Afghanistan War Papers Prove the U.S. is a Nation Lost to Militarism

As Britain votes today, let's contemplate for a moment the meaning of the "confidential trove of government documents" released by the Washington Post on Monday. The documents "include more than 2,000 pages of previously unpublished notes of interviews with people who played a direct role in the war, from generals and diplomats to aid workers and Afghan officials." The interviews were conducted by the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

The conclusion to be drawn? The war in Afghanistan is a total failure that has been covered up for close to two decades.

My first reaction when a coworker told me about WaPo's scoop was what's new. SIGAR has been saying as much for years. The unsigned editorial published by The New York Times the other day pretty much says it all -- "Lots of Lessons From Afghanistan; None Learned."

America’s failure in Afghanistan may come as a surprise to some Americans. But the Americans who should not be at all surprised are the members of Congress who voted to launch the war, repeatedly voted to continue funding it and have been absent without leave in their duty to oversee its progress.

“This is truly shocking. Years and years of half truths and outright falsehoods,” said Josh Hawley, a senator from Missouri, in a tweet about the documents. Mr. Hawley is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

“It is deeply troubling to read a report of interviews with U.S. government officials that appear to contradict the many assurances we have heard at committee hearings that the continuing war in Afghanistan has a coherent strategy and an end in sight,” Kirsten Gillibrand, a senator from New York, wrote in a letter to the head of the Armed Services Committee, of which she is a member.

It is both truly shocking and deeply troubling that members of Congress, who oversee the military and are privy to classified assessments like those published by The Post, were surprised by the revelations in the documents, which took three years and two federal lawsuits to pry loose for public consumption.

I doubt members of Congress were surprised. Afghanistan might be a failure as a military mission or as an exercise in nation building, but as an experiment in the creation of a culture of overt militarism here at home it is a whopping success. Watch an NFL game on any given Sunday and all you will witness in the way of a national culture is the military. Members of the armed services are extolled as exemplary citizens, really the only true citizens, while the rest of us are merely a faceless rabble of mindless, soulless consumers.

In order for this celebration of the military to occur there must be an overseas proving ground where our men and women in uniform go to prove their innocence and goodness and protect us from the evil-doers. That's Afghanistan, and that's our national myth in the present tense.

In a prior age the WaPo report might have spurred congressional action; now, even with a Democratic controlled House of Representatives, it means almost nothing.