President Bush Outlines Strategy for Afghanistan
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2007 – Success against terrorism in Afghanistan is important to U.S. security, and the administration has key areas it will be working on to improve the situation there, President Bush said here today.

In an address to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Bush said action in Afghanistan will include strengthening NATO forces and bolstering local governments.

The president identified five areas the United States will focus on in Afghanistan: increasing the size and capability of the Afghan security forces; strengthening NATO forces; improving provincial governance and the economy; reversing the increase in poppy cultivation; and fighting corruption.

"Our goal in Afghanistan is to help the people of that country defeat the terrorists and establish a stable, moderate, democratic state that respects the rights of its citizens, governs its territory effectively, and is a reliable ally in this war against extremists and terrorists," Bush said.

That goal is achievable in Afghanistan, Bush said, because freedom is a universal desire of all human beings. He noted that in the last five years, the United States has made significant progress in Afghanistan. The country now has a democratically elected government, the economy has doubled in size, more than 5 million children are in school, and hundreds of health clinics have been built or remodeled, he said.

"In 2001, Afghanistan was a totalitarian nightmare, a land where girls could not go to school, where religious police roamed the streets, where women were publicly whipped, where there were summary executions in the Kabul soccer stadium, and where the terrorists operated freely," Bush said. "Today, five short years later, the Taliban have been driven from power, al Qaeda has been driven from its camps, and Afghanistan is free."

In 2006, as freedom spread in Afghanistan, the enemy struck back, Bush said. The number of roadside bombs almost doubled, direct-fire attacks on international forces almost tripled, and suicide bombings grew nearly fivefold in what was the most violent year in Afghanistan since its liberation, he acknowledged.

"It should be a lesson for our fellow citizens to understand; where these (groups) of people find freedom, they're willing to resort to brutal tactics," Bush said. "It's an interesting enemy, isn't it? An enemy that can't stand the thought of somebody being able to live a peaceful life -- a life of hope, an optimistic life. And it's an enemy we've got to take seriously."

The correct response to these terrorists is to remain on the offensive and aggressively strike back against them, Bush said. The spring offensive that everyone anticipates will be a NATO offensive, he said, not a Taliban offensive.

"Relentless in our pressure, we will not give in to murderers and extremists," Bush said.

The first area the United States will focus on is developing the Afghan security forces, Bush said. NATO plans to increase the size of the national police from 61,000 to 82,000, and the Afghan army from 32,000 to 70,000 by the end of 2008, he said.

The United States and its allies will also help the Afghans develop new specialties, such as civil order brigades, counternarcotics, border surveillance, commando battalions, a helicopter unit, and combat support units.

The United States also worked with NATO and the Afghan government to develop a joint intelligence operations center in Kabul, focused on giving all the security forces in Afghanistan a common picture of the enemy, Bush said.

The second part of U.S. strategy is to work with allies to strengthen the NATO force in Afghanistan, Bush said. Many NATO countries have made commitments of support for the mission in Afghanistan, and now those commitments must be fulfilled, he said. The allied countries must be ready to fill security gaps on the ground, he said, and must lift restrictions on forces that hinder operations.

"The alliance was founded on this principle: An attack on one is an attack on all," Bush said. "That principle holds true whether the attack is on the home soil of a NATO nation or on allied forces deployed on a NATO mission abroad. By standing together in Afghanistan, NATO forces protect their own people, and they must have the flexibility and rules of engagement to be able to do their job."

The United States and its allies will also work with the Afghan government to develop local governance and improve the economy, Bush said. The best way to stop people from joining the Taliban is to create jobs and opportunity, so NATO is operating 25 provincial reconstruction teams across the country, he said.

These teams are made up of civilian and military experts that are helping the Afghan government extend its reach, improving security, and helping to deliver reconstruction assistance. The teams will also build irrigation systems, improve power production, and train local leaders, Bush noted.

Another area the United States will focus on is helping the Afghan government eradicate poppy cultivation. Money from the sale of illicit drugs is used to fund the Taliban and other terrorist organizations, so the drug trade is a direct threat to the free future of Afghanistan. The U.S. government is working with Afghan president Hamid Karzai to eradicate poppy cultivation and provide alternative livelihood programs for farmers, Bush said.

The United States also is working with Karzai to fight corruption in the government, specifically in the judicial system, Bush said.

"There's nothing more discouraging when justice is not fair," he said. "And Afghans too often see their courts run by crooked judges."

The United States, Britain and Norway are providing full-time prosecutors, judges, police and defense attorneys to mentor their Afghan counterparts, and the United States has built or renovated 40 judicial facilities, Bush said. The U.S. has also distributed more than 11,000 copies of the Afghan constitution and trained more than 750 Afghan judges, lawyers and prosecutors, he said.

The president also said the United States plans to work with Afghan and Pakistani leaders to improve cooperation between the two nations in defeating the terrorists who are their common enemy. The U.S. has helped equip Pakistani security forces patrolling the border, is building hundreds of border outposts, and has provided high-tech equipment to help locate terrorists trying to cross into Afghanistan, he said.

"I'm going to continue to work with both the leaders," Bush said. "It's a useful role for the president of the United States to be in constant contact with both presidents to remind them of the great obligations we have to fight extremists and to help people realize dreams."

"Success in Afghanistan is important for our security," Bush concluded. "We are engaged in a long ideological struggle between the forces of moderation and liberty versus the forces of destruction and extremism. And a victory for the forces of liberty in Afghanistan will be a resounding defeat in this ideological struggle. It's in our national interest that we succeed, that we help President Karzai and the people of Afghanistan succeed."

Related Sites:
Transcript of President Bush's Remarks

February 15, 2007
A Prewar Slide Show Cast Iraq in Rosy Hues

By MICHAEL R. GORDON
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — When Gen. Tommy R. Franks and his top officers gathered in August 2002 to review an invasion plan for Iraq, it reflected a decidedly upbeat vision of what the country would look like four years after Saddam Hussein was ousted from power.

A broadly representative Iraqi government would be in place. The Iraqi Army would be working to keep the peace. And the United States would have as few as 5,000 troops in the country.

Military slides obtained by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act outline the command’s PowerPoint projection of the stable, pro-American and democratic Iraq that was to be.

The general optimism and some details of General Franks’s planning session have been disclosed in the copious postwar literature. But the slides from the once classified briefing provide a firsthand look at how far the violent reality of Iraq today has deviated from assumptions that once laid the basis for an exercise in pre-emptive war.

The archive, an independent research institute at George Washington University, has posted the slides on its Web site, www.nsarchive.org.

August 2002 was an important time for developing the strategy. President Bush had yet to go to the United Nations to declare Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons programs a menace to international security, but the war planning was well under way. The tumultuous upheaval that would follow the toppling of the Hussein government was known antiseptically in planning sessions as “Phase IV.” As is clear from the slides, it was the least defined part of the strategy.

General Franks had told his officers that it was his supposition that the State Department would have the primary responsibility for rebuilding Iraq’s political institutions.

“D.O.S. will promote creation of a broad-based, credible provisional government — prior to D-Day,” noted a slide on “key planning assumptions.” That was military jargon for the notion that the Department of State would assemble a viable Iraqi governing coalition before the invasion even began.

“It was a way of forcing the discussion, to get clarity of how we and State were going to deal with the governance issue,” Col. John Agoglia, a Central Command planner at the time, said in an interview.

As it turned out, it was months before the command’s planners began to receive some of the clarification they were hoping for. The Bush administration put aside the idea of establishing a prewar provisional government for fear it would marginalize Iraqi leaders who had not gone into exile. Colonel Agoglia said he did not begin to get a sense of what the postwar arrangements would be until Jay Garner, a retired three-star general, was tapped by the Bush administration in January 2003 to serve as the first civilian administrator in postwar Iraq.

Another assumption spelled out in the PowerPoint presentation was that “co-opted” Iraqi Army units would heed the American appeals to stay in their garrisons and later help United States to secure the country.

Based on this and other hopeful suppositions, the command’s planners projected what the American occupation of Iraq might look like. After the main fighting was over, there was to be a two- to three-month “stabilization” phase, then an 18- to 24-month “recovery” phase.

That was to be followed by a 12- to 18-month “transition” phase. At the end of this stage — 32 to 45 months after the invasion began — it was projected that the United States would have only 5,000 troops in Iraq.

Now, those projections seem startlingly unrealistic given the current troop buildup, in which the United States currently has about 132,000 troops in Iraq and is adding about 20,000 more. But the projections, former military planners say, were intended to send the message to civilian policy makers that the invasion of Iraq would be a multiyear proposition, not an easy in-and-out war.

As it turned out, the assumptions on Iraqi and American forces were quickly overturned, partly as a result of new American policy decisions. Instead of staying in garrisons, many of the Iraqi soldiers fled after the war began. Senior American commanders hoped to quickly recall the Iraqi troops to duty anyway, but that option vanished in May 2003 when L. Paul Bremer III, Mr. Garner’s successor, issued an edict formally disbanding the Iraqi Army.

The message that the United States should gird itself for a substantial multiyear occupation seemed to be superseded when General Franks issued new guidance to his commanders a week after the fall of Baghdad on April 9 that they should be prepared to reduce the American troops in Iraq to a little more than a division by September 2003 — some 30,000 troops.

A series of ad hoc decisions and strategy changes followed as the insurgency grew and security deteriorated. A new military plan is now being put into effect, which the White House asserts may yet salvage a positive outcome. Almost four years after the invasion, however, the “stable democratic Iraqi government” the United States once hoped for seems to exist only in the command’s old planning slides.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

3 M I N U T E M A N A G E M E N T C O U R S E

LESSON 1

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her
shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel
and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the
next-door neighbor.

Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you $800 to drop that towel."
After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in
front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.

The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets
to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next
door neighbor," she replies. "Great!" the husband says, "did he say
anything about the $800 he owes me?"

Moral of the story: If you share critical information pertaining to credit
and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to
prevent avoidable exposure.

LESSON 2

A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing
her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After
controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest removed his hand.
But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once
again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest apologized, "Sorry
sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her
way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It
said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

Moral Of The Story: If you are not well informed in your job, you might
miss a great opportunity.

LESSON 3

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch
when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out.
The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish." "Me first! Me
first!", says the admin clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a
speedboat, without a care in the world."

Puff! She's gone.

''Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing
on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas
and the love of my life."

Puff! He's gone.

"OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, "I want
those two back in the office after lunch."

Moral Of The Story: Always let your boss have the first say.

LESSON 4

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw
the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing?"

The eagle answered: "Sure, why not."

So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a
sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral Of The Story:To be sitting & doing nothing, you must be sitting very
high up.

LESSON 5

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the
top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."

"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull.
"They're packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough
strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after
eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of
the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the
tree.

Moral Of The Story: Bull**** might get you to the top, but it won't keep
you there!

LESSON 6

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird
froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there,
a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize
how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all
warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following
the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and
promptly dug him out and ate him.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

1. Not everyone who ***** on you is your enemy

2. Not everyone who gets you out of **** is your friend

3. And when you're in deep ****, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

This ends the 3-minute management course.

Letter to the Editor -- Islam and American values are compatible -- July 17, 2006 77.4%
In his first editorial, "The Blue Scarf Society" (June 26, Source Code: 20060626tza), Stirling asks that we, as Americans, send the Muslims "home," and shames Americans for being too lenient on Islam. To suggest that a religion -- Islam -- is incompatible with American values contradicts the fact that 70,000 Muslims live peacefully in San Diego, and that these Muslims are, themselves, Americans. Are Americans to send other Americans home?

Letters to the Editor: History of Islam on target
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Larry Stirling's history of Muslim "victories" skips the genesis of the religion. Muhammad was a strong leader but illiterate. However, he believed his people needed a code of conduct. The Jews had their Torah and the Christians their Bible, so he had his scribes write what became the Koran. It combines parts of both the Torah and the Bible and adds local customs and some tribal rules.