<HTML>It may be that this is a real document with a real writer and real facts, I don't know. What I do know is that it is unlikely I will ever know for sure, even if someone named Richard Kidd goes on tv and embellishes it for a congressional committee.
There are propaganda mills at work on both sides. This looks like the work product of such a mill. For instance, if the Afghani fighters are backward feudalistic egomaniacal mercenaries, why did so many Russian soldiers die fighting them?
But, forget the specifics included here - climb up to 100,000 feet and look at this in perspective. This guy claims to be a soldier who was recently debriefed in Washington for his expertise on the ground in Afghanistan, where we are about to engage an enemy. Does it make sense that there would be published this level of detailed analysis by a valued strategic advisor just before the battle begins? Loose lips sink ships, and this speech would be a court-martial offense.
Propaganda, salted, buttered and spoon-fed.</HTML>
