Afghans fear Lack of Food Aid;
Resent Corruption;
Pakistan Abolishes Civilian Wing of ISI
Aljazeera English reports on Afghan fears that foreign aid won't reach them:
Pervasive corruption is also deeply angering the AFghan public.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan chief of staff, Ashfaq Kiyani, has abolished the political wing of the Inter-Services Intelligence, which had been accused of shaping Pakistni politics by rigging elections or destabilizing government it did not like.
Pakistan's war on the Taliban is swelling refugee camps.
posted by Juan Cole @ 11/25/2008 01:21:00 AM
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2 Comments:
Re trickle down of aid to Afghanistan:
What, air strikes by remote video warrors and 15,000 more US Marines is not enough aid enhancement?
We've already demonstrated that we are willing to bomb, for as long as it takes them to learn to love democracy and America. Give it another 8 years. They'll soon grow to appreciate the difference between Taliban, Russian and American explosives.
There are a couple of interestiing articles (below) at the LA Times, re recent USMC missions in Helmand, and the likelihood that a redeployment of a division equivalent will be the front end of an Afghanistan 'surge'.
The first article is an 'anatomy of a cluster f***'. Read for the facts cited, and ignore the PR/infowar rhetoric. A thousand man battalion trained up for 'mentoring' Iraqi Arabs got drop-kicked into 'training' Urdu-speaking levies. But it was combat-by-trainer, and they suffered more casualties (20% by a 10 wounded for every KIA est.) than all of the 15,000 marines in Iraq.
The Colonel talks about high regard for his men, but 'rode hard and put away wet" is how it sounds like our guys were used. Care to guess how fighting men who are being abused are likely to treat the 'ragheads'?
The war against terror won't so much follow our men home, as come back inside of them. Hoohah.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-marines22-2008nov22,0,6012163.story
"Marines got more than they bargained for in Afghanistan"
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan24-2008nov24,0,5733953.story
"Marines drafting plan to send more troops to Afghanistan"
Kids Dream the Darndest Things!
Maj. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, meeting with Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, last week at the austere Forward Operating Base Delaram in Afghanistan, characterized the Marines as "starting over" in that country.
Waldhauser, commander of the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Division, praised the Two-Seven, which has begun returning home, for its success in mentoring Afghan police, killing Taliban fighters and making contacts with tribal leaders.
"You guys have lived the dream," he said.
I dream of Genie, the tribal leader with the light brown hair, / Borne like a poppy on the Afghan air . . . .
That's the LAT article that Mr. Poster pointed to without commenting. Also fun was this part:
[US War Secretary Robert Michael] Gates said Friday that he wanted to supplement the more than 30,000 American troops, mostly from the Army, already in Afghanistan. An additional 30,000 troops from other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries and allies are also stationed in Afghanistan to combat the Taliban and other Islamist insurgent forces.
The office of President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that President-elect Barack Obama called Karzai during the weekend to say his administration would dedicate additional aid to fight militants in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported.
The Marine proposal was sharpened during a series of meetings in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bahrain in the last week involving generals and other top officers. Marine Commandant Gen. James T. Conway was in contact with a group headed by Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commanding general of the Marine Force Central Command, traveling from base to base.
"Treat every day as a combat mission," Helland wrote in a battle plan for one of his commanders. "Have a plan to kill the enemy hiding among the innocent."
(( Maybe there is a slightly dreamy aspect to that one as well? ))
Happy days.
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