"Happy Talk" on the Afghanistan War?

The Seminal: But By All Means, Continue the Happy Talk on the Afghanistan War:

"By a variety of measures, U.S. military policies in the Afghanistan war are failing."

"You probably haven’t heard much about this, in part because of the justified media focus on Haiti, but a confluence of very bad indicators point to failure even by the military’s avowed yardsticks. The civilian casualty rate in Afghanistan rose significantly in 2009. War-related violence is at its peak since 2001. The armed resistance to the Kabul government is spreading rapidly and can now 'sustain itself indefinitely' according to the top military intelligence officer in the region..."

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Obama's War (PBS Frontline)

Obama's War (PBS Frontline)

Tens of thousands of fresh American troops are now on the move in Afghanistan. FRONTLINE producers Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria, through interviews with the top U.S. commanders on the ground, embeds with U.S. forces, and fresh reporting from Washington, they examine U.S. counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan - a fight that promises to be longer and more costly than most Americans understand.

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The Risks Of A Remote-Controlled War

Jane Mayer: The Risks Of A Remote-Controlled War : NPR

Jane Mayer, a political journalist based in Washington, D.C., is a staff writer for The New Yorker, where she covers politics for the weekly magazine. In the October 26 issue, Mayer examines the ethics and controversies surrounding the CIA's covert drone program, in which remotely controlled, unmanned planes target terror suspects in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Mayer writes that unlike the military's publicly acknowledged drone program in Afghanistan and Iraq — both official war zones — the CIA's campaign doesn't operate in support of U.S. troops on the ground. Instead it's a secret program, run partly by private contractors, that amounts to "targeted international killings by the state," in the words of one human-rights lawyer. Because of its covert status, there's "no visible system of accountability in place," Mayer writes, and a sharp increase in the number of reported drone strikes has raised questions about whether the moral costs and the political consequences have been adequately considered.

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How to Get Out

How to Get Out
By Robert Dreyfuss
This article appeared in the November 9, 2009 edition of The Nation.
October 21, 2009

"There is no likelihood that the current US war in Afghanistan can achieve its aims (a narrower goal, the elimination of Al Qaeda, has for the most part already been accomplished). The corrupt government of President Karzai and his cronies is no longer sustainable, whether or not there is a second round in the fraud-marred election. A new government in Kabul must emerge, in the process accommodating Pashtun nationalists, the Taliban and other insurgents. Those latter groups, along with tribal and ethnic leaders, various warlords and representatives of Afghanistan's myriad political factions, will need international support to underwrite a new national compact. That national accord will probably not be a strong central government but rather a decentralized federal system in which provinces and districts retain a significant degree of autonomy. To secure international support, the United States must defer to the United Nations to convene a conference in which Afghans themselves hammer out the new way forward. The world community must pledge its support of Afghanistan financially for years to come. And this must occur against the backdrop of an unconditional withdrawal of US and NATO forces."

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US surges apologies for civilian deaths

New tactic for U.S., NATO in Afghanistan: say sorry Reuters:

Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:00pm BST
By Peter Graff

KABUL (Reuters) - After years of alienating Afghans by being slow to acknowledge killing civilians, U.S. troops are trying a new tactic: say sorry fast.

Commanders acknowledge that soaring civilian death tolls from U.S. and NATO strikes over the past year have cost them the vital support of ordinary Afghans -- and a perception that they were reluctant to take responsibility made the situation worse.

In an effort to blunt the damage, they have put in place new drills in recent months -- responding more quickly, coordinating their investigations with Afghan authorities, apologizing publicly and offering compensation.

But with civilian casualties still mounting as fighting increases, it remains to be seen whether the new approach will blunt the fury of an Afghan public wary of foreign troops...

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Afghan President calls on NATO general to explain civilian deaths | World | Deutsche Welle | 19.04.2009

Afghan President calls on NATO general to explain civilian deaths World Deutsche Welle 19.04.2009:

"For the second time in three days, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has called on the country's top NATO general to explain civilian casualties caused by international forces."

"...In the past week, international forces have already been forced to apologize for the killings of Afghans in the Khost and Kunar provinces. In both cases, the military initially said they had been targeting militants. Within days, they had confessed to killing civilians and issued public
apologies."

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International Aid Agencies Worry About Surge

EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Afghanistan: International Aid Agencies Wary of US-Backed Security Surge

...[In] an unprecedented move, a group of influential aid agencies joined hands to urge for an immediate halt to some of the specific civilian-military policies. In all, 11 organizations called for a de-linking of aid delivery from military goals, changes in the operational strategies of the international military forces, phasing out the strategy of distributing aid through the PRTs and halting two specific new security policies that they say will put Afghan communities at greater risk.

While humanitarian and development agencies have expressed concern about the civilian population from time to time, this concern previously tended to be expressed in general terms. Never before have NGOs gotten so specific. The NGOs who have come together to formulate a common position are all widely respected and with long-term track records in Afghanistan, including Oxfam, Care, Action Aid and Save the Children...

...Among the military measures that these organizations are wary of are the Afghan Social Outreach Program (ASOP) and the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF), both sometimes referred to as "empowerment programs..."

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