Hear it from the United States Defence Department or the White House, and the war in Afghanistan is a success story allowing combat operations to cease a year early.
Listen, however, to Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Davis, veteran of two tours, and the 11-year conflict is a failure bordering on a disaster that those in power have concealed from Congress and the American people.
For the past month, Davis has been conducting an unusual one-man whistleblowing campaign, complete with two reports - one classified - to his superiors at the Pentagon and private briefings for legislators.
Now he has gone public, first in an article for a journal on military affairs, and then yesterday with the New York Times.
It comes barely a week after Leon Panetta, the Defence Secretary, revealed plans for the last US combat troops to be out of Afghanistan by late 2013, compared with President Barack Obama's previous target of 2014.