"It's not about communications. It's about keeping the press gallery at bay," he said. "Government is no longer in the communications business."

"There's a good story to be told. But these people in the field aren't allowed to speak," the official said. "Their sacrifices and hard work deserve to be heard."

That's why he would add a new message to the government's Afghan sales pitch "Early exit guarantees failure. At least if we stay in the game, we can pull a success out of this. But there's no question that if we leave now, it's all basically been for naught."