Withdrawal from Afghanistan doublespeak

Connecting the Dots: The Phantom of Famine, Floods and Farce -- Signs of the Times News



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In spite of the above, president Obama has 'softened' his previous statement of starting to withdraw US troops by July of next year. Whilst continuing to use that date as a rough guide, he now insists that any withdrawal will depend on the 'conditions on the ground'.

He follows up this wide-open time frame by saying, 'But make no mistake: this transition will begin because open-ended war serves neither our interests nor the Afghan people's.' This contradictory message serves to keep the general public - and the armed forces personnel themselves - in a state of confusion as they try to reconcile the idea that troops won't be there for the long run, but they won't be leaving in the near future, either.

Between 65 and 75 coalition troops were killed in August. That's around seventy families who were told their children, parents, siblings, won't be returning home. The US government seems to be counting on the fact that their citizens will simply get used to this, evidenced by the fact that congress has just approved legislation for $1.3 billion dollars to go towards military constructions which indicate "that US military forces will be fighting there for years, if not decades, to come."

A notice seeking contractor bids placed on a US government web site last week maps out plans for the expansion of one of these US bases in Shindand, an airfield in western Afghanistan that had been used by the Soviet Army during its occupation of Afghanistan more than two decades ago.


The project is to include new runways, hangars, barracks, storage areas, a "weapons arming area" and other facilities. They are being built to accommodate the Special Operations troops used by Washington to carry out "targeted killings," i.e., assassinations, which have become a key component of the US war. They will also house a unit operating pilotless drone aircraft for purposes of "Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance" as well as missile attacks.

This extra funding for continued covert operations doesn't include "$5.3 billion in allocations for the construction of new facilities for the Afghan security forces, the Post reports, citing a Pentagon news release stating that most of these 'enduring facilities [are] scheduled for construction over the next three to four years.'"

Anyone thinking the U.S. is planning on leaving Afghanistan had better think again. Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, in-charge of training Afghan security forces painted a picture at the Pentagon Press Corps on August 23rd which puts Obama's 'conditions on the ground' into context. One indication of how long it's going to take to hand over national security to Afghanistan itself is the high attrition rate among those freshly recruited for the job. High numbers of those trained simply "disappear" when their 17 weeks training is finished; many are killed in fighting. This means that:...based on the current attrition rates, to grow the Afghan National Security Force the additional 56,000 needed to meet the 2011 goal of 305,000, we will need to recruit and train 141,000 soldiers and police. To put this into context, in order to meet the 2011 goal, we will need to recruit and train in the next 15 months approximately the same number as is the total strength of the Afghan Army today.

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