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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 135 · Wednesday, 11 November 2026

Veterans

Homeless veterans receive 10% off cardboard boxes this Veterans Day

Home Depot and Lowe's announce new discount on temporary shelter for America's heroes

Hegseth asks staff to make next execution more like ‘The Running Man’

Pete Hegseth picks wrong week to stop drinking

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Vol. 15 · No. 135

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Vol. 15 · No. 135 · Deployed worldwide

Wednesday

11 November 2026

0212 Zulu

Next edition Friday

← Front page
· Page 2

Leaked 'Afghanistan Papers' reveal officials may have told truth about the war

Filed · 1551

WASHINGTON — A confidential trove of documents obtained by Duffel Blog has revealed that many senior U.S. officials, including numerous general officers in the armed forces, have told the honest truth about the war in Afghanistan during America's eighteen-year campaign there.

The revelations have come as a shock to many, especially to veterans of the long-running conflict, who long assumed that their leaders were blissfully unaware of how poorly the campaign was going.

The documents, provided by a senior Pentagon public affairs official, reveal that U.S. leaders were aware throughout the campaign that it had no clear strategic objective, was being executed poorly. They noted that little of what they were doing was improving the situation, and some even dared to say so in public.

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