US military acknowledges reported drop in Taliban attacks was incorrect

The Obama administration appears to have relied on misleading figures to characterize progress in the war in Afghanistan, as the U.S.-led military coalition acknowledged Tuesday that it had incorrectly reported a decline in Taliban attacks last year.

Throughout the campaign season, President Obama and his top officials claimed the Taliban were on the decline.

"We broke the Taliban's momentum," Obama said from Bagram Air Base last May.

"We've blunted the Taliban's momentum," he said last September, as he accepted the party's nomination.

But the corrected numbers could undercut that narrative.

The U.S.-led coalition had incorrectly reported a 7 percent decline in Taliban attacks last year. In fact, there was no change in the number of attacks on international troops from 2011 to 2012.

"It certainly runs against the administration narrative that things are getting better in Afghanistan," said Peter Brookes, a senior fellow with The Heritage Foundation.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said the mistakes were noticed "during a quality control check."

Officials attributed the miscounting to clerical errors and said the problem does not change officials' basic assessment of the war.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/26/us-military-report-showing-drop-in-taliban-attacks-found-to-be-incorrect/#ixzz2M9SthpQf