US Faces Huge Bill for Afghan Security($20 Bil for Security Alone)

[tekisui]

Source: Financial Times

The US will have to provide billions more dollars in coming years to finance a huge increase in the size of Afghanistan’s security forces, officials and analysts warn.

General Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of US and Nato forces in the country, is in the final stages of a review of policy in which he is expected to conclude, among other findings, that the Afghan army and police force should be increased to a combined total of 400,000.

“Afghan security forces need to grow to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 400,000, which is being looked at by the McChrystal review,” retired Gen Jack Keane, one of the architects of the surge in Iraq, told the Financial Times, in comments backed up by serving military officials.

(snip)

But the sheer size of the contribution needed – an estimated $20bn (€13.98bn, $11.89bn) over five years to set up the new security force – raises questions about sustainability itself.

more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4ffa310a-81e1-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0.html

[slipslidingaway]

1. knr Also thanks for your continued posts on Afghanistan n/t

[tekisui]

3. You are welcome.

I sometimes how many people are paying attention. But, I decided that I would stay on it, and keep a record in my journal so that when(who knows when it will be) everyone is sufficiently disgusted about the war in Afghanistan, we can look back at how we got there. Thanks for following.:hi:

[slipslidingaway]

6. Not much discussion of the escalation in Afghanistan....

either here or in the press.

Glad you are keeping these articles in your journal...thanks.

:hi:

[Karmadillo]

2. Money saved from the black hole of health care, education, green transportation,

and all sorts of bleeding heart, government for the people nonsense.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. A billion here, a billion there, and soon we're talking real money.

No money for health care for EVERYONE, though. Nope, can't afford that! x( :argh:

[frylock]

5. i went to activist san diego last nite, and not one war protest is on the calendar..

the only thing that's changed with these wars is the management.

[slipslidingaway]

7. kick nt

[jakeXT]

8. Obama Urged to More Than Double Afghan Security Force (Update1)

Obama Urged to More Than Double Afghan Security Force (Update1)
Share | Email | Print | A A A


By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan


Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama and top U.S. military commanders are being pressed by senators and civilian advisers to more than double the size of Afghan security forces, a move that would cost billions of dollars.

In letters and face-to-face meetings, the lawmakers and the advisers have urged Obama, National Security Advisor Jim Jones and the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan to boost the Afghan National Army and police from current levels of 175,000 to at least 400,000.

“Any further postponement” of a decision to support a surge in Afghan forces will hamper U.S. efforts to quell an insurgency in its eighth year, Senators Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, wrote to the White House in a July 21 letter obtained by Bloomberg News.

General Stanley McChrystal, the new U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, will recommend a speedier expansion of Afghan forces beyond current targets in an assessment he will give within a month to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, according to a senior military official familiar with the review.

..

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAFZskgzLx1U

[TexasObserver]

9. Recommend

[dysfunctional press]

10. now THAT'S cash for a REAL clunker...

but i doubt that too many of the military-industrialist corporacrats will make too much of a fuss about it.

:sigh: jimmy carter wanted to get us independent of foriegn oil/energy, and NONE of this would have been any of our problem.

[jimmyflint]

11. Afghanistan the new Iraq

Sure why not, throw some more money and lives on the fire.