And here comes the Civilian version of the surge. This needed happen a long time ago, and we have some serious catching up to do. The reporter for this does have a point with the UN post as well–we paid for it, we might as well make the best out of it and get someone in that deputy ambassador slot that can make the most of it.
The one part of this article that is really not discussed that much, but is important to our industry, is the protection of this civilian army. Do they want to use the military to protect these individuals, or use a smaller footprint and go with civilian contractors through the WPPS program, or what?
It would make sense to me, to use the smaller footprint. Hell, use a bunch of guys like Tim Lynch and company to protect these individuals. I am sure they will be way more effective that way. My fear is that this larger presence of civilian employees will be smothered by large military protective details, and that might really piss off the local populations. Especially if these larger details attract the bad guys, and the villages get stuck in the middle. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and will keep my ear to the tracks. –Matt
—————————————————————-
Hundreds of New Civilian Employees Proposed for Afghanistan
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 18, 2009; 3:43 PM
Hundreds of additional U.S. diplomats and civilian officials would be deployed to Afghanistan as part of the new civil-military regional strategy that President Obama’s top national security advisers plan to present for his signature next week, according to administration officials.
Leading this proposed civilian expansion will be two veteran senior diplomats: Peter W. Galbraith, who will be the deputy to the top United Nations official on the ground; and Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., who will get the unprecedented title of “deputy ambassador” to boost the diplomatic heft of the U.S. Embassy. Obama last week nominated Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the former U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, as the country’s ambassador.
Other civilian officials are to be drawn from government departments such as Agriculture and Justice, and hundreds of new “full-time, temporary” positions are planned under a hiring program authorized by President George W. Bush four days before he left office.
The proposal for a civilian surge is part of a broad strategy review regarding Afghanistan and Pakistan that Obama ordered during its first weeks in office. The review has culminated in an intense series of high-level meetings and discussion of proposals from across the government, including from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of the U.S. Central Command; the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and the State Department effort headed by special Afghanistan-Pakistan envoy Richard C. Holbrooke.
Obama is expected to make final decisions and issue a presidential directive on the eve of two major international gatherings — a 73-nation Afghanistan meeting in the Netherlands on March 31, and the April 3-4 NATO summit in France where Afghanistan and Pakistan will be at the top of the agenda.
CIA-operated missile attacks by U.S. Predator aircraft against western Pakistan strongholds of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups are expected to continue under the new strategy. But a senior defense official said that commanders in the region are reluctant to expand the attacks into other Taliban areas. The Pakistani military, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, “must recognize the threat and organize themselves to deal with it.” The administration is also expected to approve the shipment of enhanced counterinsurgency weaponry for the Pakistani military and a massive expansion in U.S. economic and development assistance.
In Afghanistan, the non-military components of the new strategy are designed to complement an expansion of U.S. ground combat forces authorized by Obama last month, to reach a total U.S. troop strength of 55,000 this year. An additional 30,000 NATO troops are also deployed in Afghanistan.
Obama has said that he seeks better coordination of civil and military efforts in Afghanistan — where Taliban attacks and U.S. and NATO casualties last year reached the highest levels of the eight-year war — and a downgrading of the Bush administration’s broad objectives for Afghan development and democracy, to a more achievable goal of preventing the country’s reestablishment as a launching pad for international terrorism.
A major military pillar of the new strategy will be to increase security for Afghan civilians, especially in the Taliban strongholds in the south. The expanded U.S. troop presence is intended to supplement over-stretched British forces and to enable areas cleared of Taliban fighters to be held until the Afghan army and police can take over.
What one official called the “final exit strategy” is likely to take years while Afghan security forces are expanded and trained. In the meantime, enhanced security in former no-go areas will permit an increased U.S. civilian presence, which will concentrate on a relatively narrow basket of agricultural, rule-of-law and local-governance development.
Administration officials intend that now-disparate efforts by the many international players in Afghanistan will be better coordinated by a strengthened U.N. presence with a stronger U.S. component. A senior U.N. official said that Galbraith’s appointment would be announced in a “matter of days.”
“This is a big deal,” said one senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The Bush administration undermined and ignored the U.N., and we minimized our influence. But imagine, with all the money we pay, and American troops on the line, not to have a senior person” at the top level of the U.N. effort.
Galbraith served in senior U.S. diplomatic and U.N. positions in the Balkans, East Timor and other conflict areas. Sharply critical of Bush administration policy in Iraq, he resigned from the government in 2003 and served as an adviser to Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government.
Ricciardone is a career foreign service officer who has served as ambassador to Egypt and the Philippines, and has been repeatedly mentioned for a possible senior diplomatic appointment in the Obama administration.
The new U.S. civilian team will also include longtime senior diplomat Timothy M. Carney, who served as ambassador to Sudan and Haiti before joining the Iraqi reconstruction effort in 2003 but eventually became a critic of that operation. He was named Iraq coordinator for economic transition in 2007, after U.S. reconstruction efforts had been vastly reduced. In Afghanistan, Carney will head a special group to assist in preparations for nationwide elections in August.
Although the overall civilian deployment plan still awaits Obama’s approval, the State Department has already solicited applications for 51 new positions it expects to fill at the embassy and in Afghan provincial reconstruction teams by July. Up to 300 additional civilians are anticipated under the strategy recommendations.
Although the administration hopes to detail agricultural and legal specialists from within the government, it is also recruiting under a provision established under the previous administration for special hires for Iraq. Unlimited authority for the positions, which provide full-time government employment, renewable each year for up to four years, was extended to Afghanistan in an executive order signed by Bush on Jan. 16.
Staff writer Colum Lynch at the United Nations and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Story Here
State Department Jobs Here (Keep Checking This One if Interested)