by other means.

There is little point in paying attention to the mendacious mutterings of any public figure. There is going to be no US withdrawal from Afghanistan, at least not a permanent one. The only question is (aside from what the hapless NATO vassals are going to do -- the Brits already speak of their 'legacy' in that country) is how much sense does it make to beef up the Afghan National Army ' Usually, national armies do not defend the government of the day against its own citizens. It seems that The Plan is for Afghan soldiers/policemen to be ordered about by an assortment of agencies, DEA, FBI, CIA, HS and who knows what else, quite aside from divers branches of the US military. With their own military heierarchy, the odd war-lord or three, CIA-funded Citizen Irregular Defence Groups, etc That is, defending their country' from their countrymen at the behest of a Hydra. One wonders -- how long before The Plan goes down the toilet?

Ref: Fearless Leader's quote: "But I suspect that what we are seeing in Afghanistan (and to a degree in Iraq) is something altogether different[.]"

Didn't the Clinton Administration use MPRI to do the same thing in the Balkans prior the Dayton Accord and entering Bosnia?

"With the explicit consent of the US State and Defense Departments, [MPRI] undertook to modernize and retrain the command structure of the Croatian national army, including the general staff. In the summer of 1995, with such assistance, the formerly inept Croatian army mounted Operation Storm, a successful summer offensive into the region of the Krajina."

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/ops/croatia.htm

No, it's not just on the ground. I see just as many contracted civilian aircraft flying around Afghanistan as military variants. They do much of the heavy lifting, moving passengers and cargo around the battlefield right alongside our UH-60s and CH-47s. Army pilots are fully aware that this is one lucrative option that potentially awaits if they leave the service. I understand that the State Department has basically hired its own air force to support them in Iraq now that the military has departed. I've heard of these same companies putting in bids to begin working in other places too where we are "involved" but have not really committed our military.

a number of changes were made in the Roman army that were to change the very nature of Rome itself.

The practice of having an annual call-up of citizens was discarded, and was replaced by legions made up of landless city dwellers and newly created citizens from outlying provinces.

The loyalty of these new legions was to their commander rather than to the Roman state. . .Of course, the commander was expected to pay his soldiers in money (or land ) supplied by the state. . .that much didn't change.

Announcement of the Panetta Plan followed by a few days the announcement by Sarkozy of France and Karzai of Afghanistan of what seems pretty much the same plan. And what Mr Ricks posts today ignores, very oddly, any interest on what those people, ahh, you know, the people ... the Afghans! yes! that's them! what they think about and want -- this apparently in thrall to the idea that Washington must be in charge of the war there forever.

Strange belief. Afghanistan to continue indefinitely as a US war laboratory.

Tyrtaios hit it on the nose and as a student of history he knows what the consequences of that decision were-the civil wars and the death of the republic.
When your citizens are fed up with wars at the ends of the earth and focused on their own economic woes but the 100 years resource wars must be won you gotta hire it done, so what else is new. As to the drones it's just the automation of war to reduce personnel costs exactly the same thing that was done in the private economy and it will have the same result.The military will be greatly reduced in size be composed more of technical experts and conflict managers with a constellation of private contractors who will subcontract to the local biznessmen who will hire the gunslingers overwatched by conflict managers in the pentagon. The people? Oh yeah-go shoppin. The Afgans or other folks-nothin personal yez unnerstan just business. Ave Plutonomy!

"For who, For what" do we stay in Afghanistan? To help the people using their hand as toilet paper with their wives walking behind them under a Burma carrying a massive load of sticks while the husband looks for a fresh Chia Boy?

Afghans hate Karzai just slightly more than we do but we continue to prop him up bc he sucks the least of the available leaders. Thinking that we're somehow denying the TB or AQ a base of operations is outrageous; they just base themselves and train and recover in PAK. Its like shoving your hand in a bowl of water; some water over flows, but most just displaces until you remove your hand.

If we withdrawal soon enough, we can team back up with the AF war lords and the TB to needle Iran by the end of the decade.

We have land and air drones that need combat testing, and few countries make better battlefields than Afghanistan. We also have sea drones, but there are no oceans for amphibious operations, so we may need to use Somalia or Yemen for those exercises. This also allows us to test recovery drones that were designed for wounded troops, but we can use them to test the recovery of combat drones that are damaged in combat and to resupply drones that run out of ammunition and fuel while fighting insurgents. The Swords combat system is a small tracked vehicle with a rifle, machine gun, or grenade launcher and a camera mounted for remote control. It can also be set for automatic fire when it receives fire or when it detects movement. Its return fire is much faster and more accurate than humans can achieve. Other drone combat systems exist, and our current interventions allow us to test these in combat situations without the need for any politically sensitive casualties.

It certainly gives elected officials the ability to say they're reducing the amount of military personnel committed to the conflict. I don't get how the country funds a massive contracting force in Iraq and that's not part of any real dialogue (in America) about America's involvement there.

Years ago, we wouldn't issue an RFP unless we had the money to fund the government created cost estimate for the work scoped in the solicitation. A check against the budget was sent to the contracting officer before any solicitation was issued. Well guess things have changed...gov't may have lost the capability (or the initiative) to do the basics before causing costs to be incurred by business. Therefore, gov't is creating a tax disguised as a solicitation to do its business. Grover Norquist is asleep at the switch on this one. For all the patronage tithes his organization is paying to GOP toadies, you'd think he'd close this congressional antitax-loop hole this taxation outsourcing to DoD.

No funding...no RFPs, no RFIs, no solicitations.

ONE WORLD ONE PEOPLE IN PEACE PLEASE.
-----------------------------------------------------

"And so long as they were at war, their power was preserved, but when they had attained empire they fell, for of the arts of peace they knew nothing, and had never engaged in any employment higher than war." Aristotle, Politics

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part4-worldinabo.html

"You must contrive for your future Rulers another and a better life than that of a Ruler, and then you may have a well ordered State; for only in the State which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life." Plato, The Republic.