Military to Carry Out Civilian Surge in Afghanistan
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When Obama Administration officials started talking about a “civilian surge” for Afghanistan ahead of the President’s formal plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan last month, it had all the fingerprints of the new Democratic hawk/COIN (counterinsurgency) set at work: Clear, hold and nation-build. And do it better than the Bush Administration ever could.
Top aides to President Barack Obama are recommending that the United States combine a boost in military deployments with a steep increase in civilian experts to combat a growing insurgency in Afghanistan, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Several hundred civilians from various U.S. government agencies — from agronomists to economists and legal experts — will be deployed to Afghanistan to reinforce the nonmilitary component in Kabul and the existing provincial reconstruction teams in the countryside, officials said. (snip)
The move to add hundreds of civilian aides under [U.S ambassador to Kabul Gen. Karl] Eikenberry and his top staffers is similar to President George W. Bush’s “surge” in Iraq but will be on a smaller scale, the officials said.
To the general American audience, I’m sure the plan sounded reasoned and balanced and not all that radical — hadn’t the Democrats drilled endlessly on the theme that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan couldn’t be won with military force alone? But already, the administration is having to take it down a notch. The New York Times reports tonight that there just aren’t enough diplomats and civilians trained for this business, and those who are cannot be compelled to travel to a bloody war zone to engage what has become one of the most corrupt bureaucracies in the world.
Obama cannot force them. But he can call up the military reserves, and hire private contractors. It sounds like he doesn’t have a choice if he wants to pursue this part of the strategy in earnest.
The need to identify military personnel as one of several interim options to carry out the civilian mission in Afghanistan was foreshadowed this week by Michele A. Flournoy, the under secretary of defense for policy, who served as a director of the inter-agency strategy review.
“We’re going to be looking to our reserve components, where we can tap individuals based on their civilian skill set,” Ms. Flournoy said during a speech on Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a non-partisan policy institute here.
She said the government was still “playing a game of catch-up” after years of not setting aside money to create this civilian expertise, and she described the reliance on reservists as among “a whole host of stopgap measures” necessary until teams of civilian experts could be created.
Back where we started.
Filed under: War
I read Obama’s new and improved “strategy” for Afghanistan, and it sure seems a lot like the one his predecessor failed to execute, only with more Americans there acting as targets for the Taleban. I guess this constitutes change in the minds of some. Go figure.
It should be clear to all that the Obama gang is just as clueless and inept as the clods they replaced. They know nothing about the region, its history, language, culture or customs. Centrally-planning an ancient tribal culture half a world away? Yes, we can!
The Washington bureaucrats are trapped in the mindset that if some force doesn’t do the job, even more of it will be applied until the locals submit. I’ve got news for Obama: the Afghan people will never be obedient to a foreign occupation force. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure this out, yet we’ll bankrupt ourselves trying.
I’m glad to see that someone finally realizes that nation-building is not what the military does best. I wonder how difficult it will be for the administration to muster this expertise in the civilian ranks?
For one thing in order for america to suceed in this war on terra you certainly need good and clean afghans to help America.
as a former Governor from that country if i can be of assistance call me
Together we can make a differance
Best Regards
Shir Khosti
“war on terra” -heh.
This is all eerily reminiscent of how Hillary! demanded that her designated military security force must “dress down” in her person and the Clintons have historically made absolutely NO effort whatsoever to conceal their loathing for the military. Why then is this suddenly a “great idea”?
First of all, our military personnel would be the ideal targets for capture, beheadings and armed ambushes as they travel the Afghani countryside unable to provide even minimum protection for themselves as they have been trained to do. Instead, they will be “ordered” to make Obama look good on the world stage, regardless of the consequences to our Reservists’ morale, group cohesion, or the trauma caused by extended familial separations. And don’t even begin to imagine that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are “unaware” of the heavy political jockeying taking place at this time or that they would pass up the slightest of chances to humiliate the U.S. military and/or kill Americans because, “Obama’s such a nice guy.”
Furthermore, in the touchy-feely world of Obama’s hopey-changey presidency, they will of course be required to stifle any thought of besmirching his “legacy”. And, since they would be cast in ostensibly “civilian” roles, they will be under intense scrutiny and could face double or even TRIPLE jeopardy if they “offend” some delicate Muslim extremist as they might be held responsible under Afghani Sharia Law courts, U.S Civilian courts, and perhaps even the lingering possibility of a Court Martial. How handy for Hillary! and Obama that there will be no “finger pointing” once some radical Imam has ordered their extremities cut off!
I strongly urge you all to contact your elected representatives immediately and demand that this stop-gap measure be scrapped before it brings further hardship on “We, the People” to complement the immense tax burdens Congress hastily created for their grandchildren and which I am pretty sure no one “asked for” either.
These articles on the “civilian surge” neglect to mention some important information. The truth is that there are plenty of civilian experts who could be sent to Afghanistan to work on the surge. Unfortunately this “surge” is coming through something called the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) that is fairly new and is clearly not capable of orchestrating such a surge. This is way beyond their capabilities.