Last year ISAF regularly reported a decrease of "enemy initiated attacks" (EIA) in Afghanistan:
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has said attacks by anti-government armed groups against foreign forces declined by 17 percent in the first seven months of the current year, as compared to the same period in 2011.
This January ISAF claimed that EIA in 2012 were down 7% compared with 2011.
But in February the ISAF press releases hailing this "progress" somehow vanished from its webpage. Someone noticed that and AP asked ISAF what had happened to those reports:
The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan incorrectly reported a decline in Taliban attacks last year, and officials said Tuesday that there was actually no change in the number of attacks on international troops from 2011 to 2012.
…
A coalition spokesman, Jamie Graybeal, attributed the miscounting to clerical errors and said the problem does not change officials' basic assessment of the war.
A "clerical error" is what one usually calls a lie. "But as ISAF practically says: "7% more or less killed and wounded – why care for that anyway?"
It was a big cake in the face moment for ISAF and as such numbers work against the now enshrined cut and run policies that require some triumphant victory declarations ISAF decided that the public is no longer interested in such numbers:
The U.S.-led military command in Afghanistan said Tuesday it will no longer publish figures on Taliban attacks, a week after acknowledging that its report of a 7 percent decline in attacks last year was actually no decline at all.
ISAF's silly excuse is that Afghan troops are now the ones who mostly get attacked. It seems to believe that this is something no one should count or be concerned about.
"Additionally, we have come to realize that a simple tally of (attacks) is not the most complete measure of the campaign's progress," Graybeal said. "At a time when more than 80 percent of the (attacks) are happening in areas where less than 20 percent of Afghans live, this single facet of the campaign is not particularly accurate in describing the complete effect of the insurgency's violence on the people of Afghanistan."
If that is the case why then was ISAF so happy to report such numbers as successes in every month of 2012?
The way out of "lies, damned lies, and statistics" is obviously not to publish any statistics at all.
Meanwhile the way out of Afghanistan seems to be in transferring the war to the United States. With Homeland Security now serving warrants (video) with Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicle filled with its special ops like "operators" it is only a question of time until some insurgent will considers measures against such.