Here is another reason to stay home

[placton]

in '10 and '12 - shocking eh - we are paying off the taliban to the tunes of hundreds of millions - and sending our troops over to be killed by them! Our own ambassador says dont send more troops. Let's guess what Obamanation will follow.

of today's meeting of Obama's national security team to discuss Afghan war strategy, Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and a member of the war council, sent a pair of classified cables to Washington expressing deep reservations about the possibility of sending more U.S. troops to the country, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Eikenberry's concerns about the deployment of more troops centered around Afghan President Hamid Karzai's unwillingness to clamp down on rampant corruption throughout the country, a situation that has helped the Taliban re-establish itself there, the Post states. Eikenberry's memos were skeptical of plans to send more troops until Karzai's government steps up its efforts to root out corruption.

But Karzai''s corruption is not the only thing keeping the Taliban in business, according to an explosive new story by reporter Aram Roston for The Nation, which alleges that hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military funds are making their way to Afghan insurgents, including the Taliban. Roston reports thatthat the U.S. is paying off insurgents to persuade them from attacking U.S. supply lines.

In this grotesque carnival, the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. "It's a big part of their income," one of the top Afghan government security officials told The Nation in an interview. In fact, US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon's logistics contracts--hundreds of millions of dollars--consists of payments to insurgents

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/11/karl-eikenberry-dissents_n_354657.html


Direct Link to THE NATION'S story: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/roston

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Why doesn't China and Russia help out why just the US

China has a big army

[lonestarnot]

3. And a navy whose subs can sneak up into the middle of a US exercise.

[BeFree]

6. Oh dear

China and Russia are happy to have us stuck there, except that they have fears that we will invade them next. That's why they have big armies.

[robinlynne]

7. They know better.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Actually, China has come out with a viable plan for American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Of course, America is ignoring it and sending more cannon fodder for political CYA.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KJ02Df01.html


China maps an end to the Afghan war
By M K Bhadrakumar

The article "Afghan peace needs a map" <1> which appeared in the English-language China Daily newspaper on Monday should receive careful attention. China Daily is government-owned and the article is a very rare piece of focused opinion that proposes concrete steps to be taken on the way forward in unlocking the Afghan stalemate.

The article is credited to the deputy general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, Li Qinggong. A conspicuous increase in the Chinese reportage on Afghanistan is noticeable lately. Conceivably, in the period since unrest appeared in Xinjiang, there is heightened concern in China over the deepening crisis in Afghanistan, which impacts China's national security.

The timing of the publication is also important. A tipping point has appeared in the eight-year Afghan war, with the international community furiously debating the pros and cons of alternate scenarios for Afghanistan. The war is at a crossroads, with the Taliban fighting to a stalemate the formidable North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces led by the United States. NATO has all but acknowledged that "victory" over the Taliban in the war may no longer be possible and what is within the realms of possibility is staving off defeat and scoring "success" in the "Afghanization" of the war.

The timing of the article is also significant insofar as the Barack Obama administration is revisiting its seven-month-old Afghan war strategy, which was enunciated in March. Broadly speaking, the pendulum of the American debate is swinging between stepping up the war effort via the augmentation of troop strength in Afghanistan or scaling down the scope of the war to a counter-insurgency operation.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. Afghanistan needs tactical warfare not thousands of ground troops

the nature of the country and the elusive enemy doesn't really need conventional troops. I think countries like China should be pressing for NATO to arrange a tactical assault.

Interesting:
"Finally, the article proposes that once the US withdraws its troops from Afghanistan, an international peacekeeping mission will be needed to assist the Afghan government and its security forces to exercise effective control. It doesn't spell out the nature of the international force, which can be presumably under the UN or regional auspices.

This is the first time that a Chinese commentary has openly called for the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan in immediate terms as a pre-requisite of peace."

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. Heres a thought. Pick an excuse, market test it, set up an ad campaign to support it

and get our troops the fuck out of there.

[stray cat]

4. President Lou Dobbs? or do you prefer President Sarah Palin

I'm sure both would fulfill strong progressive agenda compared to the current crop of dems.....

[placton]

5. you know

I support what the vast majority of US citizens do - how about you? health care - universal, check. Outta wars, check.

[Louisiana1976]

8. Me, too--and I'll add, Rebuilding New Orleans--check.

[frylock]

10. squawk..

still haven't worked out any new material for the fall season?