Afghanistan war: There was no pressure to 'white wash' the war, Vermont commander says

Ryan Mercer | Burlington Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Was Afghanistan worth it? Soldiers on war that's 'never gonna be over' The Vermont National Guard in 2010 lost five soldiers in Afghanistan. And that's just the beginning of the conflict's cost. Produced in 2019.

William Roy, the man who commanded the Vermont National Guard during their 2010 deployment to Afghanistan, said he felt no pressure to 'white wash' reports to higher ups.

That conflicts with a Washington Post analysis of more than 2,000 pages of documents on the war in Afghanistan obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

John Sopko – head the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, which conducted the interviews – told the Post that the documents show "the American people have constantly been lied to" since U.S. troops first arrived there 18 years ago.

But even during his time at the Pentagon after Vermont's deployment, then Maj. Gen. William F. Roy disagrees that there was a systemic policy to hide the truth, at least on the military side.

"During my time [In Afghanistan], what was being relayed from the field is what was being reported," Roy said in a phone interview Monday night.

When asked if he ever felt pressure to fashion favorable reports while in Afghanistan or at the Pentagon, Roy replied, "Never."

2010 Afghanistan War deployment was Vermont's largest since WWII

Roy retired in 2016, after serving two years as commanding general of the Joint Task Force-Civil Support under the Department of Defense's National Guard Bureau in Fort Eustis, Virginia. Before that, he served as deputy director of Army operations for nearly three years at the Pentagon.

In 2010, he commanded the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, the first time a national guard and was put in control of a territory in a foreign country.

That deployment, part of the "surge" under President Obama, was Vermont's largest mobilization of guard soldiers since World War II.

Roy also stressed that Afghanistan as a whole is a massive place and, at the height of the surge, was a very complicated situation with both successes and failures spread all over the country.

Depending on where you were, he said, reports could range from very favorable to the complete opposite.

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When at the Pentagon, Roy worked under Gen. John F. Campbell whose last assignment was in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"You could not get a straighter shooter than he," Roy said, adding that Campbell had concerns about the challenges facing the U.S. military in Afghanistan and made those concerns clear.

Commander cites early success of training Afghanistan police

Prior to 2010, Roy also worked under then Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, who was serving as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan during the Vermont National Guard's 2010 deployment. Roy characterized Eikenberry's reports at that time as accurate as well.

Between his time on the ground in Afghanistan and at the Pentagon, Roy said he didn't see a policy of white-washing information that was coming out of Afghanistan.

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More: Why I'll never forget the Vermont soldiers I met while reporting in Afghanistan

Roy and the Vermont National Guard's history in Afghanistan started shortly after 2001. He cites early successes in training the Afghan Army and the police, efforts that continued through the 2010 deployment.

One of the documents obtained by the Washington Post was a 2015 interview with the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction.

In that interview, Peter Galbraith — United Nations' Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan in 2009 — outlined everything from massive election fraud, fundamental flaws in the surge strategy, to burnout of State Department staff.

Galbraith served as a Vermont state senator from 2011 to 2015 and ran for governor in 2016.

After helping to uncover fraud in the 2009 Afghan presidential election, Galbraith was later fired after claiming that the UN was concealing that fraud which benefited incumbent president, Hamid Karzai, according to the New York Times.

Contact Ryan Mercer at rmercer@freepressmedia.com or at 802-343-4169. Follow him on Twitter @ryanmercer1 and facebook.com/ryan.mercer1.