The mission in Afghanistan has been long, deadly and badly in need of robust oversight. Since 2008, the inspector general’s office has been issuing quarterly reports that encompass both reconstruction and the state of the conflict. While classified versions of the reports accessible to Congress include secret information, versions prepared for the public have given an honest accounting to the taxpayers who fund the war and the families who send their loved ones to fight it.

In the latest report, in addition to the updates not provided to the inspector general on the number of districts and people living under Taliban control, the following metrics were classified or otherwise kept from the public eye: the number of casualties suffered by Afghan security forces; performance assessments of the Afghan Army, police and other security organizations; all but general information about the operational readiness of the security forces; the number and readiness of the elite Special Mission Wing of the Afghan Air Force; and reports on the progress of anticorruption efforts by the Ministry of the Interior.

What was documented in the public report was alarming enough, given that the time period covered was the winter months, when fighting often wanes. If the Trump administration’s plan was to pummel the Taliban into signing a peace deal, the statistics reveal a troubling truth about its effectiveness.

According to the inspector general’s report, enemy-initiated attacks during the winter rose considerably. The monthly average number of attacks, more than 2,000, was up 19 percent from last November through January, compared with the monthly average over the previous reporting period , ending in October. From December through the end of February, the number of Afghan military and security force casualties was 31 percent higher than a year earlier. The report also took grim note of the fact that Afghan government and international forces caused more civilian deaths during the quarter than anti-go vernment forces did.