Word: afghanization
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...1970s, Congress and the Ford Administration sought to rein in the CIA by creating oversight committees and instituting a ban on assassinations. Some restrictions were eased in the '80s, when the agency backed Afghan mujahedin fighting against the Soviets and meddled in Central America. And since 9/11, the agency has attracted a new load of critics, this time for matters such as "extraordinary renditions" and the harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists in secret overseas prisons known as black sites. Poor Langley--praise is a scarce commodity for an agency whose missions, as President George W. Bush put it, remain "secret...
While Americans might believe these latest moves are helping put the Afghan war back on track, a report released on July 22 by the independent Center for Strategic and International Studies says much more needs to be done. This Washington-based think tank is no bunch of liberal do-gooders; it's run by John Hamre, a former Pentagon deputy secretary who also serves as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, which advises Gates on national-security issues...
...author of the report, military expert Anthony Cordesman, pulls no punches. "It's very clear we haven't put the money in to win, we haven't put the troops in to win, and we haven't given the Afghan security forces the resources to win," Cordesman told TIME on July 22. His 28-page study, titled "The Afghanistan Campaign: Can We Win?," raises strong doubts about Washington's willingness to do what he thinks is needed to prevail. Its conclusion is bleak: "The odds of success are not yet good, and failure is all too real a possibility...
...Afghan army - now 86,000 strong with a goal of fielding 134,000 - actually needs 240,000 troopsk, and the 82,000-strong Afghan national police force needs to grow to 160,000, Cordesman says. And time is running out. "The situation has deteriorated into a crisis where the Taliban and other jihadist movements are now winning," he writes. "The steady deterioration of security has now reached the crisis level...
...Americans eager to see rapid progress in Afghanistan need to know that turning the situation around - even with added troops and money - will require "lasting strategic patience," says Cordesman. Even then, they may want to recalibrate their expectations. "Many aspects of the progress required can only move at an Afghan pace," Cordesman writes, "and must be achieved on Afghan terms." But the question of whether America has the patience to maintain its commitment on such an extended time frame is precisely what has Gates worried...