An Afghanistan civilian "surge"

now we're talkin'...

A civilian "surge" of hundreds of additional U.S. officials in Afghanistan would accompany the already approved increase in U.S. troop levels there under a new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy being completed at the White House, according to administration officials.

[...]

Some of the proposed new civilian force in Afghanistan -- diplomats, specialists from federal departments such as Agriculture and Justice, and hundreds of new "full-time, temporary" hires -- would work at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, officials said. Others would be assigned to U.S. provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs, located primarily in eastern Afghanistan, and to other efforts to build Afghan civilian capacity around the country. Patterned on a program first established in Iraq, the PRTs assist and advise Afghans in economic and local governance development.

i do have some reservations and they're not minor... i've never had a particularly favorable impression of state department or other federal department types (including usaid), or their lackeys... most of them are bureaucratic functionaries intent on covering their own asses and maintaining their cushy incomes... however, given the choice between that kind of people and heavily armed troops, i'll opt for bureaucratic functionaries every time...

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