ASG Weekly Reader: A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
The budget debate has captivated most of the country’s attention this past week. Despite the focus on fiscal responsibility, stories of corruption and waste continue to surface in relation to the Afghanistan War not only among Afghan institutions, but here at home. From insurance fraud to contractor negligence every day there are new revelations of chicanery in Afghanistan.
Also, of note this week is a new interactive info-graphic that ASG has developed, which highlights the opinions of politicians, media, and academics. Will the most ardent deficit hawks be the people most committed to leaving Afghanistan? You decide.
FROM ASG
8-1-11
Looking for a Way to Cut the Budget; How about Afghanistan? See Where Key Leaders Stand on the Afghanistan War
The Afghanistan Study Group developed an interactive infographic identifying where national opinion leaders – politicians, media and academics – stand on President Obama’s plan to remove troops from Afghanistan.
ARTICLES
7-26-11
Afghanistan hits back over U.S. aid spending report
Reuters by Jonathon Burch
Afghanistan’s government hit back Tuesday over a U.S. watchdog report on aid spending in Afghanistan last week, saying several assertions in the report were wrong and that future audits needed to be “more balanced and accurate.”
7-28-11
Cost of Treating Veterans Will Rise Long Past Wars
New York Times by James Dao
Though the withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan will save the nation billions of dollars a year, another cost of war is projected to continue rising for decades to come: caring for the veterans.
Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the US deficit
The Christian Science Monitor by Dan Murphy
Afghanistan Ambassador Ryan Crocker has jumped from his breeze of a confirmation hearing in the US into the fat end of the fire this week. The new ambassador has arrived in a country reeling from a string of assassinations of government officials and worried about what the future may hold, as the US continues to contract its fighting presence across the country.
Senators Spending More On Travel Despite Budget Cuts
wsbtv.com
Just after the eighth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss traveled there to visit metro-area troops on the front lines and share Thanksgiving dinner. Documents show one of several overseas trips Chambliss has made since early 2009. The costs of the trips totals more than $38,000.
US accuses Iran of ‘secret deal’ with al-Qaeda
The Telegraph by Barney Henderson
The US Treasury Department announced sanctions on six men accused of operating the terror network. Iran-based Ezedine Abdel Aziz Khalil, aka Yasin al-Sura, was named as a “senior al-Qaeda facilitator” who has operated from inside Iran since 2005 “under an agreement between al-Qaeda and the Iranian government”.
7-29-11
Problems abound in US government insurance program
The Associated Press by Matt Volz
Lax oversight of the U.S. government’s workers’ compensation insurance program for its contractors and subcontractors in Afghanistan has resulted in the loss of tens of millions of dollars and workers going without the required insurance in often hazardous conditions, an audit released Thursday found.
7-31-11
Afghan official: Kabul Bank scam involved up to 40
Associated Press by Deb Riechmann
As many as 40 people were allegedly involved in scams to bilk hundreds of millions of dollars from the Kabul Bank, and nearly half the cases will be sent to the Afghan court system next week, a top Afghan prosecutor said Sunday.
8-1-11
Afghanistan: Kandahar caught in the crosshairs
Global Post by Erin Cunningham
Kandahar, the beating, political heart of the Afghan south and bastion of Taliban strength, is a city perpetually on the brink.
OPINION
7-25-11
The costly errors of America’s wars
guardian.co.uk by Michael Shank
This month, as the Pentagon and the CIA countenance a changing of the guard – welcoming Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and CIA Director David Petraeus, respectively – it is worth pressing pause on national security strategy before our modus operandi becomes any more politically disconcerting, morally disheartening and financially devastating. With Washington now waging war, in some form, in six Muslim countries – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen – there are several trends now prevalent in our foreign policy-making that must be reformed posthaste.
7-26-11
Obama Blunders Defining Real Causes of Debt?
The Atlantic by Steve Clemons
Paul Krugman seems to have laid the track for Obama’s argument in an essay in May of this year arguing that there were three drivers that undermined America’s economic solvency thus wiping out the budget surplus of 2000. The unpaid for wars. The ‘temporary’ Bush tax cuts for the rich. And the subprime-triggered global financial crisis and recession.
Everything About the War in Afghanistan In a Single Sentence
Registan.net by Joshua Foust
Really, what else can you say, aside from how on earth can our leaders continue to insist that they’re winning in Afghanistan when their troops still get into vicious 2-day firefights in a province they’ve had soldiers in for nine years?
