If Obama moves forward with a troop buildup then I say it's time to form an opposition to his presidency.

http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/how_to_exit_afghanistan

October 2, 2009 · By Erik Leaver
Five pillars of an exit strategy for Afghanistan.

For years, the war in Afghanistan has been in crisis. But now with a failed Afghan election, the resurgence of the Taliban as a political power, NATO allies withdrawing from the battlefield, and Pakistan's tribal areas under increasing influence from the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the situation looks worse than ever. Obama and his team are spinning their wheels trying to devise a policy to right the sinking ship, but the most sensible solution, for Afghans and U.S. citizens, is to start planning a way out.

As U.S. and NATO troops start the ninth year of war, there is little progress to be shown. This year has proven to be the most deadly for U.S. and coalition troops since the war began. Over 1,500 Afghan civilians have died this year and more than 450 Afghan security forces have died.

Sadly, the sacrifices these solders made have not resulted in better conditions for Afghans on the ground. Agricultural production is at its lowest since the war began, only 23% of the population has access to clean drinking water, and 40% lives below the poverty line. Life expectancy in Afghanistan is 44 years. Three million Afghans have fled their country. According to a UN threat assessment, 40% of Afghanistan is today either Taliban-controlled or a high-risk area for insurgent attacks.

Beyond the human toll, the war is taking a severe financial hit on the United States. To date, the U.S. has spent more than $220 billion in Afghanistan. Over 90% of that spending has been for the military. Today, the U.S. is spending $4 billion a month in Afghanistan and has eclipsed the costs of Iraq for the first time.

But policymakers in Washington don't see Afghanistan being in crisis for these reasons. Instead, the focus is on the tension between the White House and the Department of Defense on two key questions: what is the proper mission for troops and should the United States send additional soldiers?

Few players in Washington are asking the most important questions, is there a role for troops at this point at all, what does an exit strategy look like and when can we get there?

We have no vital national interest in Afghanistan. We don't care who runs their government. All we care about is that al-Qaeda doesn't re-establish training camps there, and that they don't cut off our heroin.

We should just pack up and leave, with the understanding that we won't tolerate the return of al-Qaeda. If a-Q does come back, we'll be back with another dose of "regime change" and chase a-Q out again. If the Taliban can take over, more power to them. They will understand that if they want to stay in power, they have to keep the a-Q foreigners out.

On October 29, 2001, while the Taliban’s rule over Afghanistan was under assault, the regime’s ambassador in Islamabad gave a chaotic press conference in front of several dozen reporters sitting on the grass. On the Taliban diplomat’s right sat his interpreter, Ahmad Rateb Popal, a man with an imposing presence. Like the ambassador, Popal wore a black turban, and he had a huge bushy beard. He had a black patch over his right eye socket, a prosthetic left arm and a deformed right hand, the result of injuries from an explosives mishap during an old operation against the Soviets in Kabul.

But Popal was more than just a former mujahedeen. In 1988, a year before the Soviets fled Afghanistan, Popal had been charged in the United States with conspiring to import more than a kilo of heroin. Court records show he was released from prison in 1997.

Flash forward to 2009, and Afghanistan is ruled by Popal’s cousin President Hamid Karzai. Popal has cut his huge beard down to a neatly trimmed one and has become an immensely wealthy businessman, along with his brother Rashid Popal, who in a separate case pleaded guilty to a heroin charge in 1996 in Brooklyn. The Popal brothers control the huge Watan Group in Afghanistan, a consortium engaged in telecommunications, logistics and, most important, security. Watan Risk Management, the Popals’ private military arm, is one of the few dozen private security companies in Afghanistan. One of Watan’s enterprises, key to the war effort, is protecting convoys of Afghan trucks heading from Kabul to Kandahar, carrying American supplies.

Welcome to the wartime contracting bazaar in Afghanistan. It is a virtual carnival of improbable characters and shady connections, with former CIA officials and ex-military officers joining hands with former Taliban and mujahedeen to collect US government funds in the name of the war effort.

In this grotesque carnival, the US military’s contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. “It’s a big part of their income,” one of the top Afghan government security officials told The Nation in an interview. In fact, US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon’s logistics contracts–hundreds of millions of dollars–consists of payments to insurgents.

Much more of this story by Aron Roston at the LINK

New York Times Nov. 20

The PBS mainstay Bill Moyers said he was retiring from weekly television and would end his Friday night public affairs show, "Bill Moyers Journal," on April 30, 2010. That date will also be the last for "Now on PBS," which has been canceled.

Mr. Moyers said he had been planning for some time to retire the program on Dec. 25, but was asked by PBS to raise the funds to continue through April, which he did.

"I am 75 years old,” he said of the decision to end the series, which began in April 2007. The program has recently been having a "good run of it," he added in a telephone interview on Friday, "so I feel it’s time." He said he was not quitting television work, although he has no new projects planned.

"Now" began in January 2002, and was originally hosted by Mr. Moyers. John Siceloff, the executive producer, said the program, hosted now by David Brancaccio, had been "a unique voice at a time when outlets for insightful journalism are diminishing. We’re all looking for places to continue that work."

More at link: http://tinyurl.com/ybkfjwa

(not for general consumption but) for use in Western European hospitals as a pain reliever. It can't be more addictive or worse than oxycotin and all that other crap the pharmas shove down our throats and it give Afghanistan an instant and legit source of taxable income. Help the Afghanis get the fields under govt control, build some roads, schools, hospitals, then bug out. Let them build their own country or not, but they need some sort of GDP if they are ever going to get away from extremism.

Can be found: here.

“Brevity is the soul of wit. It is also the soul of the poor fucker up to his ass in alligators." ~ not-Richard Haass, channeling his inner Bard

Hashish army

Here's the reality on the ground. Unfortunately the imbed function has been disabled for this video so you must go to the link to watch it.

This is Part 8 of an outstanding series from the BBC. Watch the entire series here. (Requires scrolling through the menu.)

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