McCaffrey: Afghan commitment up to 10 years
December 11, 2009 @ 11:51 am
U.S. troops could be in Afghanistan for as many as 10 years at a cost of up to $300 billion and “thousands more American casualties,” according to the retired Army general who has penned a new independent report on challenges the military will face in the war.
But retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey concludes that the U.S. can, in the next five years, achieve three primary objectives: Create a viable Afghan security force that will allow for the reduction of an active U.S. combat role; create governance from the district level up that the population can support; and reduce official corruption by establishing a “parallel chain of financial custody and approval of resources” until the Afghan government is “operating unlike an active criminal enterprise.”