Word: afghanization
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...year will be 30,000. McKiernan has said he needs to beef up U.S. forces in Afghanistan to roll back a growing Taliban insurgency, especially before the presidential election currently slated for August. Indeed, U.S. officials say they have only 40% of the American officers needed to train the Afghan army to take over security duties at some point in the future. But sending any additional troops to Afghanistan would require reducing U.S. troop levels in Iraq, and Obama has ordered a review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan before committing to further reinforcements. Defense Secretary Robert Gates explained last week...
...Having watched rival armies fight their way back and forth across the country for the past 30 years since the Soviets invaded, Afghans have become adept at accommodating themselves with the likely winner at any given moment. Right now, the trends are not moving in Washington's favor, and that fact is recognized by the Afghan citizenry. "There's been a major shift towards acceptance of the Taliban," military scholar Anthony Cordesman told a congressional panel last week. He noted that polling in Afghanistan shows "the number of people who feel the United States has performed well in Afghanistan...
...takes a certain skill to lose money on an opium field in Afghanistan. Afghan filmmaker Siddiq Barmak lost about $97,000 on his. For the making of his latest film, Opium War, which is set in a poppy field, Barmak had found the perfect site - a lonely hilltop in central Afghanistan, framed by the snow-covered peaks of nearby mountains. With the stunning vision of pink poppies swaying against the slopes of the Hindu Kush in mind, he finally obtained permission from the government to plant the illegal crop. Then he and his crew got to work building...
...Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, is reported to favor enlisting Tehran's help in the war against Afghan drug lords and their supply routes. That would be a smart call, says Sajadpour. Once fruitful dialogue and cooperation have been established on the issue of drugs, he says, "then you can gradually expand the scope [of talks] to include nuclear issues, Hamas and Hizballah...
Karzai has frequently lashed out at the international community for supporting the warlords, even as he too tries to keep them on his side. "The Afghan point of view is, Cut relations, stop backing them," he said in an interview last year. "Stop giving them contracts, stop arming them, and stop using them as political tools." Robust and public prosecution of their crimes would limit the warlords' power. The West would have to shoulder more of the security burden, but that may be unavoidable if the U.S. still hopes to transform Afghanistan...