Category Archives: Afghanistan

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

19 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, BP, Clinton, Congress, Deepwater Horizon, Energy, Environment, Gulf Oil Spill, Obama administration, oil exploration, Politics

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I read the news today:

Arlen Specter switched parties because he couldn’t win the Republican primary, now he loses the Democratic primary to Joe Sestak. This just in Arlen, it’s not about party this year, the key word is “incumbent.” You’re 80 years old, you’ve been in the Senate for 30 years. Your time is up.

Mitch McConnell’s hand-picked candidate to succeed Jim Bunning got smoked by Tea Party favorite Rand Paul in the Republican senatorial primary in Kentucky. Once again, connections to the party establishment, regardless of which party, is the kiss of death this election season.

The latest example of why the anti-incumbent mood exists. Eight-term Congressman Mark Souder announced his resignation after an affair with one of his staffers was exposed.

I defer to the experts on the Gulf oil spill, but this smells like a cover-up to me:

“The Obama administration is actively trying to dismiss media reports that vast plumes of oil lurk beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, unmeasured and uncharted.

But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose job it is to assess and track the damage being caused by the BP oil spill that began four weeks ago, is only monitoring what’s visible — the slick on the Gulf’s surface — and currently does not have a single research vessel taking measurements below.”

As does this:

“BP, the company in charge of the rig that exploded last month in the Gulf of Mexico, hasn’t publicly divulged the results of tests on the extent of workers’ exposure to evaporating oil or from the burning of crude over the gulf, even though researchers say that data is crucial in determining whether the conditions are safe.

Moreover, the company isn’t monitoring the extent of the spill and only reluctantly released videos of the spill site that could give scientists a clue to the amount of the oil in gulf.”

Also on the spill:

“Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged Monday that the federal government doesn’t have the resources or expertise to deal with an oil spill 5,000 feet below the sea, and must largely depend on oil companies to deal with an incident of such magnitude.”

So if the government agencies don’t have the “resources or expertise” to deal with the consequences of offshore drilling, why do they permit it to take place and just trust that the oil companies will be to “deal with an incident of such magnitude?” Sounds to me like expecting the arsonist to help put out the fire.

And finally, a grim milestone in Afghanistan.

“On Tuesday, the toll of American dead in Afghanistan passed 1,000, after a suicide bomb in Kabul killed at least five United States service members. Having taken nearly seven years to reach the first 500 dead, the war killed the second 500 in fewer than two.”

This following General McChrystal’s assessment that “nobody is winning” in Afghanistan and Secretary of State Clinton’s pledge to Hamid Karzai of “a long-term U.S. commitment” there.

Oh boy.

Deeper Into the Afghanistan Quagmire

30 Friday Apr 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, Politics

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Afghanistan has been off the national radar screen lately, but the fighting there goes on, and we get deeper and deeper into the quagmire. In spite of our escalation the Taliban’s strength and popularity among the civilian population is increasing, not diminishing. And the end is still not in sight.

Deeper and deeper:

“The Pentagon is sending 800 more American soldiers to Afghanistan in the coming weeks to work as trainers for the Afghan security forces. The contingent is needed because other NATO countries still haven’t fulfilled their pledges to send their own troops to train the Afghan army and police.

A battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division will be heading to Afghanistan soon. The soldiers will work as trainers for at least several months. The unit is beyond the 30,000 additional troops that President Obama already approved for Afghanistan this year.”

That doesn’t include private contractors:

“The latest Department of Defense numbers show there are more civilian contractors on the ground in Afghanistan than there are soldiers. The Pentagon reported 107,292 U.S.-hired civilian workers in Afghanistan as of February.”

The insurgency is getting stronger:

“A Pentagon report presented a sobering new assessment Wednesday of the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, saying that its abilities are expanding and its operations are increasing in sophistication, despite recent major offensives by U.S. forces in the militants’ heartland.

The report, requested by Congress, portrays an insurgency with deep roots and broad reach, able to withstand repeated U.S. onslaughts and to reestablish its influence, while discrediting and undermining the country’s Western-backed government.

The report concludes that Afghan people support or are sympathetic to the insurgency in 92 of 121 districts identified by the U.S. military as key terrain for stabilizing the country.”

The end is not in sight:

“British and other foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan face a “very tough” time ahead and can expect to be engaged in a combat role for three or four more years, NATO ‘s most senior civilian official in the country said today…Thereafter, they could be expected to remain in Afghanistan, training and mentoring local forces, for a further 10 to 15 years.”

Eric Martin at Obsidian Wings sums up:

“The only question that remains is just how much money will we blow through..and just how much blood will we spill in our stubborn refusal to acknowledge that America, like all foreign powers, is ill-equipped to impose a system of government on a foreign population. At least not within any reasonable measure of the costs and benefits in the current context.

[…]

This is not going well. This will not end well.  Our moral compass is severely off-kilter. We are sustaining significant damage to our fiscal soundness, military preparedness and overall standing…in the pursuit of a fool’s gambit that has become so vague and so ethereal that few can even articulate a realistic objective anymore.”

Where Are the Deficit Hawks on Pentagon Spending?

25 Thursday Mar 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, budget, economy, Iraq, Pentagon, Politics, war on terror

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Think of what the reaction of the self-anointed deficit hawks in Washington would be to this headline in relation to any government spending not affiliated with the Pentagon:

“Cost of (insert name of program here) Will Be Double the Original Estimates”

Members of Congress would be stampeding to find a microphone and rail against wasteful government spending. The Tea Party movement would take to the streets in protest. Radio and TV talkers would be ranting about “stealing money from our children and grandchildren.” So why no outcry over this:

“Since 2001, when an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was expected to cost an already hefty $50 million, the plane’s cost has soared into the stratosphere…The estimated cost today is $113 million per plane.  Yes, that’s per plane….It’s also 2 ½ years behind schedule.  Keep in mind that the Marines, the Air Force, and the Navy are planning to buy a combined 2,450 of them for what’s now an eye-popping $323 billion.”

That’s assuming there are no more cost overruns. Quite a stretch, to say the least.

“In other words, if all goes well from here (an unlikely possibility), a single future weapons system is now estimated to cost the American taxpayer almost one-third of what the Obama administration’s health-care plan is expected to cost over a decade.”

Where are Sens. Nelson, Landrieu, and Lincoln? Where are Sen. McConnell, Rep. Boehner and the born-again fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party? Strangely silent. To his albeit limited credit, Sen. McCain offered this scathing rebuke (sarcasm intended) :

“The taxpayers are a little tired of this. I can’t say that I can blame them.”

Strong stuff there, huh?

67% of Afghan Recruits Drop Out Before Completing Basic Training

03 Wednesday Mar 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, Politics, war on terror

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Jason Ditz at Antiwar.com reports on the progress in training Afghans to “stand up so we can stand down”:

“The NATO goal to dramatic grow the Afghan police force continues to flounder, fueled in no small part by the massive attrition rate, according to training commander Lieutenant General William Caldwell.

Lt. Gen. Caldwell says 67 percent of police recruits drop out before the finish their basic training. Previous comments have indicated that a significant portion also resign afterwards, disillusioned by the high risk, low pay and corrupt environment.

The enormous pre-graduation attrition rate is made doubly shocking, however, when one considers how little training Afghan police are actually expected to complete. Though class lengths vary, many recruits in recent months are graduated after only about three weeks of training, thrust into the warzone with virtually no idea what to do next.

The problems are not new, in 2008 German General Hans-Christoph Ammon predicted it would take another 82 years to have a properly trained police force in Afghanistan.”

Petraeus: It’s “Going To Be a Hard Year” in Afghanistan

03 Wednesday Mar 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, Politics, war on terror

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From McClatchy:

“America is about to embark on the longest campaign in its longest war, the commander of the U.S. forces in the Middle East told a Charlotte audience Tuesday.

Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, told a crowd of more than 550 at the Westin Charlotte that a civil and military counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, now revving up, will take about 12-18 months.

“This is going to be a hard year,” he said.”

And the end is not in sight.

The Afghanistan Quagmire Deepens

25 Thursday Feb 2010

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Despite the fact that between 400 and 1,000 insurgents have 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops bogged down in Marjah, an operation in which the overwhelming numbers were supposed to make short work of those insurgents but which the Pentagon now admits is “moving more slowly than expected,” a “similar operation planned in Canadian-led Kandahar province will largely use the same tactic, its commander says.” Kandahar has a population 6 times that of Marjah. The quagmire deepens.

I’m reminded of the old George Carlin line about oxymorons, “jumbo shrimp and military intelligence.”

The Marjah offensive was also to be the first test of “a new NATO strategy focusing on protecting civilians.” How’s that working out so far? Not too good:

“The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said in a statement Wednesday that it had confirmed 28 civilians deaths in the Marjah fighting, based on witness reports. Thirteen children were among the dead.”

A number Canadian Brigadier General Daniel Menard referred to as “not bad.”

I think the parents of those 13 children and the families of the people who Brig. Gen. Menard  called “collateral damage” might have a different perspective.

$600 Million for Police Stations in Afghanistan

25 Thursday Feb 2010

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Deficit? What deficit? When it comes to the Pentagon, the checkbook is always open (emphasis added):

“In an attempt to increase the size of the Afghan police force to 160,000, the United States military intends to invest more than $600 million to build approximately 200 police stations for the Afghan National Police by 2013. This was announced only days after President Obama signed an executive order establishing a new, bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

Paul Giblin, spokesman for the U.S. Corps of Engineers, explained how the stations will be built. “There are five basic designs that are used for police stations, and they’re all pretty similar.” However, at the cost of nearly $3 million a police station, the structures will far surpass any standard set by local neighborhood precincts. In fact, the Afghan police stations will have a barbed wire perimeter with guards posted at each of the four corners. Additionally, reinforced concrete will make up the walls and roofs.”

At an average of $8,000 per person, $600 million could pay the health care costs of 75,000 Americans for one year. Priorities, anyone?

Karzai to Appoint Electoral Watchdog Commission

24 Wednesday Feb 2010

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How much more American blood and treasure are we going to expend propping up Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s increasingly corrupt government?

“After his brazen bid to steal his re-election, Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, swore that he would do better — and the Obama administration swore it would ensure that he did. He hasn’t. It didn’t.

Mr. Karzai’s latest travesty: Issuing a presidential decree to take total control of the country’s electoral watchdog commission. Yes, that is the same commission that exposed widespread fraud in the 2009 vote.

The Electoral Complaints Commission adjudicates violations and will play an important role in the September vote for a new Parliament. By law, it has five members: three non-Afghans appointed by the United Nations and two Afghans, one named by the Supreme Court and one by a human rights commission. Mr. Karzai will now be able to appoint all five members.”

At a time when American, NATO and Afghan troops are putting their lives on the line to battle the Taliban, Mr. Karzai seems interested only in his own political power. That is hugely destructive. Mr. Karzai’s failure to build a credible, honest and even minimally effective government is the Taliban’s No. 1 recruiting tool.

Bring. Them. Home.

Civilians Killed in Afghanistan “Believed” to be Insurgents

23 Tuesday Feb 2010

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More on the civilians killed  Sunday in Afghanistan, from the New York Times (emphasis added):

“KABUL, Afghanistan — An airstrike launched Sunday by United States Special Forces helicopters against what international troops believed to be a group of insurgents ended up killing as many as 27 civilians in the worst such case since at least September, Afghan officials said Monday.

…Zemarai Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said the victims were all civilians. He said two Land Cruisers and a pickup truck carrying a total of 42 people were attacked by air near Khotal Chowzar, a mountain pass that connects Daykondi Province with Oruzgan Province in central Afghanistan.”

…The Special Forces helicopters were hunting for insurgents who had escaped the NATO offensive in the Marja area, about 150 miles away, according to Gen. Abdul Hameed, an Afghan National Army commander in Dehrawood, which is part of Oruzgan Province. General Hameed, interviewed by telephone, said there had been no request from any ground forces to carry out an attack.

Believed? Before we blow away 3 vehicles on a highway 150 miles from where the fighting is taking place, with no request from troops on the ground, shouldn’t the burden of proof on who is in those vehicles be a little higher than “believed ?”

33 Civilians, Including Women and Children, Killed In Afghanistan

22 Monday Feb 2010

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Same song, different verse:

You know that hearts and minds can only be won,
When you blow ‘em all to kingdom come.

“KABUL, Afghanistan– A NATO airstrike on Sunday against what the coalition believed to be a group of insurgents ended up killing 33 civilians, including women and children, in Uruzgan Province, Afghan officials said on Monday.

“Yesterday a group of suspected insurgents, believed to be en route to attack a joint Afghan-ISAF unit, was engaged by an airborne weapons team resulting in a number of individuals killed and wounded,” the American-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. “After the joint ground force arrived at the scene and found women and children, they transported the wounded to medical treatment facilities.” The ISAF did not specify how many people were killed or whether it believed there had been insurgents among them nor did it identify which country’s aircraft were involved.

…The American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and ordered an investigation into what happened.”

The first time it was 12, this time it’s 33. How many next time Gen. McChrystal?