Afghanistan and Data Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

Tony Cordesman has a great report / massive data dump on Afghanistan (PDF).  But one of the most important conclusions can be found on the first page.

The Afghan War is not an unreported war in the media, but it is a largely unreported war in terms of useful, unclassified reporting by governments and NATO/ISAF. Only the UN has provided consistent analytic reporting on the progress of the war, and its reporting only goes into significant detail in the area of counternarcotics.

The US government has cut back on its reporting over time, and its web pages now do little more that report on current events. Unlike the Iraq War, there is no Department of Defense quarterly report on the progress of the war, and efforts to create effective Afghan security, governance, and development. There is no equivalent to the State Department weekly status report. Testimony to Congress, while useful, does not provide detailed statements or back up slide with maps, graphs, and other data on the course of the war.

The same is true of virtually all of the other governments providing NATO/ISAF forces, and of NATO/ISAF. There are some useful data on the reasons for deploying forces, casualties, and the units actually deployed, but no real analysis of the course of the fighting, threat developments, and relative success.

This I think is one of the reasons why it's important to focus public attention on the war in Afghanistan.  The reason we got a better sense of what is actually going on in Iraq is because people called for action an Congress responded but putting forth much clear and more rigid reporting requirements.  This leads to better data.  Better analysis.  And ultimately better recommendations on how to move forward and a more educated debate in this country.  It's time to get more of that on Afghanistan.

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