Afganistan : US Goals.." Good enough?"

[deziloooooo]

Not much to comment on this article written by a long time experienced Afgan expert..it's a bit long, but does give a new insite in what the US policy will become shortly, if not already...basically

"Good Enough " in results is about all we are going to get..so I guess I'll borrow that phrase brought up by one a while ago...

"Deal with it..."
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english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/201161893436499365.html
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[Click on link to read article]
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Opinion

Obama, Afghanistan, and the wages of sin

Faced with unrealistic targets for post-war peace and stability, "good enough" becomes the new goal of US policy.

Robert Grenier Last Modified: 19 Jun 2011 16:37


July 2011 is the deadline for the beginning of a US withdrawal of troops, but it is becoming increasingly clear that Afghanistan needs further direction [GALLO/GETTY]

"It is axiomatic in warfare that the overall goals of a campaign and the strategy to achieve them should be determined in advance of decisions regarding the resources - money, equipment, people, time - to be applied. It is the former which must dictate the latter. And if it should transpire that, for one reason or another, the resources necessary to achieve one's goals are not available, then both the goals and the strategy need to be adjusted accordingly.

As the Obama administration prepares for yet another wholesale change of military and civilian command in Afghanistan, and as the clock ticks down on the July 2011 deadline for the promised beginning of a US withdrawal of troops, it is becoming increasingly clear that the US project in Afghanistan is going to change. And although we are told that there is considerable controversy within the administration, breaking largely along military/civilian lines, as to the size and pace of any drawdown of US troops between now and the end of this calendar year, it is nonetheless clear that US resources devoted to the effort are, one way or another, going to decline. If one lengthens the time horizon slightly to 2014 - much closer than virtually anyone cares to admit - the consensus of the US, NATO, and even the Afghan government is that foreign military involvement in Afghanistan will be reduced by then to much lower, indeed minimal, levels.

If things were going along swimmingly in Afghanistan, this would be no problem. Even taking a "conditions-based" approach to a drawdown of foreign troops, as the Obama administration has insisted all along it would, improvements in security and governance in currently contested parts of the country would permit Afghans to assume responsibilities currently carried by foreigners, permitting the seamless and progressive departure of the latter.

Unsustainable projects

That's the theory. But things are not going swimmingly in Afghanistan. Responding to questions from the Senate Foreign Relations committee just over a week ago, Ryan Crocker, the new US Ambassador-designate to that country, compared his upcoming task there unfavourably with that which confronted him in Iraq, where he served as ambassador during the worst of the fratricidal violence of 2007 and 2008. As for the prospects of success for the US-led counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, the best he could say was that the task was "not impossible". He may actually have been trying to exude optimism.

Speaking at the same hearing, Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman John Kerry, a strong supporter of the administration, and often employed by the White House as an emissary to both the Afghan and Pakistani governments, was scathing about current US policy. The US commitment in Afghanistan, he said, "in troops and dollars, is neither proportional to our interests, nor sustainable".

On the same day, the same Senate committee released a study, some two years in the making, of US development assistance to Afghanistan. Such assistance, it said, amounting to some $19bn since 2002, is probably doing more harm than good. Spent disproportionately in the violence-wracked south and east of the country as a means of building quick popular support for the Afghan government and its foreign benefactors in areas recently cleared of Taliban insurgents, and often disbursed with woefully inadequate oversight in areas where there is little or no Afghan governmental structure to manage it, such aid money is overwhelming local institutions, encouraging a culture of corruption and aid dependency. According to the report, even where there are immediate benefits associated with US projects, the results are often unsustainable by local officials, who lack the expertise to operate or the money to maintain them. US foreign assistance to Afghanistan currently constitutes an astounding 97 per cent of that country's gross domestic product; when it declines, as it inevitably will, an economic depression is likely to result."

[NoMoreLunacy]

I voted for Obama but I f'ing hate the way he has delayed the pullout from Iraq and Afghanistan.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I've grown weary of these wars, as have many. I say that even now as my wonderful DH prepares for his 8th deployment to Iraq. (sigh)

[deziloooooo]

Jun 19, 2011 19:26:30 GMT -5 NoMoreLunacy said:

I voted for Obama but I f'ing hate the way he has delayed the pullout from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Actually, to be not asked to stay in Iraq , that really is not a good thing and not sure we will be asked especially when we send over congressional groups like we just did, asked to leave, kicked out of the country as a fact, who get involved in things that they are not there to be involved with..
The complete pullout in Iraq, sounds great, it is not, and this is not just my unknowable thoughts , but from all aspects of those who know, not sure of Obama's feelings actually, but our presence to keep them on the straight and narrow and give them the back bone and strength to stand up to Iran, AL Sadder , keep from becoming a vassal State of Irans..and control of all that oil and pressure on the Saudis..to leave completely, not good, sorry, the way it us.

Afghanistan?? What a cluster F is my only thought.

[NoMoreLunacy]

Yes, we have f'ed Iraq up real good indeed. F'ing Bush.

[Politically_Incorrect12]

It's one those situations where we have to deal with the situation that way it is now. Honestly IMO we won both of those wars when the government of those countries fell. Now we are simply helping those countries build up to a spot where they can defend themselves. A timeline should have been placed because ultimately if those countries succeed or fail falls upon the people of those countries. We helped give it back to them, now it's time for them to step up.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

[privateinvestor]

The military in Afghanistan after ten long and tough years still needlessly throws throws billions of dollars at the Afghan military that steal some of it and pass some of it to militants who use it t kill American Troops. The Afghan War now costs us @ $120 Billion a year. And Afghan has to be one of the most corrupt nations in the world.....I think Somalia is the worse of the worst. And Burma and the Afghan are near the bottom of the rung..IMHO. Also our State Dept doesn't have a clue where ail the billions of dollars went when it handed over money to thieves or traitors....But these are things the Liberal Media will not report because it would make the Obama Administration look like they are inept with their handling of the war in the Afghan..

[deziloooooo]

Jun 19, 2011 23:16:07 GMT -5 @privateinvestor said:

The military in Afghanistan after ten long and tough years still needlessly throws throws billions of dollars at the Afghan military that steal some of it and pass some of it to militants who use it t kill American Troops. The Afghan War now costs us @ $120 Billion a year. And Afghan has to be one of the most corrupt nations in the world.....I think Somalia is the worse of the worst. And Burma and the Afghan are near the bottom of the rung..IMHO. Also our State Dept doesn't have a clue where ail the billions of dollars went when it handed over money to thieves or traitors....But these are things the Liberal Media will not report because it would make the Obama Administration look like they are inept with their handling of the war in the Afghan..

The real screw up was when they left Afghanistan to just muddle threw and then went into Iraq...Obama made a decision , right or wrong , to increase but not all the military wanted, but the military was looking for double what he agreed to with no time line..it was to late for that, possible if Bush had done that in the first place but by the time Obama came into the picture that time had passed.

Bidden wanted no Nation building, 20,000 troops with the emphasis going after al quida in Pakistan and just hold back the taliban, none of this nation building..

What ever, we will start down sizing no question about it..

[privateinvestor]

Obama wants other nations to give money to the Afghan government so he can bail or else the Afghan government will collapse when we pull out. However other countries know any money going to the Afghan government will be misspent as before when their aid went to the Kabul bank which was used by the Karzai family as their own personal checking accounts. And Karzai cleared his family of any and all wrongdoing. So now our Government Accounting Office is checking into this over nine years after the war in the Afghan started

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

...imo, one of the big PR problems is that we gave assistance with strings attached... despite not being all that inclined, or able, to pull on said strings... but we'll claim them, nonetheless...

[privateinvestor]

I see the same thing happening in the Afghan that happened when we pulled out of South Vietnam in 1975. I think when we bail out then our efforts for the past ten years could easily collapse. Illiteracy is universal in Afghanistan, life expectancy is low, and tribes run the country and hate Karzai.... this means the economy in the Afghan could very well collapse and leave the door open for the Taliban to return and Mullah Omar will then take over Karzai's government. Karzai will then move to France with his millions and lead the good life while his country goes back to the Taliban.. And Obama will be blamed for pulling out too soon by the Republicans ..

[privateinvestor]

Our Navy Corpsmen have been trying to help the Afghans but that is an impossible task according to one who I discussed the Afghan with. She told me how the country is so primitive, many of the children die before they reach age 5 because of a lack of hygiene and nutrition. She was also in Haiti and thinks Afghanistan is worse than Haiti because the Afghans are so poor, & without any medical aid to speak of..

There has been progress made in the Afghan but was the cost worth it?? I don't think so and challenge anyone to convince me that we should stay in that country..

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

Jun 20, 2011 0:47:43 GMT -5 @privateinvestor said:

Our Navy Corpsmen have been trying to help the Afghans but that is an impossible task according to one who I discussed the Afghan with. She told me how the country is so primitive, many of the children die before they reach age 5 because of a lack of hygiene and nutrition. She was also in Haiti and thinks Afghanistan is worse than Haiti because the Afghans are so poor, & without any medical aid to speak of..

There has been progress made in the Afghan but was the cost worth it?? I don't think so and challenge anyone to convince me that we should stay in that country..

...how about we annex both, set them up as territories, and claim all mineral rights?