"In war, truth is the first casualty," goes the ancient Greek quote. We now know that it has been among the biggest victims over the 18 years of America's longest military conflict, thanks the release of previously "secret" papers.

Try telling that to the families of the estimated 157,000 people who have lost their lives in the war in Afghanistan.

The papers, published by the Washington Post, comprise 2,000 pages of interviews with senior officials and others involved in the conflict that unveil a pattern of deception that is shocking in its consistency and persistence across American administrations since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

The constant drumbeat from military and political bosses that the war was making progress even in the midst of setbacks was just mostly propaganda.

"The American people have constantly been lied to," John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, told the Post, which obtained the papers and audio recordings under a freedom of information request it first submitted three years ago.

"From the ambassadors down to the low level, [they all say] we are doing a great job," Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's now disgraced first national security adviser, was quoted as telling investigators from Sopko's office. "Really? So if we are doing such a great job, why does it feel like we are losing?"

'Totally unreliable'

Flynn, who served as intelligence director for the NATO coalition in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, went on to say, "Not one commander is going to leave Afghanistan … and say, 'You know what, we didn't accomplish our mission'."

In 2016, Bob Crowley, a retired army colonel and one-time a U.S. military adviser in Kabul, conceded that "truth was rarely welcome." 

"Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible," Crowley said. "Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right, and we became a self-licking ice cream cone." 

But that's not all. The documents, dubbed the Afghanistan Papers, reveal a cycle of military bungling and corruption that has helped to fuel America's increasingly influential military-industrial complex. 

Flynn, who ironically is due to be sentenced next week by a court for lying to the FBI, hit the nail on the head when he said, "There is a machinery that is behind what we do and it keeps us participating in the conflict because it generates wealth."

Officials were also criticized in the papers for largely ignoring a "kleptocracy" that had allegedly taken root in Afghanistan during Hamid Karzai's time in office.

Fostered corruption

Karzai has denied any wrongdoing. He told AP, "What could we do? It was U.S. money coming here and used by them and used for means that did not help Afghanistan."  

The former president said Washington had spent vast sums in its war on terror, with the money flowing to contractors and private security firms, and that this had fostered corruption.

The U.S., by most estimates, has so far spent at least one trillion U.S. dollars in a disastrous conflict that had its genesis in the pursuit of Osama bin Laden, whose al-Qaeda organization was behind the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

"What did we get for this 1 trillion dollar effort? Was it worth 1 trillion dollars," questioned Jeffrey Eggers, who served as a national security aide in the White House of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, in his session with investigators.

"After the killing of Osama bin Laden (in May 2011), I said that Osama was probably laughing in his watery grave considering how much we have spent on Afghanistan."

According to the Post, an estimated 157,000 people have been killed in the war. The figure is broken down as follows: Afghan security forces – 64,124, Afghan civilians – 43,074, Taliban fighters and other insurgents – 42,100, U.S. contractors – 3,814, U.S. military personnel – 2,300, NATO and coalition troops – 1,145, humanitarian aid workers – 424, journalists and media workers – 67.

Pentagon pushes back 

Amid the high cost in lives and money, the documents suggest that the U.S. military was out of its depth in an alien environment and had no coherent game plan – with the strategy lurching from fighting terrorism to installing a system of democracy and human rights and back.

"We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan; we didn't know what we were doing," Douglas Lute, another veteran of the Bush and Obama administrations, said in a 2015 interview with the Inspector-General's office. 

The Defense Department has been pushing back against the characterization in the trove of information, denying there had been any intent to mislead the public. 

Army Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, a department spokesman, said most of the interviewees spoke with the benefit of hindsight but their input has been used by the military to revise its strategy and seek a negotiated settlement to the war.

"We remain in Afghanistan to protect our national interests and ensure that Afghanistan is never again used as a safe haven for terrorists who threaten the United States," Campbell added.

Eighteen years and counting, the U.S. is no nearer to achieving that goal, even as it tries to revive peace talks with the Taliban. No amount of deception can change that.