{"id":519937,"date":"2010-04-07T14:55:47","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T18:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.rj.org,2010:\/rac\/\/2.2644"},"modified":"2010-04-07T15:00:19","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T19:00:19","slug":"eye-on-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/519937","title":{"rendered":"Eye on Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Columbia Daily Spectator
\n<\/i>this week published a powerful opinion
\npiece written by Yoav Guttman<\/a>, a Columbia University student in the School of
\nGeneral Studies and the Jewish Theological Seminary, about United States
\ninvolvement in Afghanistan and its failure to effectively train the Afghan
\nNational Police (ANP). His piece is a
\nresponse to Newsweek<\/i>‘s “The
\nGang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,”<\/a> which highlights the ANP’s
\ninadequate marksmanship and Taliban-provided ammunition, among others. Since
\n2002, the United States has spent nearly $6 billion in an effort to train the
\nANP.<\/p>\n

Guttman (who happens to be the son of a Reform rabbi!) makes
\ncompelling case that against outsourcing of military work to private
\ncontractors, as the US has done by contracting DynCorp International and
\nEuropean paramilitary police units to take on much of the ANP’s training. He writes:<\/p>\n

“This outsourcing of military work is perhaps the
\nmost serious issue America faces. Rather than defining our mission and
\ngoals,
\nwe divert funds from our military to hire contractors to do the work.
\nBut the
\ncontractors are not accountable to the American government the same way
\nthe
\nArmy is. This leads to morally questionable tactics that are never
\nanswered
\nfor. Furthermore, in the eyes of the Afghans (or Iraqis), these troops
\nare seen as Americans and forces of American imperialism. Thus, their
\nactions
\nrepresent the American government. This ultimately undermines the
\n“winning of
\nhearts and minds”  mentality, as again, our moral high ground is
\nchallenged.<\/i>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Guttman also addresses the “most distressing”
\nsilence of the anti-war movement following President Obama’s announcement in
\nNovember that he’d be sending 40,000 more American troops into Afghanistan. He
\nwrites:
\n<\/p>\n

Rallies and marches were held across American universities
\nand in our nation’s capital demanding that troop levels be reduced and that
\nAmerica begin the process of leaving Iraq. Did the anti-war camp disband
\nbecause we elected someone we like as our president instead of Darth Vader and
\nEmperor Palpatine? As primarily liberal college students, we have the duty to
\nchallenge our government, regardless of whether the commander-in-chief is Bush
\nor Obama. It is time to stop being so complacent and accepting of our noble
\nmission in Afghanistan. <\/i>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the entire piece here<\/a>
\nand let me know what you think. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Columbia Daily Spectator this week published a powerful opinion piece written by Yoav Guttman, a Columbia University student in the School of General Studies and the Jewish Theological Seminary, about United States involvement in Afghanistan and its failure to effectively train the Afghan National Police (ANP). His piece is a response to Newsweek‘s “The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}