Well, this is troubling. The Washington Post has a long article up with many supporting sidebars. It's by Craig Whitlock that says — well, here. Just read the first paragraph or two…
A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.
The documents were generated by a federal project examining the root failures of the longest armed conflict in U.S. history. They include more than 2,000 pages of previously unpublished notes of interviews with people who played a direct role in the war, from generals and diplomats to aid workers and Afghan officials.
I always thought what Vietnam proved was that our wars are sometimes kept going not in the interests of America but because those conducting the war don't want to admit to misjudgement and failure. If that was the lesson of 'Nam, it apparently went unlearned.