Iraq isn't the only place we had no plan to run after a war.


The War Within
U.S. agency turf battles at home have slowed progress in Afghanistan

By Peter Tomsen, Peter Tomsen was President George H.W. Bush's special envoy and ambassador for Afghanistan, 1989-92.

WASHINGTON — It's a concept everyone in foreign relations understands: If you want to really know what's happening on the ground in a country — in Afghanistan, say — you have to have people there who speak the language, people who can talk and listen without interpreters. The State Department certainly knows this, which is why it runs months-long language and culture intensive programs for younger diplomats to bring them to full, functional fluency as quickly as possible. So, guess how many employees of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have completed — or even started — the 10-month program to master Afghan languages since our military victory there. None.

That troubling fact is one small indication of why we have lost momentum in Afghanistan...






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