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Embassy Revolt in Kabul
Karl Eikenberry, our man in Afghanistan, has apparently decided to drop a last-minute bombshell on the White House:
The U.S. ambassador in Kabul sent two classified cables to Washington in the past week expressing deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to
Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that has fueled the Taliban's rise, senior U.S. officials said.
....Eikenberry's last-minute interventions have highlighted the nagging undercurrent of the policy discussion: the U.S. dependence on a partnership with a Karzai government whose incompetence and corruption is a universal concern within the administration. After months of political upheaval, in the wake of widespread fraud during the August presidential election, Karzai was installed last week for a second five-year term.
In addition to placing the Karzai problem prominently on the table, the cables from Eikenberry, a retired four-star general who in 2006-2007 commanded U.S. troops in Afghanistan, have rankled his former colleagues in the Pentagon — as well as Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, defense officials said. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has stated that without the deployment of an additional tens of thousands of troops within the next year, the mission there "will likely result in failure."
According to an unnamed official, after reading Eikenberry's cable Obama "wants to know where the off-ramps are." So would a lot of the rest of us.
According to that article,
According to that article, we are spending about $22 Billion or $1,000 per Afghan Citizen per year there for military expenditures. That's about the same as Alaska pays its citizens out of its oil fund.
I still wonder how much more of a solution we would make in Afghanistan by encouraging/requesting/requiring Walmart, Old Navy, to open up some maqulidoras in a free trade zone.
Embassy Revolt in Kabul
Eikenberry was a very good military officer and has always been careful. He is not known for rocking boats. His late two cable ntervention surely suggests a degree of disquiet with a situation where the only options on the table are more not less commitments in Afghanistan; and still no idea of end conditions and ways out.
Eikenberry, in this instance, is our miner's canary and we really should pay special attention.
Quagmire checklist
Support of a corrupt government . . . check!
Opponent fighting guerrilla warfare . . . check!
Vague mission goals . . . check!
US military calling for perpetual escalation . . . check!
What else am I missing?
Gen. McChrystal's credibility
And what is General McChrystal's record of success in winning wars? It seems to me that it's been many years since the US military has actually won a war in any real sense. Winning the major battles and occupying territory does not, in my opinion, constitute winning the war. For that you need to have peace and progress as a result.
MCChrystal Should Be Behind Bars, Not Prosecuting a War
Old General Nasty-Ass Military Area allowed torturous interrogations under his command and refused to allow the Red Cross and Army investigators to check on their prisoners. He directed soldiers to violate international borders and kill innocents. He leaked to the press his demands for additional troop levels before Obama had made a decision, embarassing Obama and putting him in a corner, a stunt that would have gotten him shit-canned under president Dick Cheney. Whether he is competent to prosecute this war or not, morally and ethically he is a travesty and should have never been given this assignment. I can't imagine what Obama was thinking.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll get me some of those UGG boots.
How many rich, arrogant
How many rich, arrogant nations do the Afghans have to bankrupt before policy makers notice?
So we should wait to make a
So we should wait to make a decision 'til there is an Afghan government "willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement..."? Good luck with that one!
I assumed that much of the incompetence of the last administration was due to the fact that the guys in charge had either never set foot in a third world country, or if they had, had never ventured away from either the four star hotels or the salons of the ruling elite. I thought the Obamaites were supposed to be different. If they are just now noticing that things are really f__k_d up over there, this is not a good sign.
http://www.humanevents.com/ar
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34240
We are supposed to believe
We are supposed to believe that after months of discussion, our Ambassador there is finally heard from? Bullshit. You would have to disregard everything you have ever read or heard about Obama's decision making to believe that. Someone got him to write it down so they could leak it.
Act now!
If you truly believe this is a last minute bombshell the White House had no idea was coming, well then I have some real estate in the Fort Myers, FL area you might be interested in.
For an alternative
For an alternative perspective, see:
http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/11/10/it_hasnt_been_8_years_o...
Regards,
Neil S
the most practical way forward
I think the most practical way forward may be to try to force Karzai to hold a new election entirely controlled by an international agency. When he refuses we arrest him for drug trafficking and send him to the Hague. It'll take him years to get out of it.
In the meantime we have a reasonably fair election and try to move forward from that.
Sending McChrystal to the
Sending McChrystal to the Hague would do more to signal our desire for peace to the Afghan people than sending Karzai. Karzai is a puppet. The puppet's masters are the ones who need to go to jail.
Another
Another convenient excuse for Mr Dithers
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