In a televised address last night, President Barak Obama outlined his new initiative for the war in Afghanistan: 30,000 more troops will be deployed there in early 2010. He spoke of a "full review" of options before coming to this decision, and stated his belief that our national security depended upon bringing this conflict to a successful end. His plan includes an orderly exit within 18 months, and said that some of our allies have also committed troops to this purpose. The question is, of course, will it work?
If history is any indication, it will not. Obama spoke of other superpowers failing in this regard, yet still reached the decision to send more of our troops into this maelstrom. Last week, administration officials told the McClatchy Newspapers that the strategy included "greater anti-corruption efforts and political reforms" as well as a troop surge in an effort to stabilize the country. An article by Aram Roston in the November 30 issue of The Nation, however, paints a much different picture.
The article describes a complicated web of corruption, bribery and profit-making by a host of participants in the Afghan conflict. U.S. military contractors, using Pentagon dollars, regularly pay private military security firms to protect trucks carrying supplies to U.S. troops. One of the largest of these firms, Watan Risk Management, is run by president Hamid Karzai's cousins, Rashid and Rateb Popol, the latter a former mujahedeen. Another is NCL Holdings, based in Afghanistan but with an office in Washington. This company was awarded a military contract worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. To keep supply trucks safe, insurgents are paid, according to the article, "hundreds of millions of dollars" not to attack them. An American military official told the author that this translates into "a big part" of the Taliban's income. All this is done, of course, with U.S. knowledge and complicity.
Is this what Obama plans to stop? It seems unlikely. Like any people up against it, the Afghans have learned to make a profit from the unending conflict that permeates their country. Escalating the chaos will only increase profits for those already getting rich from this war. People get used to living a certain way, no matter how distasteful it may seem to onlookers, and become loathe to change it. Will 30,000 more troops make them want to end their lucrative situations, and move toward peace? Not at these prices, it won't.
If history is any indication, it will not. Obama spoke of other superpowers failing in this regard, yet still reached the decision to send more of our troops into this maelstrom. Last week, administration officials told the McClatchy Newspapers that the strategy included "greater anti-corruption efforts and political reforms" as well as a troop surge in an effort to stabilize the country. An article by Aram Roston in the November 30 issue of The Nation, however, paints a much different picture.
The article describes a complicated web of corruption, bribery and profit-making by a host of participants in the Afghan conflict. U.S. military contractors, using Pentagon dollars, regularly pay private military security firms to protect trucks carrying supplies to U.S. troops. One of the largest of these firms, Watan Risk Management, is run by president Hamid Karzai's cousins, Rashid and Rateb Popol, the latter a former mujahedeen. Another is NCL Holdings, based in Afghanistan but with an office in Washington. This company was awarded a military contract worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. To keep supply trucks safe, insurgents are paid, according to the article, "hundreds of millions of dollars" not to attack them. An American military official told the author that this translates into "a big part" of the Taliban's income. All this is done, of course, with U.S. knowledge and complicity.
Is this what Obama plans to stop? It seems unlikely. Like any people up against it, the Afghans have learned to make a profit from the unending conflict that permeates their country. Escalating the chaos will only increase profits for those already getting rich from this war. People get used to living a certain way, no matter how distasteful it may seem to onlookers, and become loathe to change it. Will 30,000 more troops make them want to end their lucrative situations, and move toward peace? Not at these prices, it won't.
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