Civilian goals unmet in Afghanistan

NEW YORK - With its troops under pressure from Taliban fighters, the United States is falling far short of its goals to fight Afghanistans endemic corruption, create a functioning government and legal system and train a police force riddled with incompetence, The New York Times reported Monday.
Citing unnamed senior administration and military officials, the newspaper said that nearly seven months after President Barack Obama announced a civilian effort to bolster his deployment of 17,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, many civil institutions are deteriorating as much as the countrys security.
Administration officials said Afghanistan is now so dangerous that many aid workers cannot travel outside the capital to advise farmers on crops, the report said.
Agricultural assistance was a key part of Obamas announcement in March that he was deploying hundreds of additional civilians to work in the country, the paper noted.
The judiciary is so weak that Afghans increasingly turn to a shadow Taliban court system because, a senior military official said, a lot of the rural people see the Taliban justice as at least something, said The Times.
Administration officials describe Obama as impatient with the civilian progress so far, the report noted.
The president is not satisfied on any of this, The Times quotes a senior administration official as saying.
Administration officials also said that the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai had frozen steps toward reform, the paper noted.
President Obama is considering troop reinforcements after US and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal warned that the war could be lost unless more troops are sent to Afghanistan.
Despite the presence of over 100,000 US and NATO 'boots on the ground, the escalated militancy has made the current year the deadliest yet for foreign forces, as well as Afghan civilians.
More than 1,500 civilians, the main victims of the controversial war, have been killed and many others wounded in the first six months of 2009, which shows a 24 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to the latest UN report.