Progress is Faster than Expected in Afghanistan
10.23.2010 at 05:49am
Gen. Petraeus Says Progress is Faster than Expected in Afghanistan Operation – Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post. … allied forces are in the “final stages” of a large operation to clear insurgent fighters from key regions just west of Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city and principal focus of the coalition’s military campaign against the Taliban.
Regardless of where “you” are on Afghanistan..if it is counterinsurgency strategy based on current COIN ideology..or perhaps, “winning the hearts and minds” through infrastructure development..or termed mentoring experience with the ANA or ANP..whatever..
The bottom line to all this is…and with nearly 10 years of billions of dollars..and moveover, the lives of those lost…the Karzai government is corrupt to the basic fabric of and definition of governance.
There is absolutely no metric…no keen sense of strategy born somewhere in the halls of the War College or CGSC or the AEI..or the Pentagon…whereas Karzai is playing us for a “fool”.
Now using Iranian “bags of money”…the not too long ago termed the Axis of Evil is now camping with Karzai et al.
We heard about the scandal of the Kabul Bank..the bank that allegedly pays over 22000 civil servants and the military..with Karzai half brother down south in Kandahar with not one, but several island estates of the coast of Dubai called the Palms. Starting prices are in the 10 million dollar range.
Did those millions come from a government salary?
What are we really doing in Afghanistan? If General P (who has an incredible responsibility..) thinks the tide is turning on one front…he has overlooked areas of which he has no control…and never will.
It is time to begin the thinking process of retrograde. And, don’t you think the Soldiers and Marines know this too? Of course they do…it is not fair to allow our guys to die..while those in the Afghan government reap indirectly the benefits of their deaths.
RH/Paktia-Khost-2003