On Monday, The Washington Post published a series of previously classified government documents that display how members of the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations, along with members of the military, misled the American public about the progress of the war in Afghanistan. According to the documents, since the early stages of the war, many had reservations about the United States' ability to achieve success, and questioned what the long-term goal and strategy of the war is.

During an interview with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday, Juliette Kayyem, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Intergovernmental Affairs during the Obama administration, said that for those who have been closely watching the war, many of the revelations do not come as a surprise.

However, Kayyem said that for the general American public, the publication of the documents could be a watershed moment in the way the public perceives the war and the American government, and could be as impactful as the publication of the Pentagon Papers was in 1971.

“If you’ve been following along, there may not be a eureka moment, but if you haven’t been following along ... it’s just a remarkable series,” Kayyem said. “If we can just out of the noise of all of the drama of this president, we will look back at it and see it as the Pentagon Papers.”