Blunt appraisals were left unvarnished because they were never intended for publication. The contrast with the upbeat version of events presented to the public at the same time, often by the very same people, is breathtaking.
The Afghanistan Papers is a book about failure and about lying about failure, and about how that led to yet worse failures, and so on for 20 years. The title and the contents echo the Pentagon Papers, the leaked inside story of the Vietnam war in which the long road to defeat was paved with brittle happy talk.
“With their complicit silence, military and political leaders avoided accountability and dodged reappraisals that could have changed the outcome or shortened the conflict,” Whitlock writes. “Instead, they chose to bury their mistakes and let the war drift.”
-https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/05/the-afghanistan-papers-review-craig-whitlock-washington-post
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 46 minutes into United Airlines Flight 93, a nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, four hijackers took control of the Boeing 757-222. It was around 9:30 a.m., and already that morning, two hijacked planes had shockingly crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. In less than 10 minutes, another plane would plow into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Of the four hijacked planes on September 11, United Airlines Flight 93 was the only one to not reach its intended target. In the most comprehensive study of the terrorists attacks, The 9/11 Commission Report concluded the plane’s target was Washington, where both the Senate and House were in session in the Capitol building. “Jarrah’s objective was to crash his airliner into symbols of the American Republic, the Capitol or the White House,” said the 9/11 report. “He was defeated by the alerted, unarmed passengers of United 93.”
-https://www.history.com/news/flight-93-target-september-11
U.S. Capitol Police brace for potential repeat of pro-Trump rally violence
WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Capitol Police is increasing security in preparation for potential violence at a Sept. 18 rally in which followers of former President Donald Trump intend to show support for people arrested after the deadly January attack on the Capitol, according to a statement and an internal memo on Wednesday.
-https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-capitol-police-says-robust-security-planned-sept-18-rally-2021-09-08/
Here's A Thing... 