I served in Afghanistan as a US Marine, twice. Here's the truth in two sentences

[CloudWatcher]

2. Mistakes vs. lies

From further down in the editorial:

I was delighted to see how far along they were on paper — until I actually began working with them. I attempted to adjust the charts to reflect reality and was quickly shut down. The ratings could not go down. That was the deal. It was the kind of lie that kept the war going.

This ... deserves a full investigation. I'm perfectly willing to allow for honest mistakes. This was not one of those. The culpable should be held responsible.