Group items tagged

" Afghanistan Report the Pentagon Doesn't Want You to Read"

"The Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report Wednesday looking at U.S. assistance to Afghanistan.... The Senate report called for our aid to Afghanistan to be far more sustainable, while questioning whether many of the programs the United States has conducted under the broad banner of "stabilization" have actually made Afghanistan more stable or secure."

"The American-led military coalition in Afghanistan backed off Tuesday from its claim that Taliban attacks dropped off in 2012, tacitly acknowledging a hole in its widely repeated argument that violence is easing and that the insurgency is in steep decline."

"A report by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), an independent watchdog set up to scrutinise the UK government's aid spending, has raised concerns about the financial management of British development projects in Afghanistan."

"Now comes a decidedly contrary point of view. It's from Douglas A. Wissing, author of the just-published Funding the Enemy: How U.S. Taxpayers Bankroll the Taliban. After spending time with U.S. troops in Afghanistan, he's come to the conclusion that the U.S.-led effort there is flagging, if not already doomed. "

"Another lucrative source of income has been the foreign funding of aid and development projects. Estimates of Taliban income from contracts funded by the United States and other overseas donors range from 10 to 20 per cent of the total, usually by the Taliban agreeing protection money with the contractor or demanding a cut," the report said.

Interesting US Institute of Peace report on the feared Civil War 2.0 in Afghanistan.

"U.S. Army counterinsurgency activities in and around Khost, Afghanistan. "