from SLATE: >More Combat Troops for Afghanistan > As many as 14,000 combat troops could replace support units in Afghanistan in > an effort to increase the number of "trigger-pullers" while not actually > increasing the total number of American troops in an unpopular war. Although > no one thinks this will replace what is a virtually certain request for > additional troops from the top American commander, it could end up making it > smaller. Officials say that before more troops are requested, the military > wants to make sure that every servicemember in Afghanistan is essential and > can't be replaced by private contractors. It's hardly surprising that defense > officials would want to increase the number of combat troops to fight an > enemy that has improved its tactics by exploiting weaknesses in the Western > forces, as the Washington Post notes. Still, it's a tricky proposition to > increase the number of private workers at a time when the number of civilian > contractors in Afghanistan makes up the highest ratio of contractors to > military personnel of any war in the country's history. Yesterday, a > government watchdog group said the private contractors who guard the U.S. > Embassy in Kabul have engaged in "lewd and deviant" behavior. According to > the Project on Government Oversight, the guards worked in a "Lord of the > Flies environment" where supervisors held weekly parties that included lots > of homoerotic hazing sessions—including urinating on each other and drinking > vodka poured off exposed butts—and those who didn't participate feared they > would lose their jobs. Gawker has some disturbing photographic evidence. In > other Afghanistan news, the country's deputy chief of intelligence was killed > in a suicide blast today and a U.N. report says opium cultivation has > declined for the second year in a row. The amount of poppy cultivation > decreased by 22 percent, and one-third of Afghanistan's territory is > considered to be virtually opium-free.
> Read original story in Los Angeles Times | Wednesday, 2 Sep 2009: > http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/afghanistan/la-fg-afghan-troops2-2009sep02,0,6170770.story > < -- Jim Devine / "laugh if you want to / really is kinda funny / cause the world is a car / and you're the crash test dummy" -- Devil Makes Three. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
