[Peace-discuss] Independent on Wikileaks

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Patrick Cockburn: The battle to justify this
	as a war worth fighting just got a lot harder
	The people of Afghanistan keep losing their trust
	in government because of corruption
	Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Pictures of prisoners being tormented in Abu Ghraib led to a tidal wave of 
revulsion against the US occupation of Iraq. The release of the vast archive of 
US military documents on Afghanistan is not likely to have the same explosive 
impact, but the sheer nastiness of the conflict is vividly conjured by the 
cumulative effect of thousands of uncensored reports from the frontline. The 
"Afghan Files" explain why the Kabul government is getting weaker, despite the 
fact that the US now has over 90,000 troops fighting 28,000 Taliban at a cost of 
$300bn (£190bn) over the last nine years...

As with Abu Ghraib, the reality of the Afghan war as described by frontline US 
officers and officials is as bad or worse than anything reported by the media...

Afghans know all too well that US-led death squads have long been arbitrarily 
killing suspected Taliban, along with anybody else who got in their way...

The Taliban began their comeback in 2006 and by 2007 it was in full swing. In 
September that year, in the town of Gardez, provincial council officials spoke 
frankly to an American civil affairs official about the way they thought things 
were going. "The people of Afghanistan keep losing their trust in the government 
because of the high amount of corrupt government officials," one said. "The 
general view of the Afghans is that the current government is worse than the 
Taliban."

The US official recorded bleakly: "The people will support the Anti-Coalition 
forces and the security condition will degenerate"...

Full article at 
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-the-battle-to-justify-this-as-a-war-worth-fighting-just-got-a-lot-harder-2036182.html