The Afghanistan Weekly Reader – April 29, 2011
The week began with some 500 Taliban detainees escaping from the Sarposa prison in Kandahar. Afghanistan’s Minister of Justice stated the Taliban had help from police and officials inside the prison and pointed fingers at ISAF as well as Afghan security forces for failing to disrupt the plot. While the spectacular jailbreak garnered the lion’s share of media attention an even bigger scandal involving Afghan security forces slipped under the radar. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction released an audit which found that nobody knows exactly how many police are in the country and that a lack of oversight may allow millions in donor funds to be diverted into Afghan officials’ pockets.
The “significant risk of fraud, waste and abuse” found in the SIGAR audit appears to apply to a sizable chunk of contracting in the Global War on Terror. A report of the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting found that the U.S. has lost roughly $177 billion in taxpayer dollars to fraudulent and wasteful spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Also notable this week, a new poll found that a record 69% of Republicans disapprove of the handling of the war in Afghanistan and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) continued to ignore their demands for a troop drawdown. Though conservatives that question the wisdom of a $120 billion a year war that fails to secure America’s vital interests lost a champion when Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour withdrew from the 2012 presidential race, they gained another with the candidacy of New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. And the 72% of Americans that want a faster troop withdrawal show that there’s plenty of room for all the candidates on a platform that brings America’s strategic interests and its commitments to Afghanistan back into balance.
From the ASG Blog
New Poll Finds Record # of Americans Against War in Afghanistan: Obama and Boehner Still Leading from the Rear
Afghanistan Study Group by Will Keola Thomas
A Washington Post / ABC News poll released this week found that a record 49% of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the war in Afghanistan. Opposition to American involvement in the conflict is increasing more rapidly than ever before. Public disapproval has shot up 8 points since the previous WaPo / ABC poll was taken just three months ago.
Growing List of Conservatives including Coulter and Norquist Oppose War in Afghanistan
Afghanistan Study Group
Please help us by forwarding this email to your conservative friends.
Last week, unfortunately, House Speaker John Boehner asked President Obama to “explain” how withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July would not “undermine the tenuous progress we’ve made thus far.” Speaker Boehner also asserted that “[a]ny draw-down of U.S. troops must be based on the conditions on the ground, not on political calculations.”
Budget deal will only save a fraction of promised $38B
Afghanistan Study Group by Edward Kenney
The supposedly “historic” 2011 budget deal, which barely avoided a federal shutdown, will only save a fraction of the promised $38 billion. Once defense spending and funding for the wars are included in this calculation, federal spending will have actually increased this year. That’s right, defense spending plus the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya will cause federal spending to go up in 2011. Keep this in mind when assessing the 2012 budget proposals on defense.
Articles
In an Afghan Village, Living in Fear of Both Sides
The New York Times by Ray Rivera
TOWDABAY KALAY, Afghanistan — The American soldiers knew little about this farming village in the rugged foothills of Paktika Province in eastern Afghanistan, but they were told the Taliban moved through regularly. When the soldiers, part of the First Battalion, 506th Infantry, arrived on foot one morning, hiking along terraced fields carved into the steep hillsides, they found the villagers fearful. Not just of the Taliban, but of NATO forces as well.
New Low for Obama on Afghanistan
ABC News by Gary Langer
A record 49 percent of Americans now disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the situation in Afghanistan, up 8 points since January. And those who disapprove “strongly” outnumber strong approvers by nearly a 2-1 margin.
As Petraeus exits, US interests in Afghanistan far from secured
The Christian Science Monitor by Dan Murphy
General David Petraeus is leaving the field of battle. He’s seen in some circles as having turned around the Iraq war, and was brought in to shore up the flagging NATO effort in Afghanistan last July. Now he is leaving to become chief of the CIA at a time when the theory of warfare he’s put into practice in Afghanistan is coming under heavy strain from insurgents and an Afghanistan that grows ever more weary of foreign troops. The task his replacement will take up is looking as difficult as ever.
Report: U.S. millions spent on Afghanistan police poorly tracked
Washington (CNN) by Charley Keyes
Despite the U.S. spending more than half a billion dollars to build an Afghanistan police force, it is impossible to know how many police are on the job and whether the right people are getting paid, according to a new report.
Recaptured Afghan insurgents tell of tunnel escape
Reuters Africa by Rob Taylor
KABUL (Reuters) – Recaptured Taliban fighters who escaped from one of Afghanistan’s most secure prisons during a mass breakout have described how insurgent comrades outside built a sophisticated tunnel with lighting and piped air to take them to freedom.
Opinion
Lean, Mean Fighting Machine
Foreign Policy by Douglas MacGregor
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said it best, “When waves of change appear, you can duck under the wave, stand fast against the wave, or, better yet, surf the wave.” Today, the same tsunami-like wave of debt that threatens to sweep away American economic prosperity is headed for America’s defense establishment. President Barack Obama signaled as much with his April 13 budget address, in which he warned: “Just as we must find more savings in domestic programs, we must do the same in defense.”
A Very Spinny North
Registan.net by Joshua Foust
Dear Diary,I was all set to enjoy a nice quiet Easter, until I opened my web browser. Something on the news page caught my attention. “NATO, Afghan Forces Make ‘Huge’ Gains in North,” the headline says. My stomach dropped. What could they possibly be on about
A space for Republicans on Afghanistan
The Washington Post by Rachel Weiner
With Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s departure from the presidential field comes a chance for another Republican contender to take up his unusual cause — the war in Afghanistan.
Why Afghanistan could upend Obama’s reelection strategy
The Washington Post by Katrina vanden Heuvel
The outlines of President Obama’s reelection strategy are becoming more distinct. He’ll bet that the faltering recovery has enough momentum to sell, particularly to college-educated suburban independents. He’ll find a way to cut a deal with Republicans on deficits that doesn’t completely derail the recovery.
