Tag Archives: Afghanistan

The Long Road Ahead in Afghanistan

21 Sunday Feb 2010

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A look at the Air Force budget for Afghanistan doesn’t sound to me like we’re planning on leaving any time soon, if ever:

* $65 million for a close-air support apron and an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance apron at Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan.

* $61 million for a cargo helicopter apron and a tactical airlift apron at Kandahar.

* $13.8 million for a cargo terminal at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, according to Nick Turse at Tom Dispatch:

* In March, according to Pentagon documents, Contrack [International, an engineering and construction firm] was awarded a $23 million contract for “the design and construction of [an] Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ramp, Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.”

* In April, Contrack was awarded another $28 million contract for work on airfields — to be performed at unspecified sites in Afghanistan.

* In June, Florida-based IAP Worldwide Services was awarded a $21 million contract to enhance electrical power distribution at the U.S. Marines’ still-growing Forward Operating Base (FOB) Leatherneck in Helmand Province…”

* In October, according to government documents, the Army also began soliciting bids — in the $10-$25 million range — for construction of fuel storage and distribution facilities at FOB Dwyer. These…are not scheduled to be completed until sometime in 2011.

* In October, defense contractor AECOM Technology signed a $78 million 6-month extension contract with the Army to “provide general-support maintenance as well as the operation of maintenance facilities, living quarters and offices at two U.S. military bases as well as forward operating bases and satellite locations” in Afghanistan.

* In July 2009, [Fluor]  was awarded a $1.5 billion contract for…services in Afghanistan…

* In July… DynCorp International along with partners CH2M Hill and Taos Industries received a one year $643.5 million order to “provide existing bases within the Afghanistan South AOR [area of responsibility] with operations and maintenance support, including but not limited to: facilities management, electrical power, water, sewage and waste management, laundry operations, food services and transportation motor pool operations”…With an eye to the future, the Pentagon has included four one-year options in the contract which, if taken up, would be worth an estimated $5.8 billion.

Turse sees two options. Either:

“…the U.S. military’s building boom in that country suggests that, in the ninth year of the Afghan War, the Pentagon has plans for a far longer-term, if not near-permanent, garrisoning of the country, no matter what course Washington may decide upon.”

Or:

“…it suggests that the Pentagon is willing to waste taxpayer money (which might have shored up sagging infrastructure in the U.S. and created a plethora of jobs) on what will sooner or later be abandoned runways, landing zones and forward operating bases.”

I’m betting on the former rather than the latter.

Twelve Civilians Killed in Rocket Attack

15 Monday Feb 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, Politics, war on terror

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President Obama, in the name of the Nobel Peace Prize, put a stop to this, NOW:

“MARJA, Afghanistan — An errant American rocket strike on Sunday hit a compound crowded with Afghan civilians in the last Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province, killing at least 10 people [the number now stands at 12], including 5 children, military officials said.

…It was unclear whether one or more rockets hit the building. Officers said the barrage had been fired from Camp Bastion, a large British and American base to the northeast, by a weapons system known as HIMARS, an acronym for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. Its munitions are GPS-guided and advertised as being accurate enough to strike within a yard of their intended targets.”

…The strike came after American Marines and Afghan soldiers had been taking intense small-arms fire from a mud-walled compound in the area, American officers said. The answering artillery barrage instead hit a building a few hundred yards way, striking with a roar and sending a huge cloud of dust and smoke into the air. As the wind pushed the plume away, a group of children rushed outside.

“Within a yard.” These rockets missed their intended target by 300 yards.

This is how we intend to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people? And how many recruits will the Taliban gain from this? Only the number of casualties in the days, weeks, months, and years to come will tell us the answer to that question.

Get. Out. Now.

Standing Up So We Can Stand Down?

10 Wednesday Feb 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, Obama

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A major part of whatever is the definition du jour of “success” in Afghanistan depends on the increased ability of the Afghan national security forces to shoulder more and more of the load, the so-called “they stand up so we can stand down” policy.

At a recent meeting in Kabul:

“A joint panel of officials from Afghanistan, the U.N. and troop-contributing nations approved plans to train more than 100,000 more security forces by the end of next year…[T]he Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board agreed to increase the size of the Afghan National Army from the current figure of about 97,000 to 171,600 by the end of next year, officials said. The Afghan National Police will be boosted from about 94,000 today to 134,000.

The board set a long-term goal of expanding the Afghan security force to 240,000 soldiers and 160,000 police within five years if conditions require.”

They stand up so we can stand down. The standing up part might be a problem.

“When British trainers administered random drugs tests to 25 Afghan police recruits at a base in southern Helmand province, most of them failed…”So far we’ve found three tested positive for amphetamines and also opiates, approximately 15 for the use of hashish,” British Army Captain Pete Alexander, a police instructor, told Reuters, looking over the results of the 25 tests.”

Not only can they stand up, but will they stand up?:

“…a fourth of the officers quit every year, making the Afghan government’s lofty goals of substantially building up the police force even harder to achieve.”

So how long should it take to achieve this lofty goal, President Karzai?

“With regard to training and equipping the Afghan security forces, five to 10 years will be enough,” Karzai said. “With regard to sustaining them until Afghanistan is financially able to provide for our forces, the time will be extended to 10 to 15 years.”

And the end is not in sight.

“More Empires Have Fallen Because of Reckless Finances Than Invasion”

09 Tuesday Feb 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, George W. Bush, Iraq, Obama, war on terror

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From Eric Margoils’ Wars Sending US Into Ruin, at Common Dreams:

“More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion.”

Speaking of empires:

“There are 750 U.S. military bases in 50 nations and 255,000 service members stationed abroad, 116,000 in Europe, nearly 100,000 in Japan and South Korea.

The Pentagon now accounts for half of total world military spending…China and Russia combined spend only a paltry 10% of what the U.S. spends on defense.”

And now for the reckless finances:

“Obama’s total military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $880 billion. Add secret black programs (about $70 billion); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military “contractors” (mercenaries and workers); and veterans’ costs. Add $75 billion…for 16 intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees.

Like Bush, Obama is paying for America’s wars through supplemental authorizations — putting them on the nation’s already maxed-out credit card. Future generations will be stuck with the bill.

The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama’s Afghan “surge” of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion – more than Germany’s total defense budget.

Military spending gobbles up 19% of federal spending and at least 44% of tax revenues. During the Bush administration, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – funded by borrowing – cost each American family more than $25,000.

Margolis concludes:

“Increasing numbers of Americans are rightly outraged and fearful of runaway deficits. Most do not understand their political leaders are also spending their nation into ruin through unnecessary foreign wars and a vainglorious attempt to control much of the globe – what neocons call “full spectrum dominance.”

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” James Madison—1795.

Eight Americans Die for Ground With “No Tactical or Strategic Value”

06 Saturday Feb 2010

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McClatchy has a report on the investigation into the battle for Command Outpost Keating in Afghanistan which should infuriating to most Americans and, sad to say, is likely to be repeated in the months to come as President Obama ramps up the war there (emphasis mine):

“A U.S. military investigation into a battle last October in eastern Afghanistan that cost eight American soldiers their lives has concluded that the small outpost was worthless, the troops there didn’t understand their mission, and intelligence and air support were tied up elsewhere in the province.

…The report also says…that Combat Outpost Keating was located “deep in a bowl in Nuristan province, surrounded by high ground,” with limited protection from one observation post. By mid-2009, the report says, “there was no tactical or strategic value to holding the ground occupied by COP Keating,” which had been established to support a provincial political and economic reconstruction effort that never materialized.”

Do we never learn? Sending American soldiers to die in a country thousands of miles away, in order to prop up a puppet government which came to power by way of a fraudulent election, and is not supported by the people of that country. We’ve been there before.

George Santayana was right. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Facing Tough Choices on Deficit and Debt

04 Thursday Feb 2010

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I think most people who live in the real world (leaving out the gutless wonders who inhabit Washington, D.C.) will agree that if we ever hope to get our fiscal house in order some tough choices will have to be made. David Pauly has a piece at Bloomberg today with 9 suggestions:

1. Restore all income taxes to the pre-President George W. Bush level, not just those for people earning $250,000 or more.

2. Tax the banks $90 billion as proposed by President Barack Obama to pay for their bailout. Then break them up — making them small enough to fail and eliminating the need for more trillion-dollar rescues.

3. Eliminate income-tax deductions for property taxes and mortgage interest. Phase it in over five years so it hurts less.

4. Break Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into four mortgage- buying companies and get them off the federal dole.

5. Raise the retirement age for collecting full Social Security benefits to 72. Cut cost-of-living increases for beneficiaries to half the inflation rate for 10 years.

6. Raise the age for Medicare eligibility to 68.

Regarding numbers 5 and 6: Keep in mind that when Social Security was passed in 1936, life expectancy was 62. When Medicare was passed in 1965 it was 70. Today it’s 78.

7. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the current schedules.

8. Kill farm subsidies.

9. Reduce government.
Pauly lists some of the overlapping agencies and departments which could eliminated:

The government has both the U.S. Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission. Doesn’t competition from e-mail and FedEx Corp. keep postal rates in line?

[Does] the president really needs both a Council of Economic Advisers and a National Economic Council?

Government housing officials will have less to do if we cut Fannie and Freddie loose.

Whole agencies might be suspect. We, for instance, have a Selective Service System but no draft.

Certainly food for thought.

Karzai: Another 10 to 15 Years Should Do It

31 Sunday Jan 2010

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Speaking of a state of perpetual war:

“LONDON – Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned yesterday that foreign troops must stay in his country for another decade, as world powers agreed on an exit map including a plan to persuade Taliban fighters to disarm in exchange for jobs and homes…

“With regard to training and equipping the Afghan security forces, five to 10 years will be enough,” Karzai said. “With regard to sustaining them until Afghanistan is financially able to provide for our forces, the time will be extended to 10 to 15 years.”

…The conference was called to help the United States and its allies find a way out of the grinding Afghan war amid rising U.S. and NATO casualties and falling public support. NATO has agreed to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces and gradually transfer more combat responsibility to them.

Actually, Karzai is being very optimistic. The real time frame as to when “Afghanistan is financially able to provide” for their own forces is a bit longer. Like NEVER. The cost of maintaining the Afghan security forces at the levels being proposed by General McChrystal and the Obama administration is approximately $2 to $3 billion a year. This in a country whose entire annual budget is $600 million, and where the gross national product is the size of Boise Idaho’s.

In other words, it’s never gonna happen.

A Simple Solution to the Army's Suicide Epidemic

31 Sunday Jan 2010

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McClatchy has the account today (January 31) of Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Samuel Rhodes and his battle with thoughts of suicide as an example of this ever-increasing problem among active duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan:

“It’s been roughly five years since Rhodes came home from his third tour in Iraq, and despite a highly-decorated 29-year career in the Army, a new book, more than a hundred speaking engagements and praise from the likes of Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, for his efforts in suicide prevention, Rhodes still wrestles with his own demons.

…Rhodes is among a small cadre of senior non-commissioned officers and officers who’re opening up about their journeys back from the brink of suicide — efforts that top military commanders applaud as they battle a suicide epidemic.

…This month, the Defense Department reported that there were 160 reported active-duty Army suicides in 2009, up from 140 in 2008. Of these, 114 have been confirmed, while the cause of death in the remaining 46 remains to be determined. The increase in military suicides includes men between the ages of 18-30, mid-career officers and, increasingly, women.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other military leaders have said the increase is likely related to repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the stigma long associated with seeking treatment for mental health problems.

…In response, the Pentagon has poured millions of dollars into new suicide prevention programs and thousands of hours on helping soldiers suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

If I may, the people at the Pentagon are treating the symptoms but not the disease. I can save them those millions of dollars and thousands of hours spent on seeking a solution to this problem with one simple prescription. It’s a great, big dose of  ‘Get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan and put an end to this perpetual state of war.’