Afghan drawdown has some feeling 'doomed'
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BY MATTHEW FISHER, POSTMEDIA NEWS FEBRUARY 19, 2012
Like a balloon with a slow leak, the U.S.-led war against the Taliban is gradually running out of air.
The Obama administration's somewhat mixed message about accelerating the drawdown of U.S. combat forces in Afghanistan while keeping special forces here has had an effect on some of the American troops who, from my talks with them, have figuratively packed their bags and in their minds are already halfway home.
As one Canadian woman who has worked closely with Afghans for many years grimly put it to me during a meeting Thursday: "It's over, isn't it?"
That's certainly the way many of my friends in Kabul feel about the war. The first and only question these average joes were asking was: "Is Obama really serious about ending combat operations next year?"
When I, in turn, asked them what would happen if this were to come to pass, the universal answer was: "We're doomed."
Maj.-Gen. Mike Day, the charismatic head of Canada's training contingent and the NATO officer responsible for building up Afghan security forces, said that there is no chance that the alliance will leave Afghanistan any time soon.
"We are going to continue post-2014 - there are no ifs, ands, ors or buts about that," Day said.
"I read in the press, and it's frustrating, idiotic really, to say we are out of here by the end of 2014. That has never been the case and never will be the case.
"We will continue. What is true is that the mission will change and we have to prepare for that."
Support for NATO forces remaining here is high among Afghans. This is fed to a large degree by a morbid consensus that the Karzai government isn't capable of much and that the country will fracture into civil war that would pit Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and liberal Pashtuns against deeply conservative pro- Taliban Pashtuns.
An Afghan army colonel I met last week at a training base on Kabul's eastern outskirts expressed strong doubts that Afghan security forces will be ready to defend their country if NATO further accelerates its drawdown of combat forces or if other countries join France in speeding up the withdrawal of trainers and advisers.
My first hint of what has informed this relatively new mindset came during a brief visit to Kandahar last November.
A few soldiers there told me the operational tempo was slowing. Poorly paid and overworked men and women from Kosovo, India, Nepal and the Philippines who have kept the Kandahar Airfield running for NATO said they had been warned that many of their jobs will end during the next year or so.
You might conclude that Canada's military training mission here is running out of air, too.
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Soldiers embrace new role in Afghanistan
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Troops committed to fostering growth of national army
BY MATTHEW FISHER, OTTAWA CITIZEN FEBRUARY 19, 2012
Unbeknownst to many Canadians who think their government's war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda ended when its combat forces left Kandahar, Afghanistan, last summer, Canada still has more than 900 almost-forgotten troops serving in this war-weary country.
Tucked behind a wall of snowcapped mountains, 650 kilometres southwest of Kabul and less than an hour's drive from the Iranian border, the most isolated of these forgotten 911 Canadians are 12 soldiers and four sailors, who quietly have been overseeing the work of Afghan army instructors conducting basic training for thousands of recruits.
The trainers deployed last year are on what Canada calls OP Attention.
I was the first journalist to travel to the remote rock-strewn moonscape that they share with Americans, Italians, Slovenes, Ecuadorans and, of course, Afghans, beside a road that is one of the leading routes used to smuggle opium into Iran.
"I knew I was coming to Herat and I was pretty stoked," said Master Cpl. Mark Bailey of Kingston, a communications specialist who served three combat tours in Kandahar.
"I believe that you are more effective when you are in a smaller group. There is more work for the individual soldier. You have to pick up your game."
Capt. John Miller of Melville, Sask., who was a sheriff before becoming an infantry officer, said that because the hand-picked group he leads were the first soldiers to wear the Maple Leaf in this corner of Afghanistan, "our reputation in this region rests on the shoulders of a small group, so it is vital that my team constantly emits professionalism, initiative and an aptitude for the job."
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Afghanistan stands by bidding process for Hajigak mine
JON STEPHENSON McClatchy Newspapers
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KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines on Saturday rejected allegations of problems in the bidding for one of the country's largest mines, calling it "a fair and transparent process."
In a letter to McClatchy, the ministry's director-general for policy and promotion, A. Jalil Jumriany, said that the selection of bids for four blocks of the Hajigak iron ore mine in central Afghanistan was overseen by a team of Afghan government experts, and that a panel of international advisers found that the process was "conducted according to international standards."
However, Jumriany's letter did not challenge the main points in a McClatchy report published Friday, which raised allegations of flaws in the bidding process and that the winning bidders — a state-led Indian consortium and a Canadian firm — hadn't demonstrated that they could meet production targets.
Among the charges raised by Acatco — an Afghan-American firm that was short-listed for the contracts but failed to win mining rights — was that the winning firms hadn't shown that they'd secured adequate funding for extracting iron ore from Hajigak, often described as the jewel of Afghanistan's mining sector.
Acatco also charged that its bid was rejected despite offering clearer dates for starting production and higher royalty payments to the Afghan government. A complaints commission of the Afghan parliament has taken up the matter and summoned Afghanistan's minister of mines, Wahidullah Shahrani, who failed to appear at a hearing Saturday because he was traveling, according to a spokesman.
In its letter to McClatchy, the ministry accused Acatco's president, Nasir Shansab, of disclosing confidential information and trying to interfere in the bid evaluation process. Shansab denied the allegations.
The ministry said that the contracts to the Steel Authority of India, or SAIL, and Kilo Goldmines, the Canadian firm, hadn't yet been ratified by the Cabinet and that negotiations were ongoing. In announcing the two firms' winning bids on Nov. 28, the ministry said that the projects in Hajigak would "bring billions of dollars in mining investment and thousands of new jobs to Afghanistan."
More on link
Article Link
BY MATTHEW FISHER, POSTMEDIA NEWS FEBRUARY 19, 2012
Like a balloon with a slow leak, the U.S.-led war against the Taliban is gradually running out of air.
The Obama administration's somewhat mixed message about accelerating the drawdown of U.S. combat forces in Afghanistan while keeping special forces here has had an effect on some of the American troops who, from my talks with them, have figuratively packed their bags and in their minds are already halfway home.
As one Canadian woman who has worked closely with Afghans for many years grimly put it to me during a meeting Thursday: "It's over, isn't it?"
That's certainly the way many of my friends in Kabul feel about the war. The first and only question these average joes were asking was: "Is Obama really serious about ending combat operations next year?"
When I, in turn, asked them what would happen if this were to come to pass, the universal answer was: "We're doomed."
Maj.-Gen. Mike Day, the charismatic head of Canada's training contingent and the NATO officer responsible for building up Afghan security forces, said that there is no chance that the alliance will leave Afghanistan any time soon.
"We are going to continue post-2014 - there are no ifs, ands, ors or buts about that," Day said.
"I read in the press, and it's frustrating, idiotic really, to say we are out of here by the end of 2014. That has never been the case and never will be the case.
"We will continue. What is true is that the mission will change and we have to prepare for that."
Support for NATO forces remaining here is high among Afghans. This is fed to a large degree by a morbid consensus that the Karzai government isn't capable of much and that the country will fracture into civil war that would pit Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and liberal Pashtuns against deeply conservative pro- Taliban Pashtuns.
An Afghan army colonel I met last week at a training base on Kabul's eastern outskirts expressed strong doubts that Afghan security forces will be ready to defend their country if NATO further accelerates its drawdown of combat forces or if other countries join France in speeding up the withdrawal of trainers and advisers.
My first hint of what has informed this relatively new mindset came during a brief visit to Kandahar last November.
A few soldiers there told me the operational tempo was slowing. Poorly paid and overworked men and women from Kosovo, India, Nepal and the Philippines who have kept the Kandahar Airfield running for NATO said they had been warned that many of their jobs will end during the next year or so.
You might conclude that Canada's military training mission here is running out of air, too.
More on link
Soldiers embrace new role in Afghanistan
Article Link
Troops committed to fostering growth of national army
BY MATTHEW FISHER, OTTAWA CITIZEN FEBRUARY 19, 2012
Unbeknownst to many Canadians who think their government's war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda ended when its combat forces left Kandahar, Afghanistan, last summer, Canada still has more than 900 almost-forgotten troops serving in this war-weary country.
Tucked behind a wall of snowcapped mountains, 650 kilometres southwest of Kabul and less than an hour's drive from the Iranian border, the most isolated of these forgotten 911 Canadians are 12 soldiers and four sailors, who quietly have been overseeing the work of Afghan army instructors conducting basic training for thousands of recruits.
The trainers deployed last year are on what Canada calls OP Attention.
I was the first journalist to travel to the remote rock-strewn moonscape that they share with Americans, Italians, Slovenes, Ecuadorans and, of course, Afghans, beside a road that is one of the leading routes used to smuggle opium into Iran.
"I knew I was coming to Herat and I was pretty stoked," said Master Cpl. Mark Bailey of Kingston, a communications specialist who served three combat tours in Kandahar.
"I believe that you are more effective when you are in a smaller group. There is more work for the individual soldier. You have to pick up your game."
Capt. John Miller of Melville, Sask., who was a sheriff before becoming an infantry officer, said that because the hand-picked group he leads were the first soldiers to wear the Maple Leaf in this corner of Afghanistan, "our reputation in this region rests on the shoulders of a small group, so it is vital that my team constantly emits professionalism, initiative and an aptitude for the job."
More on link
Afghanistan stands by bidding process for Hajigak mine
JON STEPHENSON McClatchy Newspapers
Article Link
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines on Saturday rejected allegations of problems in the bidding for one of the country's largest mines, calling it "a fair and transparent process."
In a letter to McClatchy, the ministry's director-general for policy and promotion, A. Jalil Jumriany, said that the selection of bids for four blocks of the Hajigak iron ore mine in central Afghanistan was overseen by a team of Afghan government experts, and that a panel of international advisers found that the process was "conducted according to international standards."
However, Jumriany's letter did not challenge the main points in a McClatchy report published Friday, which raised allegations of flaws in the bidding process and that the winning bidders — a state-led Indian consortium and a Canadian firm — hadn't demonstrated that they could meet production targets.
Among the charges raised by Acatco — an Afghan-American firm that was short-listed for the contracts but failed to win mining rights — was that the winning firms hadn't shown that they'd secured adequate funding for extracting iron ore from Hajigak, often described as the jewel of Afghanistan's mining sector.
Acatco also charged that its bid was rejected despite offering clearer dates for starting production and higher royalty payments to the Afghan government. A complaints commission of the Afghan parliament has taken up the matter and summoned Afghanistan's minister of mines, Wahidullah Shahrani, who failed to appear at a hearing Saturday because he was traveling, according to a spokesman.
In its letter to McClatchy, the ministry accused Acatco's president, Nasir Shansab, of disclosing confidential information and trying to interfere in the bid evaluation process. Shansab denied the allegations.
The ministry said that the contracts to the Steel Authority of India, or SAIL, and Kilo Goldmines, the Canadian firm, hadn't yet been ratified by the Cabinet and that negotiations were ongoing. In announcing the two firms' winning bids on Nov. 28, the ministry said that the projects in Hajigak would "bring billions of dollars in mining investment and thousands of new jobs to Afghanistan."
More on link
