The Guardian reports on Wikileaks' release of secret US military files, revealing a war that's even more of a failure than we realized. (If you hadn't yet realized that the war was a failure, may I respectfully suggest that you wake the fuck up already?)
The files were released by Wikileaks to the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel. Most of the material was classified "secret" but is no longer militarily sensitive; the Guardian has withheld some from publication, and Wikileaks says it will redact harmful material before posting on its own servers.
Some of the details now available:
- IED attacks have risen from 308 in 2004 to 7,155 last year. Between 2004 and 2009, at least 7,000 Afghan civilians were killed or injured in IED attacks.
- The files detail 144 attacks by allied forces on civilians.
- There are allegations -- unproven -- that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been arming and training Taliban insurgents. There are also US military intelligence reports showing Iranian efforts to finance, train and equip the Taliban.
- Task Force 373, a "black ops" special forces unit, has been hunting down alleged Taliban and al-Qaida members -- to either assassinate them or hold them without trial or legal process. In pursuing its extrajudicial killings the unit has murdered civilian men, women, and children, and even Afghan police officers, who got in the way.
- Report of deliberate "green on green" firefights between Afghani troops and of accidental "friendly fire" incidents make it clear that the enemy isn't the only threat over there.
Maybe the god(ess)(s/es) smile upon Wikileaks. This machine kills fascists.