Afghanistan

US officer slams 'rosy' Afghan reports

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An American Army officer has accused the US of telling “lies” about progress in Afghanistan.

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis makes the claim in an article in which he says he saw “the absence of success on every level” during a year traveling round the country.

Colonel Davis writes in the Armed Forces Journal that he covered 9,000 miles in Afghanistan last year, talking to US troops of all ranks, and their Afghan Partners.

But he says what he saw “bore no resemblance” to what he calls “rosy official statements by US Military leaders about conditions on the ground.”

He says he saw, from time to time, collusion between Afghan security forces and insurgents.

He cites examples of Afghan National Police ignoring requests to stop Afghans heading towards American troops under fire, and a police chief laughing that they don’t go after the Taliban, saying “that would be dangerous”

Colonel Davis has also given a classified dossier to US politicians in Washington, and has told the New York Times he expects to be “nuked.”

But his bosses have reportedly told him he will not face adverse action.

The US Army’s chief of Media Relations declined to comment on the specifics of Colonel Davis’s article, but told the New York Times “we are a values based organization and the integrity of what we publish and say is something we take seriously.”