U.S. to deploy hundreds of civilian officials to Afghanistan

[AliFarooq]

U.S. to deploy hundreds of civilian officials to Afghanistan - GEO.tv

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama's aides are weighing a range of options to shift policy in Afghanistan, including a full-scale counter-insurgency push to protect civilians nationwide, officials said on Wednesday.

Among the ideas are scaling back the U.S. mission to focus on counter-terrorism and the training of Afghan forces; making a focused counter-insurgency push in the violent south and east; and pursuing a wider campaign to protect civilians across the country, said a U.S. official who asked not to be named.

Hundreds of civilian officials from across the U.S. government would be deployed to Afghanistan as part of the new strategy in a sort of "civilian surge," said another official, including veteran U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith, who would be a deputy to the top United Nations official on the ground.

The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss a White House review of policy toward Afghanistan expected to be released in the next week or so.

One official said each option would require different levels of U.S. troops, suggesting they presented a sort of sliding scale with the most resources needed for a national program of population security and counter-insurgency.

Such an effort would be costly at a time when the U.S. government is already borrowing heavily to try to contain the global financial crisis and revive world growth.

While declining to discuss the policy review in detail, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was reluctant to get drawn into an open-ended commitment in Afghanistan.

"I've been very concerned about an open-ended commitment of increasing numbers of troops for a variety of reasons, including the size of our footprint in Afghanistan and my worry that the Afghans come to see us as not their partners and allies, but as part of their problem," he told reporters.

 

[S-2]

I've long favored the total engagement of our gov't. Frankly, the logical follow-up to that is the total engagement of our nation. Still, this is a good start.

Problems? Myriad. There are administrative law, security, and comfort issues galore. Are they more problem than the downstream worth? Who knows? I can't recall any nation of late attempting to mobilize a portion of it's civilian bureaucracy to deploy into a combat theatre.

Prior service would sure help to ensure minimal expectations to creature comforts. How to incentivize? Promotion points? Why not? Competitive application to job positions within the U.S. gov't now award five points to honorably discharged veterans and 10 to those who've served in a combat theatre, IIRC.

So too here, perhaps. However it's managed, we should expect that these men and women will not be entering the Korengal valley or Garmsir district immediately.

First security, then governance and reconstruction.

 

[AliFarooq]

^^^
agreed security should be a must, otherwise there will be an increase in taliban activity trying to nab the Foreign civilians.

 

[ejaz007]

Since security and governance are weak in Afghanistan reconstruction is not expected to commence on large scale any time soon.