Commentary: War's real report card isn't so reassuring

Commentary: War's real report card isn't so reassuring
By Doyle McManus | Los Angeles Times
Posted on Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Obama administration's year-end review of its strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, released last week, was intended to be cautiously reassuring: Yes, there are challenges, but military progress is being made. Overall, President Barack Obama said, "We are on track to achieve our goals."

On closer reading, though, even the carefully written five-page public summary of the review isn't as reassuring as some of the headlines it earned. In Afghanistan, it says, the growth of the Taliban insurgency has been slowed, but that achievement is "fragile and reversible." In Pakistan, progress in the shadowy war against extremists has been "substantial," but not enough to deny either al-Qaiada or the Afghan Taliban the havens that shelter them from defeat; that will require much more military action than the Pakistanis have been willing to undertake so far.

And the report - at least the public version - barely mentioned some of the most daunting problems facing the U.S. in Afghanistan. "Emphasis must continue to be placed on the development of Afghan-led security and governance," it said. Translation: In many areas, there's still no functioning Afghan government or police force. The word "corruption" never appeared; the administration's rocky relationship with Afghanistan's mercurial president, Hamid Karzai, got no mention. Nor did it make much of a case that Pakistan, which is focused on its own problems, is likely to commit more troops and take more risks to help the U.S. and Afghanistan.

More important, the report's on-the-ground focus meant it also largely ignored three of the biggest factors shaping the future of the U.S. enterprise in Afghanistan and Pakistan: time, cost and the support of the American people.

The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan is already in its 10th year, even though (as administration officials often point out) it has only been waged at its current full strength of 140,000 American and allied troops for the last six months. Initially, U.S. military officials hoped to show quick successes on the ground that would provide what they call "proof of concept" in time for last week's report. That timetable, like every timetable in Afghanistan, has slipped; proof of concept is now on the agenda for a full review that is scheduled for July 2011.

a big,tough surgeon...helped build a hospital for citizens there.."What the fuck has happened?"

what the fuck,indeed,has happened?

Someone is still getting rich.