Official: Obama rejects all Afghan war options

Tomgram: Pratap Chatterjee, Afghanistan as a Patronage Machine
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175140/pratap_chatterjee_afghanistan_as_a_patron...

It's now a commonplace of the Afghan War. Western leaders in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Washington, as well as on flying visits to Kabul or even Kandahar, excoriate Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the "corruption" of his government. In return for their ongoing support, they repeatedly demand that he take significant action to "step up efforts to root out crime and corruption," that he, in fact, "arrest and prosecute corrupt officials."

Can there be any question that there is a plethora of corrupt officials to arrest? The president's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, reportedly on the CIA payroll, is also, as it's politely put in the press, a "suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade." Ahmad Rateb Popal, the president's cousin and another figure long linked to the drug trade, runs a local security company protecting American supply convoys that, according to Aram Roston of the Nation magazine, is involved in an industry-wide protection scam, using American Army money to pay off the Taliban not to attack. In addition,

American arms and ammunition are clearly ending up in Taliban hands. The recent presidential election was a spectacle of fraud; the Afghan Army, despite years of training, may hardly exist (as Ann Jones reported for this site in September); the ill-paid, ill-trained Afghan police are known to operate on the principle of corruption; and a surprisingly small percentage of foreign reconstruction funds actually makes it out of the pockets of big private contractors and western specialists, as well as security firms, and into Afghan hands.

And then, of course, there's Kabul's "Obama market." (In the period when the Soviets ruled Kabul, it was the "Brezhnev market" in honor of the Russian leader, and decades later the "Bush market.") This "notorious bazaar" is "full of chow and supplies bought or stolen from the vast U.S. military bases," according to Jay Price of the McClatchy newspapers, who calls the name "a modest counterweight to [Obama's] Nobel Peace Prize." His description includes the following: "One shop offered an expensive military-issue sleeping bag, tactical goggles like those used by U.S. troops and a stack of plastic footlockers, including one stenciled 'Campbell G Co. 10th Mtn Div.' Another had a sophisticated 'red-dot' optical rifle sight of a kind often used by soldiers and contractors."

The Obambi crotch salute at Arlington, covering up his lack of testicular fortitude. An imposter and traitor.

He can't salute, pledge, or even pretend to be a proud American. Creep.

The teleprompter is saluting though.

Seems like a vicious circle. We're still indirectly funding the Taliban that our forces are fighting. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/roston

And the American Ambassador to Afghanistan is against additional troops. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6913759.ece

Why don't we learn what the Russians learned a long time ago and simply get out?

WHO'S MAKING A KILLING ?
Afghanistan’s Oil Binge: 22 Gallons of Fuel Per Soldier Per Day
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/11/afghanistans-oil-binge-22-gallons-of-fue...

Wanna know why the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are so expensive? Here’s one big reason: The U.S. military consumes 22 gallons of fuel per soldier, per day. And each gallon costs $45 or more to haul to the battlefield.

That’s according to a new Deloitte study, flagged by our friend Paul McLeary at Aviation Week.

Actually, $45 per gallon is a lowball estimate; according to the Navy, it’s more like $300 to $400. (Talk about sticker shock.) But the costs of guzzling that much gas won’t be measured just in dollars, the study warns. Fuel has to be driven in to Afghanistan’s isolated bases. Which opens up U.S. convoy to improvised bomb attacks. Which invariably leads to troops dying. “Absent game-changing shifts, the current Afghan conflict may result in a 124% (17.5% annually) increase in U.S. casualties through 2014,” according to Deliotte.

The Defense Department has all kinds of isolated initiatives to try to cut down its dependence on fossil fuels: massive solar arrays, hybrid rides, trash-powered generators. But most of these efforts are concentrated on making the Pentagon’s domestic operations more energy efficient. For the troops in the field, it’s still a steady diet of gas.

But let's never forget our favorite off shore corporation...

HALLIBURTON / KBR STEALING US BLIND !
http://current.com/items/89801957_halliburton-kbr-stealing-us-blind.htm

"The plutocrats believe there are some things worse than war: the confiscation of special privileges; the abolition of unearned income; the overthrow of the economic parasitism; the establishment of industrial democracy. The plutocrats would welcome a war that promised salvation from any such calamities; they would also welcome a war that promised greater foreign markets, the destruction of foreign competition, more security for property rights and a longer lease on life for plutocratic despotism." - Scott Nearing — 1917

President Obama would not commit more troops into Afghanistan until after the crap-care bill passed. He will send Troops. The cost of losing in Afghanistan is too high. We are fighting real enemies in Afghanistan. We tried not fighting back against people who are committed to a war against America, It did not work. I am sure the closer President Obama faces re-election, the more he will "do the right thing." Do the math "Pelosi + Clinton + Biden + Reid + Obama = Crap Administration.

FURTHERMORE...

For those fluent in 'la langue de Voltaire' this CBC piece shows that the afghan police is smacked out on heroin & totally corrupted and that this sad state of affair is generalized throughout the country... same goes for their army !
http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/une_heure_sur_terre/2009-2010/Reportage.asp....

Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll
http://current.com/items/91304647_brother-of-afghan-leader-is-said-to-be-on-c-i-....

Report: Taliban trying to turn US troops into heroin addicts
http://current.com/items/91239450_report-taliban-trying-to-turn-us-troops-into-h....

Peace, if it really arrived, would upset things. At present, arms expenditure and (military) aid to other countries are bolstering business. U.S. News and World Report, December 31, 1948

GOOD CALL...but for how long can the US resist its generals or the military industrial complex ;)

Afghanistan’s Sham Army
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091109_afghanistans_sham_army/
Posted on Nov 9, 2009
By Chris Hedges
EXCERPT

We have pumped billions of dollars into Afghanistan and occupied the country for eight years. We currently spend some $4 billion a month on Afghanistan. But we are unable to pay for whiteboards and markers for instructors at the Kabul Military Training Center. Afghan soldiers lack winter jackets. Kabul is still in ruins. Unemployment is estimated at about 40 percent. And Afghanistan is one of the most food-insecure countries on the planet.

What are we doing?
Where is this money going?

There are a ton of corporations in Afghanistan performing labor that was once exclusively in the realm of the military. If you’re a [military] cook, someone from Kellogg Brown & Root has taken your spot. If you’re a logistician or military adviser, someone from MPRI, Military Professional Resources Inc., will probably take over your job soon. If you’re a technician or a mechanic, there are civilians from Harris Corp. and other companies there who are taking over more and more of your responsibilities.”

“When we arrived in Afghanistan, nearly half our unit had to be reassigned because their jobs had been taken over by civilians from MPRI. It seems that even in a war zone, soldiers are at risk of losing their jobs to outsourcing.
The American military has been largely privatized, although Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has still recommended a 40,000-troop increase.

The Army’s basic functions have been outsourced to no-bid contractors. What was once done by the military with concern for tactical and strategic advancement is done by war profiteers concerned solely about profit. The aims of the military and the contractors are in conflict. A scaling down of the war or a withdrawal is viewed by these corporations as bad for business. But expansion of the war, as many veterans will attest, is only making the situation more precarious.

“American and Afghan soldiers are putting their lives at risk, Afghan civilians are dying, and yet there’s this underlying system in place that gains more from keeping all of them in harm’s way rather than taking them out of it,” the officer complained. “If we bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, we may profit morally, we might make gains for humanity, but moral profits and human gains do not contribute to the bottom line. Peace and profit are ultimately contradictory forces at work in Afghanistan.”

“It is this system that has broken the logistics of Afghanistan,” the officer said. “It is this system of waste and private profit from public funds that keeps Kabul in ruins. It is this system that manages to feed Westerners all across the country steak and lobster once a week while an estimated 8.4 million Afghans—the entire population of New York City, the five boroughs—suffer from chronic food insecurity and starvation every day. When you go to Bagram Air Base, or Camp Phoenix, or Camp Eggers, it’s clear to see that the problem does not lie in getting supplies into the country. The question becomes who gets them. And we wonder why there’s an insurgency.”

Now that's what I call brass!

Related Breaking Story: U.S. Afghan Envoy Urges Caution on Troop Increase

WASHINGTON — The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials said Wednesday.

The position of the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired lieutenant general, puts him in stark opposition to the current American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has asked for 40,000 more troops.

General Eikenberry sent his reservations to Washington in a cable last week, the officials said. In that same period, President Obama and his national security advisers have begun examining an option that would send relatively few troops to Afghanistan, about 10,000 to 15,000, with most designated as trainers for the Afghan security forces.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/us/politics/12policy.html?hp