I'll be honest what really gets me is that just a few years ago "The Afghanistan Papers" were made public for all to see. In them we saw state department officials essentially admitting what independent reporters had been saying for years: that the US was in Afghanistan blatantly supporting corrupt Northern Alliance warlords and as a result enjoyed little to no popular support among Afghans. This was all admitted not long ago at all and yet we are now seeing supposedly "informed" people dragging out dated canards that bear no relation to the reality that preceded the collapse of the US backed regime. Truly, I feel as though the US imperialist propaganda machine is so well lubricated that it recreates reality from moment to moment, if only there was a book describing how that happens ...