonel Davis is obviously entitled to his opinion," spokesman George Little said, adding that Defence Secretary Leon Panetta "has very strong confidence in his commanders in Afghanistan, as they provide assessments of what's happening on the ground in the war". The military's evaluation of the war effort was based on "rigorous analysis".
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