{"id":192040,"date":"2021-08-23T12:01:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T11:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=192040"},"modified":"2021-08-17T10:21:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T09:21:37","slug":"the-u-s-government-lied-for-two-decades-about-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/08\/the-u-s-government-lied-for-two-decades-about-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"The U.S. Government Lied for Two Decades about Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Using the same deceitful tactics they pioneered in Vietnam, U.S. political and military officials repeatedly misled the country about the prospects for success in Afghanistan.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The Taliban give an exclusive interview to Al Jazeera after taking control of the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021. (Al Jazeera\/YouTube)<\/p><\/div>\n

16 Aug 2021 –\u00a0 <\/em>\u201cThe Taliban regime is coming to an end,\u201d<\/strong> announced President George W. Bush at the<\/a> National Museum of Women in the Arts on December 12, 2001 \u2014 almost twenty years ago today. Five months later, Bush vowed<\/a>: \u201cIn the United States of America, the terrorists have chosen a foe unlike they have faced before. . . . We will stay until the mission is done.\u201d Four years after that, in August of 2006, Bush announced<\/a>: \u201cAl Qaeda and the Taliban lost a coveted base in Afghanistan and they know they will never reclaim it when democracy succeeds.\u00a0 . . . The days of the Taliban are over. The future of Afghanistan belongs to the people of Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

For two decades, the message Americans heard from their political and military leaders about the country\u2019s longest war was the same. America is winning. The Taliban is on the verge of permanent obliteration. The U.S. is fortifying the Afghan security forces, which are close to being able to stand on their own and defend the government and the country.<\/p>\n