Language
English, Pashto
About
How can you tell when your government leaders and military brass are lying to you? When everyone in the chain of command recites the same talking points, carefully dilutes the news (especially the bad news), or repeats the word “victory” in every possible variation—you should be worried. Produced by acclaimed documentarian Alex Gibney, this surgically thorough investigation uses secret documents and exclusive testimonies to uncover and analyze the shocking systemic deception that had led the United States into its longest war and pushed Afghanistan into a catastrophe from which it has yet to recover. The film exposes the discrepancy between the optimistic reports and the disastrous reality on the ground, revealing how a trillion dollars were squandered on “empty shells”—school buildings without teachers and infrastructure without security. While the ending is well-known—the chaotic 2021 withdrawal, the Taliban’s resurgence, and the staggering human toll—the film’s power lies in its unflinchingly clear-eyed depiction of how a nation tells itself a story to sustain an endless war.
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