While the administration is still weighing strategy in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama has already made one thing clear: The mission in Afghanistan may fail without an influx of civilian experts.
So where are muddy-boots diplomats and aid workers? According to the New York Times, nearly half of them have yet to get their passports stamped in Afghanistan.
Here's the key paragraph:
"Close?" Uh, not exactly. The president's plan to renew focus on governance and local development in Afghanistan was announced back in March. At the time, senior officials in the White House and the Pentagon told Danger Room that the civilian surge -- not any extra troops -- would be* the* key to turning the war's tide. But Henry Crumpton, a former Foggy Bottom bigwig who now advises General McChrystal, tells the Times that the effort is falling short. "Right now, the overwhelming majority of civilians are in Kabul, and the overwhelming majority never leave their compounds.” Sure, there are still 75 days left in the year; but the progress made so far doesn't exactly inspire.
The Times is not the first to pick up on the difficulties recruiting civilians to deploy to Afghanistan. And in fairness, civilian agencies lack the manpower base and the deployable reserve to surge personnel to war zones. In 1967, the U.S. Agency for International Development had around 2,000 civilian development experts in South Vietnam. That's roughly equal to the total number of people the agency has on staff today. Other agencies, like the Department of Agriculture, also face concerns about overstretch in Afghanistan.
So while the rest of the federal government struggles to fill billets, the military seems to be preparing the logistical base for a troop increase. According to a recent solicitation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is shopping around for contractors to oversee a possible expansion of Kandahar Airfield, the main hub in southern Afghanistan.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
ALSO
