The Afghanistan Weekly Reader – April 22, 2011
The arrival of a high-level delegation of Pakistani officials in Kabul over the weekend provided evidence of first steps towards Afghanistan-Pakistan cooperation in starting a peace process. However, any progress made towards establishing formal talks remains dependent on building the trust of all the stakeholders in the conflict. Among them, an Afghan public that is highly skeptical of the aims of its government in pursuing negotiations with the Taliban, and equally wary Taliban fighters who are confused by the olive branch offered to them by the Karzai government while the U.S. military continues to act as if it, “…only wants to talk with their boots on the Taliban’s neck,” as an EU diplomat put it.
The working week began with American taxpayers sending off a considerable chunk of their paychecks to the federal government to pay for the $120 billion annual cost of American military involvement in Afghanistan. Meanwhile a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the combat wound without visible scars, post-traumatic stress, costs the nation $1 billion every year (and, for those who suffer from it, so much more).
And while Howard Dean found the political courage to break with President Obama over the failed war strategy, House Speaker John Boehner found that a wasteful, unwinnable war in Afghanistan was the one thing he and the president can agree on.
Articles
Afghan and Pakistani Leaders Meet in Peace Bid
New York Times by Alyssa J. Rubin
KABUL, Afghanistan — Much of Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership flew here Saturday for a meeting with Afghanistan’s president to discuss efforts to forge peace with the Taliban. Although leaders from the two countries have met before to discuss a peace deal, the gathering Saturday was unprecedented because of the number of high-level Pakistani officials in attendance.
Lack Of Trust Among Afghans Is Major Stumbling Block To Peace Talks
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
Lack of trust is emerging as the No. 1 problem as Afghan President Hamid Karzai pushes for a national reconciliation with the Taliban. Faced with increased international military operations, Taliban elements appear to be extremely skeptical of the peace overtures that Afghan and international officials have made to entice the insurgents into negotiations.
The War In Afghanistan: How Much Are You Paying?
Huffingpost by Amanda Terkel
WASHINGTON — As Americans breathe a sigh of relief over finally filing the returns on what they owe (or are owed from) Uncle Sam this Tax Day, the progressive group Rethink Afghanistan wants them to consider how much of their money is funding the war in Afghanistan, now in its 10th year. The group, a project of the Brave New Foundation, has created a Cost of War calculator, allowing Americans to figure out how much of their tax dollars are going toward the war, based on their income and filing status.
Talks on U.S. Presence in Afghanistan After Pullout Unnerve Region
New York Times by Rod Nordland
KABUL, Afghanistan — First, American officials were talking about July 2011 as the date to begin the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Then, the Americans and their NATO allies began to talk about transition, gradually handing over control of the war to the Afghans until finally pulling out in 2014. Now, however, the talk is all about what happens after 2014.
The Cost of Combat Stress: A Billion Dollars a Year
Madhumita Venkataramanan
In a war, death comes in many forms: jury-rigged bombs, sleek fighter jets, assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades. But a stealthier killer lingers long after the fighting is done, in the psychological toll that combat exacts. More than 6,000 veterans take their own lives every year — about 20 percent of the 30,000 American suicides annually. n an effort to quantify the psychological cost of war, a recent report from the National Bureau of Economic Research has come up with the magic numbers.
Battered Soldiers, Broken Plan: Afghanistan in Video and Photos
Wired.com by David Axe
RAMSTEIN AIR FORCE BASE, Germany — The 88-foot-long cargo hold of the massive airlifter has been converted into a makeshift intensive care unit. Metal stanchions hold collapsible stretchers fitted with heart monitors. Defibrillators, pumps, intubation kits, oxygen bottles and other equipment lie ready in their hardened cases. For the scheduled seven-and-a-half hour flight between Afghanistan and this U.S. air base near the Pentagon’s Landstuhl hospital, the seven men and women of the Air Force’s 10th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight and their attached critical-care team will try to keep their patients alive. But for now they wait, shuffling foot-to-foot under the cargo hold’s glaring lights.
Howard Dean to President Obama: Get Our Troops Out of Afghanistan!
The Daily Beast by McKay Coppins
With the U.S. military engaged in three separate Middle Eastern conflicts, Dean—the former governor of Vermont who rallied grassroots Democrats in 2004 by fervently condemning the Iraq war—has been notably absent from the left-wing criticism of President Obama’s defense policy. Once an anti-war icon, Dean has spent the past two years applauding the administration’s troop surge in Afghanistan, defending the slow withdrawal from Iraq, and endorsing the military intervention in Libya. But now, it appears, Dean is returning to his pacifistic roots—and he has a message for President Obama: Get our troops out of Afghanistan.
Ethnic Militias Fuel Tensions in Northern Afghanistan
The Wall Street Journal by Marie Abi-Habib
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan—Government officials in northern Afghanistan are building up their own ethnic-based militia groups to expand their influence and keep the Taliban at bay. But the spread of mostly Tajik and Uzbek militias is aggravating tensions with local Pashtuns—the country’s largest ethnic group but a minority in the north—some of whom say they are being driven to turn to the Taliban, a largely Pashtun group, to defend their interests.
Mullen accuses Pakistan of keeping terrorist links
McClatchy Newspapers by Saeed Shah and Jonathan S. Landay
LAHORE, Pakistan — The American military’s top officer used an interview on Pakistani television Wednesday night to accuse the country’s spy agency of supporting an Afghan insurgent group that’s blamed for killing U.S. and Afghan forces, as well as civilians, in some of the bloodiest attacks in Afghanistan. The remarks by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chefs of Staff, were the first time a senior U.S. official has issued in such blunt terms in public what U.S. officials privately have long charged is Pakistani double-dealing on the war against Islamic militants in Afghanistan.
Boehner calls on Obama to explain ‘pace’ of Afghan withdrawal
CNNPolictics By the CNN Wire Staff
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner wrapped up a two-day trip to Afghanistan Wednesday with a demand that President Barack Obama explain how the “pace and scope” of a planned U.S. troop withdrawal will not undermine the country’s fragile security gains.
Opinion
How the U.S. military fell in love with ‘Three Cups of Tea’
The Washington Post by Greg Jaffe
Spend some time with U.S. Army officers and this much is clear: They are obsessed with drinking tea. At times, tea can seem a bit like the military’s secret weapon. A young U.S. officer bonds with an Afghan elder over cups of the brew, and soon they are working side by side to win the locals’ trust and drive out the insurgents.
Bring in the Taliban
The New York Times by Anatol Lieven and Maleeha Lodhi
Washington’s military strategy in Afghanistan now aims to avoid the appearance of defeat for America, but for Afghanistan it is a recipe for unending civil war. In essence, it is a version of the strategy pursued by the Soviet Union in the second half of the 1980s: to build up the Afghan army to the point where it can contain the insurgents without the help of outside ground forces, while seeking to win over individual insurgent commanders and their supporters.
Advancing the Drawdown
Afghanistan Study Group
Wednesday, a group of high-caliber panelists gathered at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to participate in a frank discussion on the United States’ strategy for the Afghanistan War. The panelists included the highly regarded blogger and analyst Josh Foust in conversation with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering; Afghanistan Study Group Director (and former Marine Captain) Matt Hoh with RAND Corp. Director (and former ambassador) James Dobbins); and American for Tax reform President Grover Norquist along with conservative firebrand Ann Coulter.
