Still, Afghanistan faces many problems, McCaffrey said. For instance, he said that the country is the fifth poorest nation, and that Afghans lack infrastructure, justice, resources and the most basic forms of local and national government. Also, he said that the country is the second most corrupt country after Somalia. “There is almost no civic or criminal justice,” he wrote. “Court trials last only minutes in many cases and lack juries.” Also, prisoners are often subject to torture.

McCaffrey said that general life expectancy in Afghanistan is less than 45 years. Tuberculosis and drug addiction are widespread, and the country is infested with millions of land mines, which have disabled more than 200,000 Afghans.

On the positive side, McCaffrey said, is that the country elected President Hamid Karzai, whom he described as “brilliant, well educated, non-violent, a politically astute dealmaker in a nation where murder, not compromise, is the normal political tool” and “a man who deeply cares for his people.” Karzai also is “committed to earning his place in history as a transformer of his nation to a peaceful place in the civilized world.”

In addition, McCaffrey said that people in Afghanistan are generally “extremely grateful” for US and international presence and that US/NATO forces have a 60 percent or higher favorability rating in polls. US poll numbers are lower in the UK, South Korea, Germany and Japan. However, the Afghans are worried that troops will leave them, resulting with their dealing with the chaos of endless civil war.

Meanwhile, social indicators have gotten better, McCaffrey said. Access to basic health care has rocketed from 8 percent in 2001 to 79 percent. Also, child mortality has been reduced by 25 percent, and Tuberculosis deaths are down by 50 percent.
On the other hand, the opium crop continues to hurt the country, McCaffrey said. “The $3.4 billion opium crop of 7,700 metric tons (in 2008) produces weapons and supplies for the Taliban and al Qaeda, corrupts the police and civil authorities, diverts land from food (two million drug workers) and has addicted a significant percentage of the population,” he said. “Left unaddressed – the heroin menace will defeat our strategic goals in this campaign.” There are at least 920,000 drug users in Afghanistan, and the country provides 93 percent of the global supply of heroin. “This criminal trade funnels $200-$400 million into the Taliban and the warlords,” he said. “These huge criminal Afghan heroin operations, if not defeated, will corrupt legal governance, addict the population, distort the economy and funnel immense resources to the Taliban and terrorist groups.”
McCaffrey recommended a solution: Work on alternative agricultural crops, have the Afghan political leadership confront the opium issue as un-Islamic and one that destroys their culture and destroy the crops.

In summary, McCaffrey said that to build a stable Afghan state, “We can achieve our strategic purpose with determined leadership and American treasure and blood.” Also, he said that NATO forces are central to achieving success because they bring resources, political legitimacy and brainpower. “They will be a huge help with training and monitoring the growth and mentoring of the Afghan National Army And Afghan National Police,” he said.
Because “we now have the most effective and courageous military forces in our nation’s history committed to this campaign,” McCaffrey said that he thinks the following goals can be achieved in the next five years:

* Create an Afghan security force that will operate in defense of their people and reduce our own active combat role.

* Create governance from the bottom up at district and province level that makes the lot of the Afghan people better (and worth supporting the government against the Taliban).

*Mitigate the corruption of the Afghan transition by having a parallel chain of financial custody and approval of resources – until the Afghan government is operating unlike an active criminal enterprise.

McCaffrey said, “Our focus must now not be on an exit strategy – but effective execution of the political, economic and military measures required to achieve our purpose.” (Posted by Bulatlat.com)

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