"The Post", The Pentagon Papers and Afghanistan

The new movie The Post goes over the fight for the Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers. I have a "small" issue with the movie in that it wasn't the Washington Post, but the New York Times that published the Pentagon Papers - but that is ...like... whatever.

What is more fascinated is the idea that publishing the Pentagon Papers was earth shattering at the time.  In the 1960s, the US government fought tooth and nail to keep the Pentagon Papers private. It was a big deal.

The Pentagon Papers were, essentially, a US government appraisal of the war in Vietnam. The government was lying to the American public and the publication of those documents turned the tide of American opinion against the war.  It turned out, is wasn't the lying hippies that were wrong, the US government policy itself was a mistake and shame - and they knew it.

The government was lying because they believed, rightly at the time, that the public would not support an open ended war, with vague goals and no way to meet them.

Contrast that with today.

In Afghanistan we have a 16 year old war, with no hope of winning, with no goals for winning and we are sacrificing American lives, not to mention trillions of dollars, with no outlook in sight.

Turns out, with a private military you can carry on a war as long as you like.

One of the things I actually liked about Donald Trump, the candidate, is that he believed it was a waste of US time, lives and money - and he wanted to pull out.  I'm sorry, in this case, the military talked him out of it.