Afghanistan Weekly Reader: Insider Attacks Evidence of Failed U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan
A sharp increase in the number of attacks by Afghan security forces against their NATO trainers has raised serious questions about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. By the end of 2014, local forces are supposed to take over the combat mission in Afghanistan, but the recent insider attacks have experts wondering if the Afghan forces are ready. The war has already cost the U.S. over $500 billion, including more than $50 billion in security aid. Even after U.S. combat troops leave in 2014, U.S. policymakers may continue to spend billions each year to sustain the war effort.
From ASG
8/23/12
Billions of aid dollars, no solution to Afghanistan’s security problems
Afghanistan Study Group by Mary Kaszynski
The uptick in insider attacks is just the most recent sign that U.S. efforts to build local security forces in Afghanistan – efforts that cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year – are foundering.
ARTICLES
8/21/12
In Toll of 2,000, New Portrait of Afghan War
The New York Times by James Dao and Andrew W. Lehren
With the death of Specialist James A. Justice of the Army at a military hospital in Germany, the United States military reached 2,000 dead in the nearly 11-year-old conflict.
8/23/12
Afghanistan is America’s ‘forgotten war’
Associated Press
Even though more than 80,000 American troops are still fighting in Afghanistan and dying at a rate of one a day, the conflict generates barely a whisper on the US presidential campaign trail.
OPINION
8/23/12
‘Green-On-Blue’ Attacks Challenge Afghan Security
NPR’s Tom Bowman and The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins
Insider attacks by Afghan forces have killed 40 coalition troops so far in 2012, including ten Americans. That surpasses the number of so-called green-on-blue attacks in 2011, and raises serious questions about Afghan readiness as American forces prepare for a withdrawal that could begin in 2013.
8/22/12
Gloomy Prognosis for Afghanistan
CFR Interview with Stephen Biddle
The war is going to be in a condition of long-term stalemate as of 2014, and what that means is that the U.S. Congress is going to be asked to write multi-billion-dollar-a-year checks to keep this war going for a long, long time.
8/18/12
Afghan training mission losing ground
SF Gate by Joel Brinkley
After 11 years, more than 2,000 U.S. military fatalities and at least $1 trillion in expenses, what are the United States and NATO leaving behind?
The answer is bleak: Afghan security forces totally incapable of operating on their own, as the U.S. military quietly acknowledges. And a government so corrupt and ineffectual that, as the Army said in that report to Congress, it “bolsters insurgent messaging.” In others words, great PR for the Taliban.
