Every once in a while I check taskandpurpose.com because it has colorful articles such as Drones Aren’t F*&king Magic, People.
However, today's article was even better - The Pentagon Is Really Ramping Up The High Quality Bullsh*t About Afghanistan.

The flaks in the Pentagon’s press office seem to be working overtime to convince you that everything is fine, remain calm over in the dumpster fire that is the War in Afghanistan.

Exhibit A comes from a Defense.gov story from a few days ago:

That lead sentence certainly took my fucking breath away.

And then just one day later, “reporter” Jim Garamone, who works for the Pentagon’s official DoD News, knocked out this even higher-quality bullshit from a forward operating base in Afghanistan.

The propaganda piece notes that “Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford told reporters traveling with him ‘that from a military dimension, I am enthusiastic about the prospects for 2018.'”

Oh boy, you’re right, Joe. If you look at the Afghan War purely from a military dimension, it really hasn’t been a miserable failure for over a decade.

I love it when veterans come out and call a spade a spade.
No, really. Your eyes aren't lying to you.

Speaking of lying eyes, when NPR reported on Trump's Afghan Surge, they included a little first-hand testimony.

Last time that Mattis was in Afghanistan in September, enemy rockets hit Kabul while he was there. And last night, he and those of us traveling with him stayed at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, and sure enough, another rocket was fired there.

In February the Department of Defense Inspector General released a report saying that “no significant progress” had been made in 2017.
However, it was hard to verify because the Department of Defense ordered the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) not to publish certain data. A few weeks ago they reversed that decision.

The basic thrust of the new data is that Afghan government control of the country is at its lowest reported level since December 2015, while insurgency control is at its highest.

So progress was indeed made. For the Taleban.
Nevertheless, the WashPost reported that Afghanistan is making a turn. Really.
The giveaway is that the author felt it necessary to include "Really" in the title.

Let's get back to that taskandpurpose article.

Speaking of Dunford, he testified last October alongside Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to the Senate Armed Services Committee, where they both argued that relaxed rules of engagement and an increase in airstrikes would help to do the trick.
I, for one, think we should definitely increase our bombing of North Vietna… I mean the Taliban.

We are finally reaching the end of the excuses for our failure in Afghanistan.
That's both good and bad.
It's good in that we'll finally stop doing the same thing over and over again in the hopes that it will yield different results.
It's bad in that the search for a scapegoat to blame begins.

Russia is supporting and even supplying arms to the Taliban, the head of US forces in Afghanistan has told the BBC.

In an exclusive interview, Gen John Nicholson said he'd seen "destabilising activity by the Russians."

He said Russian weapons were smuggled across the Tajik border to the Taliban, but could not say in what quantity. Russia has denied such US allegations in the past, citing a lack of evidence.

Looks like another Russiagate.