New Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS): In what is bound to be sweet news to Indian mandarins, US government documents on the Afghanistan war show that the Americans are regretting taking Pakistan's friendship at face value, in their war against terror.

According to interviews that are part of an extensive federal government study, US officials ultimately caught on to the double-game that their "close ally" Pakistan was playing in the war against terror. The war that the US waged in Afghanistan to dislodge the Taliban-Al Qaeda after September 11, 2001, dragged on for 18 years and cost them trillions of dollars.

Documents containing hundreds of interviews, and running into 2,000 pages indicate that US officials in the Bush and Obama administrations continued to give the American public a rosy picture of the US war against terror in Afghanistan. They continued to claim that the US would win the war even after realizing that victory was not possible.

During the military offensive against the Islamic dispensation in Afghanistan, Pakistan had sided with the Americans, but was slyly playing a double game throughout -- something which the Americans smelt out as early as 2002 itself. But the Americans ignored the Pakistani double-speak and went on pumping money and armaments, including the much talked about AMRAAM air-to-air missiles that made news headlines during the Indo-Pak Balakot face-off earlier this year.

The interviews and documents are part of a project 'Lessons Learned' conducted by a federal agency. More than 600 people were interviewed as part of the project. The documents were released to the public after the Washington Post approached the US courts for access under the freedom of information act.