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Our
next briefing call is scheduled for December
17, Monday, at 8pm EST.
Larry
Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense,
will give a year end review of the foreign
policy events of 2007. We did
this last year and it was a big hit. (Depressing,
but a big hit.) Please call in with your
questions ready. For the call-in number,
please email wanddc@aol.com.
For the first 5 minutes of the call, please
announce yourself and where you’re
calling from; after that please mute,
thanks.
Here
is a brief synopsis of the October call:
Our
presenter, Caroline Wadhams, is a senior
policy analyst at the Center for American
Progress. Did you catch her on C-Span
on Sunday, November 11? The following
is a recap of her remarks at our October
briefing call. And here is the link
to the report.
Unlike
in Iraq the U.S. could, even at this late
date, be successful in Afghanistan. But
action must come sooner rather than later.
Consider the following positive set of
circumstances: a legitimate government,
security forces that are loyal to the
central government, a population that
supports an international troop presence,
and the unpopularity of the insurgents.
Unfortunately with US attention and resources
focused on Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan
is plummeting and that window of opportunity
is closing. Here are some of the challenges:
- The
government is weak and very corrupt.
The U.S. should work to empower, not
marginalize, this fledging government.
- The
insurgency is growing.
- There
are not enough international troops
and civilian casualties caused by US/NATO
forces have been detrimental to the
overall effort by alienating Afghans.
- Reconstruction
has stalled because of insufficient
funds, little coordination among the
numerous actors and the Afghan government,
and inadequate oversight.
- Opium
production has risen to unprecedented
levels, providing 93% of the world’s
supply.
- The
insurgency and Al Qaeda have a safehaven
in Pakistan.
Caroline’s
report recommends a new approach in Afghanistan.
She recommends shifting to a counter-insurgency
strategy and away from an overemphasis
on military efforts. Counter-terrorism
efforts should be integrated into a larger
counterinsurgency strategy. The report
does, however, recommend an increase in
troop levels, which would require a redeployment
of some U.S. troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Furthermore, it advocates much greater
cooperation and coordination among the
more than 37 countries contributing to
the effort, additional resources to non-military
efforts, a shift in the counternarcotics
strategy away from targeting the farmers
to targeting the high-level traffickers,
and greater emphasis on bolstering the
Afghan government. A unity of effort is
absolutely essential in Afghanistan.
Then
maybe, just maybe, Afghanistan can have
a happy ending. WAND sincerely appreciates
Caroline generously giving her time in
conducting this briefing.
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