Obama Gambles on Dubious Afghan Allies

Surge relies on corrupt Karzai government, poorly-trained military

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 2, 2009 8:49 AM CST

(Newser) – By announcing an 18-month timetable, Barack Obama has thrown down the gauntlet for an Afghan government and military that have so far proven unreliable. Hamid Karzai’s government is considered among the world’s most corrupt, but Obama seems to be betting that the withdrawal timetable will encourage it to finally clean up its act. He also plans to send less money directly to the central coffers, instead funneling it to local officials, Dexter Filkins writes in the New York Times.

Even riskier is Obama’s plan to train new Afghan forces to take over the security job. Afghanistan currently boasts a paltry 90,000 soldiers and 93,000 police to protect a population of roughly 30 million. And despite years of mentoring, they still lack the basic bureaucratic skills and literacy needed to manage a large force. They’ve been unable to maintain themselves in the field, mount operations at night, or use complicated weaponry, Filkins notes, and corruption is widespread.

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An Afghan soldier stands guard while patrolling in Herat, west of Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)

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The focus of the training program has always been ‘more soldiers’ at the expense of quality training. A soldier does not have to master any task prior to graduating. Attendance equals graduation. - An American trainer in Afghanistan

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 3 comments

tomodachi

Dec 2, 2009 5:24 AM CST

Stop trying to push YOUR reality on to me... I suppose you had no problem with GWB obligating the US taxpayer to his BS $3 Trillion dollar Iraqi invasion of people who never did squat to the US? We would have been out of Afghanistan a long time ago if GWB had left Iraq alone and focused on his duty to avenge the 9/11 victims. ____________________________________________________ And I never said Obama was the messiah... I didn't even say he was the best person to be president right now. I know he's a product of the corrupt 2 party system. Hopefully he's an anomaly and he'll actually fix most of GWB's horrendous fkups. I know the democrats are not as frugal as they should be with OUR money. But at least they spend SOME of it on the US taxpayers. GWB spent and borrowed like there's no tomorrow and spent most of it on blank-check open-ended war crap. I've said it before and I'll say it again... Thank you God for not allowing another so called fiscal conservative republican into the white house... the US taxpayer just cant survive it.

DontLikeYou___

Dec 2, 2009 4:13 AM CST

Obama is the one sucking the blood from the American people now, so that is okay with you, right tomodachi.... as long as the blood sucker shares your ideology, he gets a pass? You fool.

tomodachi

Dec 2, 2009 2:57 AM CST

No more open ended BS schedules that allow war machine makers and suppliers to rape the US taxpayer until they're sucked blood dry. Get it done... or get out.

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New York Times (Source Grid »)

Afghanistan • Barack Obama • Hamid Karzai • corruption • Afghanistan war • Afghan police • Afghanistan troop surge • President Obama speech • Afghanistan army

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Obama Gambles on Dubious Afghan Allies