Soldier Behind Official NATO Twitter Account Accidentally Lets Everyone Know How He Really Feels About Afghanistan

A quickly deleted Tweet from the official account of international forces in Afghanistan has ignited a bit of a firestorm of controversy.

Apparently it was someone's birthday

an uncontroversial detail

but the controversy comes from what a soldier said, when he or she thought it was his or her own private Twitter account.

See for yourself:

Screenshot

IJC never acknowledged the Tweet, but we have reached out to them and the Pentagon Press Office for comment. We will update the post if they get back to us.

It's always funny when people mess up on Twitter, but this faux pas comes with serious consequences.

In 2011, when I was in Afghanistan, The Washington Post wrote a profile of the Twitter battle that wages between the International Security Assistance Force and the Taliban.

"... in Twitter, [coalition forces] had a tool at hand that could shape the narrative much more quickly than news releases or responses to individual queries," the report said.

In counterinsurgency, goodwill toward the Afghan people has been elusive and crucial to achieving the United States' military goals.

Look for the Taliban to seize on the fact that NATO just called Afghanistan "forsaken."