Afghanistan Weekly Reader: Time For a New Strategy
The news from this past week was full of the story of Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller, who was dismissed from his post as deputy commander of the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan for some blunt comments about Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Of course, we’ve seen this before; military commanders’ excursions into politics are rarely smiled upon. What’s different about this situation is that Fuller’s remarks on “the sacrifices that America is making to provide for their [Afghanistan’s] security” resonate with a lot of people. After ten years and more than a trillion dollars, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Americans have sacrificed enough, and that we need a new strategy to replace this broken one.
FROM AFG
11-8-11
Insanity At The House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing
Afghanistan Study Group by Mary Kaszynski
Last week’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, “2014 and Beyond: U.S. Policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan,” was revealing for two reasons. First, after a brief nod to public support for the drawdown, the witnesses and representatives discussed at length why we should do exactly the opposite of what the majority of Americans want. Secondly, the entire hearing went by without a single acknowledgment that the policy options under discussion will have fiscal consequences.
ARTICLES
11-1-11
As U.S. Exits Iraq, “Endgame” in Afghanistan Remains Elusive
Inter Press Service by Barbara Slavin
Washington’s failure to gain Iraqi approval for a significant U.S. military presence in that country beyond December could make it harder for Afghanistan to agree to a similar deployment beyond 2014.
11-5-11
Multiple missteps led to drone killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan
Los Angeles Times by David S. Cloud and David Zucchino
Though no dereliction of duty was found, a Pentagon investigation raised troubling questions: Among them: Was the Predator missile fired too quickly?
OPINION
11-1-11
A Long List of Suckers
New York Times by Thomas Freidman
“America today needs much more cost-efficient ways to influence geopolitics in Asia than keeping troops there indefinitely. We need to better leverage the natural competitions in this region to our ends. There is more than one way to play The Great Game, and we need to learn it.”
11-6-11
In search of long-term stability in Afghanistan
The Philadelphia Inquirer by Melissa Skorka
“[Reintigration in Afghanistan] will be measured not in how many insurgents enroll in conventional defector programs nor in the decline in attacks or casualties, but rather in the villages’ individual and collective willingness to take a stand and tell insurgent fighters to lay down their arms and cut their ties to the insurgents in Pakistan. Getting to that point will first take a change in our own mind-set.
11-7-11
Gauging the military’s facts behind a ‘daily impact’ assessment
Washington Post by Walter Pincus
I suggest we go back to a reasonable core Defense Department budget. And if a president sends U.S. forces into an extended fight, whether it is another Iraq or Libya or Somalia, he or she should be forced immediately to seek congressional approval — not for sending the forces as sought by the ineffective War Powers Act, but rather for the additional funds needed to pay for the White House-initiated operation.
