« State Dept human rights report on Afghanistan | Main | Mohseni on preventing erosion of press freedoms »

March 08, 2007

Biden, Boucher, Jones and Dobbins

Today the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held Hearings on Afghanistan entitled "Time for a New Strategy?"  Witnesses included Richard Boucher (Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia), Gen. James Jones (U.S. Marine Corps, fmr commander of NATO, Retired) and Amb. James Dobbins (RAND, fmr Special Envoy for Afghanistan). I'll have their comments shortly; in the meantime, here is Senator Joseph R. Biden's opening statement:

BIDEN:  Today we face an issue “at the very heart of our war on terror: the deteriorating security conditions in Afghanistan.  If current trends continue, we may soon find that our hard-won success on the battlefield has melted away.”

I didn’t write these words in preparation for this morning’s hearing. I spoke them nearly five years ago, on the floor of the United States Senate. [May 17, 2002] MORE 

I’m not bringing up old quotes to say, “I told you so,” but to make a simple point: the situation in Afghanistan is not an unforeseen circumstance.  Plenty of military and civilian officials have been predicting exactly this outcome for years.

What’s the state of play? Osama bin Laden remains at large, right across the border in Pakistan in all probability.  There are reports that he’s reconstituted his terrorist training camps.  Given the chance to kill him at Tora Bora, the administration instead pulled most of our Special Forces, our CIA teams and Predators and sent them to Iraq.

The Taliban is back -- and keeping much of Afghanistan ungovernable. Suicide bombings, IEDs and other techniques imported from Iraq made last year the bloodiest since their ouster.

The government of Pakistan turns a blind eye to the Taliban cross-border attacks, and to the high command based in Quetta. Just last year, the government signed a “separate peace” with pro-Taliban militias in Waziristan.

Afghan reconstruction is stuck in first gear.  President Bush promised a Marshall Plan, but he's delivered less development aid in the past five years than we spend on the war in Iraq every three weeks.

Last year Afghanistan produced 92% of the world’s opium.  The proceeds prop up the Taliban, warlords and corrupt officials.  There’s no serious counter-narcotics program.  If the Administration pursues a poorly-conceived aerial poppy eradication plan, the results could be even worse.

Don’t get me wrong—we’ve accomplished some great things.  Because of our efforts, millions of Afghan children are in school today.  We’ve built roads and clinics.  We’ve got American troops in Provincial Reconstruction Teams showing that the US military can be a wonderful friend as well as a fearsome enemy.

President Bush last month made two encouraging statements. First, he announced the deployment of an additional combat brigade to Afghanistan.  This is important, because our NATO commanders desperately need not only several thousand battle-ready troops, but the helicopters, transport aircraft, and other military hardware that go with them.  Second, he pledged $11.8 billion in new funding over the next two years.  If these figures represent new funding in addition to currently-budgeted numbers, and if we focus on projects which bring real improvement to the lives of ordinary Afghans—this may be the start of a more successful strategy.

I certainly hope so.  Because in Afghanistan, success still is possible. Failure is not thinkable.   How can we turn things around? Very briefly, we need to do three things:

First, establish security.  If we should be surging forces anywhere, it’s in Afghanistan, not Iraq.  NATO troops are necessary, but not sufficient.  We’ve also got to train the Afghan police and army—which means, for starters, paying them decent salaries.   

Second, we have get moving on reconstruction.  We need more funds, and we need to use them better.  The Afghans are patient, but they’re not seeing reconstruction worthy of a superpower.   As Gen. Eikenberry has said, “Where the road ends, the Taliban begins.”

Third, do counter-narcotics right.  We should target multimillion-dollar drug kingpins, not the dollar-a-day opium farmers. Someday aerial eradication may have a place—but not until we’ve got alternate livelihoods set up for those growing poppy, and a judicial system capable of taking down the drug barons.  Until then, we should focus on the top of the food-chain, not the bottom.

We have three witnesses today who can explain these issues in detail, with authority and expertise.  First, we have Richard Boucher the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.  We all know and respect him as a straight shooter.

Next we have Gen. James Jones who recently retired from the U.S. Marine Corps.  Gen. Jones was the commander of NATO until early this year, and he supervised the Alliance’s expansion to include responsibility for all of Afghanistan. And then we have Ambassador James Dobbins, currently at the RAND Corporation, who has served as Special Envoy for Afghanistan. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he served as liaison to the Afghan forces fighting alongside our troops to bring down the Taliban.  Gentlemen welcome and I’ll now turn it over to Sen. Lugar for his opening statement.

Posted by Carl Robichaud on March 08, 2007 at 05:23 PM in Reconstruction, Security, U.S. Policy |

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341d843653ef00e550aaf1a68834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Biden, Boucher, Jones and Dobbins:

Comments

cheap Perfect World Gold

I am so happy to get some Perfect World Gold and the Perfect World Silver is given by my close friend who tells me that the Perfect World money is the basis to enter into the game.
Therefore, I should Buy Perfect World Gold with the spare money.
I gain some pw Gold from other players.
Then I share the cheap Perfect World Gold with my friends.

Posted by: cheap Perfect World Gold | January 19, 2009 at 09:54 PM

cheap Entropiauniverse ped

I always heard something from my neighbor that he sometimes goes to the internet bar to play the game which will use him some Entropiauniverse ped，he usually can win a lot of Entropia Universe Gold

，then he let his friends all have some Entropia Universe Money，his friends thank him very much for introducing them the cheap Entropiauniverse ped，they usually Buy Entropia Universe Gold together.

Posted by: cheap Entropiauniverse ped | February 23, 2009 at 11:42 PM

shadow of legend Gold

Do you know shadow of legend Gold? I like it..
My brother often go to the internet bar to buy sol gold and play it.
After school, He likes playing games using these buy shadow of legend Gold with his friends.
I do not like to play it. Because I think that it not only costs much money but also spend much time. One day, he give me many cheap shadow of legend Goldand play the game with me.
I came to the bar following him and found shadow of legend Gold moneywas so cheap. After that, I also go to play game with him.

Posted by: shadow of legend Gold | March 14, 2009 at 05:18 AM

lynn

The sequencer Acer PA-1700-02 AC Adapter is software that Dell Inspiron E1705 AC Adapter records and processes Liteon PA-1900-05 AC Adapter the signal from the Toshiba PA3396U-1ACA AC Adapter sound card. You Dell XPS M140 AC Adapter can track, slice, Dell Inspiron E1705 Series keyboard cut, paste, normalize, Dell Inspiron 6400 Series keyboard time stretch Dell Latitude D630 battery add effects amongst Dell Latitude D600 Series Battery other magical Dell 1701FP LCD AC Adapter tricks. The Gateway PA-1700-02 AC Adapter sequencer choice is vast, the best thing is to consider your budget. Mobile PCs Dell Inspiron 1300 AC Adapter use a stylus Toshiba PA3467U-1ACA AC Adapter for input on a touch Dell Inspiron 6000 Series keyboard screen using an on-screen Dell Latitude D620 battery keyboard. The Mobile PC Samsung AD-4214L LCD AC Adapter may have capabilities Toshiba PA-1650-01 AC Adapter of handwriting recognition, allowing Dell Inspiron B130 AC Adapter the user to input Toshiba SADP-65KB AC Adapter text using the stylus Dell XPS M140 Series keyboard on the screen and usually offers selection, and drag and drop facility traditionally provided by the mouse using the stylus.Today, you can walk into Laptop parts many brick-and-mortar Laptop Acer AC Adapter electronics and computers retailers Gateway Laptop keyboard and expect to find laptop bargains. Toshiba Laptop keyboard They are just about everywhere. Dell Laptop AC Adapter Prices for bargain laptops have become so low that walking out of a store with one for yourself and Liteon Laptop AC Adapter and one for a friend is even an option.

Posted by: lynn | May 03, 2009 at 11:52 PM

links of london

Links of London
Links of London Jewelry
Links of London Charm
Links of London Necklace
Links of London Bracelets
Links of London Earrings
Links of London Rings
Designer from UK
Diamond
GoldSilver
Links Jewelry
Links Necklace
Links Charm
Links Earrings
Links Rings

Posted by: links of london | May 20, 2009 at 02:12 AM

Next »

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by:  | 

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment