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Vol. 73/No. 46      November 30, 2009

 
White House stalls on troop
decision for Afghanistan war
(front page)
 
BY BEN JOYCE  
As President Barack Obama continues to stall on a decision about how many additional troops, if any, to send to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, debate within his administration sharpens.

After days of media leaks from the White House that it was considering sending up to 40,000 troops, Obama's ambassador to Afghanistan said that he had reservations about the wisdom of that course.

The debate on troop deployment comes as Washington is rethinking its strategy in the increasingly difficult war in Central Asia, which has now lasted more than eight years. In late August, Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, submitted a report outlining his proposed counterinsurgency strategy. The report says that while U.S. forces face “enormous challenges,” a new approach, including deploying 40,000 additional troops, is the only way to win the war.

The war has accelerated rapidly this year with more military and civilian deaths than any previous year. So far 290 U.S. troops have been killed in 2009 compared to 155 in all of last year. With increased use of aerial drone strikes by U.S.-led NATO forces, civilian deaths have mounted. According to a UN report, more than 1,000 civilians died in the first six months of the year and many speculate the pace has increased in subsequent months.

Currently there are 65,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and that level is set to reach 68,000 by the end of the year. With about 124,000 troops in Iraq, the combined force is at an all-time high.

Some administration officials are not convinced that the United States should send more troops to the front. Earlier this month U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry communicated to Washington that he is dubious about sending additional troops given the instability and lack of credibility of the Afghan government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

In a meeting in the White House Situation Room November 11, Obama pressed Eikenberry and others in the president’s war council as to how long it would take to see results and withdraw.

“He wants to know where the off-ramps are,” one official with knowledge of the meeting told the New York Times.

Eikenberry was selected by Obama as ambassador to Afghanistan in January. He served as the top U.S. commander there from 2005 to 2007, as well as heading the building and training of the Afghan security forces from 2002 to 2003. He is among many in Washington who have expressed concern over the reliability of the Karzai government, especially after recent elections marked by charges of fraud and corruption.

The Times reports that the White House is considering sending only 10,000 to 15,000 troops—far short of what McChrystal says is needed. The bulk of the additional forces would go to training the Afghan army, with a smaller number focused on combat with insurgents.

General McChrystal’s plan for Afghanistan has garnered support within some sections of the ruling class. U.S. senators Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and Republican John McCain have both expressed support for a rapid increase in troops.

An editorial appeared in the November 11 Weekly Standard by Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute and Kimberly Kagan of the Institute for the Study of War, two Washington think tanks, titled “The Cost of Dithering.” The authors call on the Obama administration to meet McChrystal’s recommendations on troop reinforcements as well as preparing Afghanistan’s infrastructure for “a large and rapid surge of U.S. forces.”

Supporters of McChrystal's request for additional troops often compare it to the “surge” of troops in Iraq under the George Bush administration in 2007. As a result Washington has made substantial progress towards its goal of setting up a stable regime in Iraq that will serve as a regional ally, at least in the short term. Compared to Afghanistan today, the military policy under the Bush administration is seen by more and more as a success for the ruling class.

The paralysis of the Obama administration in deciding on a course in Afghanistan makes it more difficult to get Washington's imperialist allies in Europe to make further commitments to the war. Despite U.S. government efforts to get Germany to deploy additional troops, Berlin recently decided that only 120 more would be sent. There are currently 4,200 German troops in Afghanistan. They’re based in the more secure northern province of Kundus. The extra infantry company will arrive in mid-January.
 
 
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