Word: afghanistans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...month timeline as a signal that they should continue to hedge their bets and support the Afghan Taliban in the tribal areas along the border in order to foil a much feared expansion of Indian influence on their northwestern flank. At the moment U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan believe they can continue the battle despite Pakistan's tolerance of the Afghan Taliban leadership within its borders. Should Pakistani policy move toward active aid and support, however, the task of defeating the Afghan insurgency would become impossibly difficult. (See Europe's response to the call for more troops...
Obama's statement that he would not pursue nation-building, though most likely tailored for his domestic audience, appeared to Afghans as little more than a commitment for greater military involvement to the detriment of development. "Sending in more troops is not a bad idea," says Abdul Jabar Sabit, Afghanistan's former attorney general. "But it is not the remedy for a deteriorating situation." If anything, he points out, a military surge should be used only after there is a government in place that is worth protecting. If Afghans are not committed to their government, if they don't believe...
...corrupt ways, was unclear. Officials say the most likely punishment would be a withdrawal of U.S. and foreign funding to those ministries that are clearly corrupt or that underperform. As for development, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking on Monday in New York, said Washington's "goals in Afghanistan include providing the government with the support that it needs to take full responsibility for its own country. That makes civilian efforts as vital as military operations and of longer duration." To do so, she and Obama envision a "civilian surge" of agriculturists, rule-of-law experts and development strategists that...
...enabling Afghans to do the work themselves, without having to rely on foreign advisers. That will take more than 18 months and require substantial investment not just in facilities and pilot projects, but also in actual and widespread training and education. Special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General for Afghanistan Kai Eide emphasized in a frank talk with journalists on Tuesday that the foreign community should focus on a transition strategy, rather than an exit strategy. "If we are to deliver services to the people, it can't be done by international parallel structures. It has to be done...
While schools have been a much-touted success in Afghanistan, the reality is that education and literacy levels are abysmally low. It matters little how many aid dollars are spent on school buildings when the teachers inside operate at a reading level only slightly higher than that of their students. A fraction of the money spent on expensive foreign development consultants or military assets could be invested in nationwide literacy programs with far greater returns. For those who complain that education programs take at least a generation to mature, imagine what Afghanistan would be like today if there had been...