Lawmakers meet with Army official who issued scathing Afghanistan report

A group of anti-war lawmakers on Thursday met with Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who wrote a report on the war in Afghanistan that contradicted what top military officials have said about the direction of the war.

The five House members — Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) — invited Davis to Capitol Hill for an update about the war.

“He’s very brave and courageous,” Lee told The Hill. “We were encouraged there are some who know the difference between fact and fiction in what’s taking place [in Afghanistan].”

Davis caused an uproar in the defense community earlier this month after he wrote that the conditions in Afghanistan were not nearly as rosy as they were being described by top military officials. He posted a summary of his report on the Armed Forces Journal, and Rolling Stone last week published his 84-page unclassified report, which was titled “Dereliction of Duty Part II.”

“Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the U.S. Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable,” the report began. “This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan.”

Two lawmakers, Jones and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), used Davis’s report to argue on the House Floor last week that the United States needed to speed up its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Lee said that Thursday’s meeting was the group’s first with Davis.

---