La guerra más larga

A lot of the facts you would find else where, you get in the documentary. The story begins when the soviets leave, and ends with Afghanis blaming the US for not sticking around longer. Some information is more flushed out in this film, than something you would get from PBS. Which makes sense, PBS isn't going to go into detail on how intelligence officers were discussing how to mount Bin Laden's head on a pike and preserve it with dry ice.

One issue I do take, is this film acts as though enhanced interrogation worked. When Congress and the CIA both officially state there was zero actionable intel from torture, it didn't prevent any attack, and was wholly unnecessary. Not sure why the film doesn't even take a balanced approach. Or since they are contrary to all other claims about enhanced interrogation, they could have at least provided evidence of what attacks were prevented, thanks to what specific torture technique. But spooks gunna spook.

The documentary takes a look at the USA's involvement in its longest war, Afghanistan. Contributors include US journalists, CIA, US combatants, Afghans who supported the "democratically" elected president. What it doesn't feature is a Taliban or Isis perspective on the US led war, surely an essential for any such documentary? It doesn't include the perspective of any of the US's allies. It doesn't include the perspective of any "neutral" Afghans. It does include much hand wringing & finger pointing from US personnel involved in the air, ground & governance of the war. This apparent arrogance in the documentary is neatly displayed when a news reporter describes how 1 American has been killed in a bomb attack & then almost as an afterthought mentions 10 Afghans were also killed. You get the feeling they have found the people they want to interview & have decided that's all they need without much thought for detail. Large time periods are ignored. At best, a very high level, one sided view of the US involvement in Afghanistan squashed into less then 90 minutes.

Those words, used in the title, make a great fiction movie. But, when they're used in the dialog in which men and women on both "sides" have died and or are maimed for life and CONTINUE to do so; Those words are criminal. The one thing for sure, the tens of thousands of troops sent in harms way were not there to "protect our freedoms" or Kill/get Bin Laden ...No; It's murder and control of the third world and control of the resources, primarily Opium...

This is like a documentary made by Goebbels...Shame on you frauds! USAF vet.

I write with a heavy heart. This is a very short and basic history lesson. The United States of America and Russia are the founding fathers of the "Taliban", "Al-Qaeda", "ISIS". Because the way Germany was treated after WW1, Germany rebelled and said screw you Allies for leaving us in poverty. So years pass, history repeats its self and WW2 starts with more years of death, annihilation and suffering of peoples. So humanity learnt from that and rebuilt the economy of Germany and Japan to economic global powers. And for some reason years later we've forgotten that. You can't go into a sovereign state, tear it apart and walk away. Shame on you Russia and U.S.A.

"The Longest War" (2020 release; 82 min.) is a documentary that takes a look back at America's longest war ever. That would be true if we were to look only at the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, but as the movie opens, the film makers trace is all the way back ti 1979, when the USSR invaded Afghanistan, prompting a response from the US. After that brief introduction, we are introduced to Lisa Maddox, a CIA Targeter, i.e. (counter)intelligence gatherer. "I don't see how this ends", she laments. We then go back in time to 1979, and from there we get a reminder course 101 on how it all unfolded from there. At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from veteran documentarian Greg Barker ("The Final Year", "Homegrown: The Counter-Terror Dilemma", etc.) Here he traces the history of our country's involvement with Afghanistan. When you see it playing out as presented in this film, it absolutely blows the mind how long this has been going on. "It was always the CIA's war", comments someone about what the US was doing covertly in the 1980s. We witness the rise of the Taliban starting in the late 80s and early 90s, and it all leads to the post-9/11 environment, where things at first go quite well, but then when the US invades Iraq in 2003, all goes to hell in a handbasket, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Along the way we get some really thoughtful perspectives, including from Roya Rahmani (current Afghan Ambassador to the US, the first woman ever in that position) and from a guy named Amrullah Saleh who at first is described as "Former Chief of Afghan Intelligence" but later is revealed as the current "Vice President of Afghanistan".

"The Longest War" premiered earlier this week on Showtime and is now available on SHO On Demand and other streaming services. No, it is not the most cheerful thing to watch and in fact at times it makes for difficult viewing, but frankly also necessary viewing. We have poured over a trillion dollars into that country (whether for waging war and/or funding reconstruction), it just blows the mind. And why are we still there? If you have any interest in geopolitical issues, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.