Afghanistan

[Quintus Fabius]

https://mwi.usma.edu/access-denied-the-c...spotlight/

It is easier these days for journalists in Afghanistan to embed with the Taliban than with the US military. While the media and the military have long had a conflicted relationship, the effort to close off operations in Afghanistan in the name of operational security is a relatively new development. It started in the final years of the Obama administration as part of a broad effort to sell the idea that the war was over as promised. It has continued through to the present day as successive administrations have sought—for the most part, successfully—to keep the Afghan war well out of public view.

The result has been a failure in accountability that has allowed Washington to overlook or ignore fatal flaws in the mission. The price was paid by soldiers on the frontlines—who were equipped for advise-and-assist operations but ultimately found themselves engaging in direct combat operations against the Taliban—and, ultimately, by the mission as a whole. The lack of sound policy in Afghanistan—for years—has weighed on the morale of special operations forces and contributed to the United States’ strategic failure in Afghanistan. With little media access or scrutiny of the war in recent years, there have been limited opportunities for a reality check.