Dueling Leaks On Afghanistan

The duel of leaks frokm the Administration continues on Afghanistan.  In the latest installment, we learn that the training of Afghan security forces is difficult and behind schedule, calling into question the plausibility of McChrystal's plan:

WASHINGTON — A series of internal government reviews have presented the Obama administration with a dire portrait of Afghanistan’s military and police force, bringing into serious question an ambitious goal at the heart of the evolving American war strategy — to speed up their training and send many more Afghans to the fight.

As President Obama considers his top commander’s call to rapidly double Afghanistan’s security forces, the internal reviews, written by officials directly involved in the training program or charged with keeping it on track, describe an overstretched enterprise struggling to nurse along the poorly led, largely illiterate and often corrupt Afghan forces.

In September, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and allied commander in Afghanistan, recommended increasing the Afghan Army as quickly as possible — to 134,000 in a year from the current force of more than 90,000, instead of taking two years, and perhaps eventually to 240,000. He would also expand the police force to 160,000. The acceleration is vital to General McChrystal’s overall counterinsurgency plan, which also calls for more American troops but seeks more protection against the Taliban for the Afghan population than the Pentagon could ever supply.

While General McChrystal knew of the latest assessments when he wrote his plan, their completion just as President Obama considers the general’s proposal has given fresh ammunition to doubters.

“Nothing in our experience over the last seven to eight years suggests that progress at such a rapid pace is realistic,” said Representative John F. Tierney, the Massachusetts Democrat who is the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on national security.

John Tierney is the most highly placed official they could get on the record?

Making this trickier is that NATO is meant to play an important training role:

Despite the obstacles, few disagree that Afghanistan’s forces must eventually become bigger and better. And senior Pentagon and military officials insist that it can happen faster, too. But it may take 10,000 to 15,000 more trainers from the United States and NATO, which have just agreed to overhaul the training program.

Even that decision required a concession to European sensitivities: the creation of a wholly new NATO training effort to operate alongside the American forces who currently dominate the training program and who typically accompany the Afghans they train into combat. Some European governments balk at that practice.

A three-star Army general, Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, will soon take command of the new NATO training mission — and overhaul the American-led program. General Caldwell, a West Point classmate of General McChrystal, was previously in charge of the influential Army schools and training programs at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and he will command both the American and allied training headquarters.

“Our NATO allies have been an active participant in Afghanistan from the very beginning, but with this new NATO structure, we perhaps will see even more involvement by partner countries,” General Caldwell said in an interview.

Blaming Bush would be one thing, but for Obama to suggest that NATO can't perform this mission is another.

Comments

[BR]

Hee, tell your wife, my husband once woke up with one sitting on his nose, on a ship in the Caribbean.

[Captain Hate]

Was it called Ox Roast, CH? That's a big deal in Erie County. Catholic churches all over the county raise $$ by holding Ox Roast dinners at various times during the year. Erie County is the only midwestern county in Pennsylvania. Its culture is not quite the same as the rest of the state.

No definitely not called an Ox Roast, although I remember them being called that when I was growing up in Laurel, Md. Yes, I got the idea that it was like a social network attending them; obviously I find their company enjoyable.

I've probably driven through at least one of the camps you attended, if not both, because one of the joys of the drive to and from are the autumn colors and we've driven around a lot including up to the lake. Lots of nice orchards up there where they're almost giving the apples away.

Small world indeed, Jim.

[Janet]

Beef roast...Ox roast? I'm gonna have to check out the Catholic churches in our area! My husband brought me a pin that says "Meatatarian By Choice" that I put on my purse.
With all the talk last night about Lutherans and jello, it sure looks like the Catholics have them beat on sustenance!

[Melinda Romanoff]

Cap'n-

My cousin, and her husband plus 2, live in Erie. Very nice, but but like most Great lakes harbor towns, a bit depressed. Only a few hours from where we went to stir apple butter.

There were significant pig parts involved. Aged and otherwise.

[PD]

All I know of Erie is that they have a minor league baseball team called the Sea Wolves, and that when one of my sons and I stayed there on one of our road trips, it was the day that the "pizza bomber" blew up there. We knew nothing about it until later.

Oh, and now there's a big gambling establishment that's driven up the hotel prices.

[clarice]

Well, it's looking more and more like batshit crazy Nancy lied a bit too much to be a credible arm twister --she doesn't seem to have the votes.Let's hope that's a correct report and this pig os a bill dies.

[Jack is Back!]

Clarice,

I got an email from Paul Mlynarz, of Manchesterbeat, who tells me that the folks in Manchester are amazed at the tributes and responses to PUK's death.

I am also having trouble accessing Verner's facebook account to make a donation for the floral tribute. Any ideas?

[BR]

Oh good, Clarice, I was just thinking about Pelosi and wondering how her skin disease is progressing -- you know, the kind that makes her hair fall out and boils erupt on her face and it's very infectious and all who've been within 20 yards of her have to go into quarantine and, Greg, that'll take care of the Gang of Five lineup, too, hey.

How's that for a one-woman ad hominem filibuster.

[Rocco]

My youngest attended Mercyhurst Junior College in North East PA. About 20 minutes from Mercyhurst College in Erie. Beautiful vineyards everywhere and some of the best steelhead fishing in the country. Not only did he get his associates there but he wrestled D1 for them and made it to the NJCAA National Championships in Minnesota where he lost his first two matches and was eliminated from the tourny. I believe Mercyhurst College is hosting the National Catholic Invitational this weekend and that's one of the tournaments we'd make the 8 hour drive to attend.

And while I'm at it this seems to be a good time to bust the basketball stars among us. My favorite wrestling t-shirt states, "If it was easy they'd call it Basketball."

[centralcal]

Jack: I emailed Verner (jennifer.verner at yahoo.com) and heard back from her promptly. I don't have a paypal account (although I do everything, banking, bill paying, ordering on-line). She gave me her home address to send a check to.

[clarice]

JIB, I figured they'd be astonished.

[Captain Hate]

Well, it's looking more and more like batshit crazy Nancy lied a bit too much to be a credible arm twister --she doesn't seem to have the votes.Let's hope that's a correct report and this pig os a bill dies.

Lollapelosi a failure; there's a shocker!! I like referring to her as batshit crazy Nancy; it has a nice cadence to it and I doubt that any listener wouldn't know who it meant.

Glad that other posters have some tie in to the Erie area; a nice little Great Lakeside corner of Pennsyltucky. Speaking of which, in a couple weeks we'll take 80 way to the south of Erie for a Thanksgiving travel to the Hatettes. 80 goes through some of the most unpopulated parts of the state with some of the exits being glorified crossroads at best.

My favorite wrestling t-shirt states, "If it was easy they'd call it Basketball."

Typical stat line of a wrestler on the basketball squad: Did Not Play - Coach's Decision.

[PD]

That's a lump-in-the-throat account of Sgt. Amy Krueger of Wisconsin. Who wouldn't be proud of a child like that?

Local coverage in Madison:

Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel in southwestern Manitowoc County, joined the Army shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with an eye toward getting Osama bin Laden. "She was a beautiful, beautiful person," said Rosanne Coffeen, the mother of Krueger's best friend. "This sure never should have happened to her."

The article includes a picture of Amy that you can click and a map that you can click to enlarge. The map shows where each of the WI dead and wounded are from.

[PD]

Arghh, how could I have forgotten this about Erie: They have a Krispy Kreme.

Or maybe it's out of business by now. The ones in Rochester, NY, Davenport, IA, and Milwaukee have folded, sob.

[caro]

For five summers in the late fifties I went to summer camp at Camp Caledon near Lake City, west of Erie. Great camp, but googling it, it no longer exists as a girls' camp. Sad.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Well shoot, although I grew up in Johnstown, we have a summer home at Conneaut Lake, PA (40 miles S. of Erie, 13 miles from Meadville). When I was little, my Dad would take me with him on day trips to Ashtabula and Youngstown. I think these trips were related to his job.

When my parents were building their house, we stayed at the Lake into the Fall and Winter that year. I started 1st grade there. My Dad would commute and come on the weekends. As the place emptied out once all the Summer people went home, my Mom would look for all the church pot lucks from Conneaut Lake to the Ohio border and up to Erie, just for a way to get out and socialize since all around the Lake it was a ghost town during the non-Summer months.