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An
Exit Strategy for Congress
from Jobs for
Afghans
It is overwhelmingly clear that the
time has come for US military forces to exit Afghanistan soon. Although the
US entered Kabul in 2001 welcomed by an overwhelming majority of the
population, the failure to produce jobs, and the treatment of economic
development as a badly neglected stepchild of the mission to bring
stability, has resulted in conditions in which no further good can come
of a continued US military presence. The surge in US troops and
the neglect of development has resulted in the volatile mixture of
foreign occupation and economic discontent.
The surge in US casualties and attacks on US and Afghan government
targets has coincided with chronic 35% malnutrition throughout the
country, 40% unemployment, one of the highest infant mortality rates,
and three-fourths of
the population still with no access to safe drinking water.
Taliban payments to new recruits has made joining the insurgency an
irresistable temptation, as there are few other avenues for men to feed
their families.
A military exit strategy from Afghanistan must contain a component
which will bring stability. That component must be economic, as
further sacrifice of lives and treasure in the military arena is
pointless. The factors which cause instability cannot
be resolved by military means. What the Afghan people need is a
modest program of job creation and development similar to the Marshall
Plan in Europe after World War II. Such a program would cost a
small fraction of what the United States spends on military operations
each year.
When the politicians fail to lead, the people must. Despite clear
statements even from U.S. military commanders that a cash-for-work jobs
program, employing large numbers of unemployed, would reduce tensions
and increase stability, Congress and the Obama administration have
failed to act. We therefore submit to Congress an exit strategy
for Afghanistan, which shall consist of:
a. A halt in offensive military operations and a shift in mission, as
troops prepare to exit, of guarding population centers and work crews,
with troops confined to bases at all other times.
b. Enactment of the following "Stability Through a Cash-for-Work
Initiative for Afghanistan" legislation, which will deprive
insurgent groups of what U.S. Marines refer to as the
"Ten Dollar Taliban," because the Taliban high-level command pays $10 a
day for insurgent footsoldiers to participate in attacks on U.S.
forces. This initiative targets the Ministry of Rural
Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) of the Afghan government as the
most efficient project evaluation agency through which to distribute
funds. The MRRD has created over 20,000 Community Development
Councils in the villages across Afghanistan to act as partners in
assessing the needs of communities.
c. Preparations to be made for full U.S. troop withdrawal within
one year, as the infusion of small capital into the hands of the
poorest enables small business and vendor development, and provides a
climate of stability for economic enterprise to take root.
The destiny of the Afghan and the American people can only be one
thing: friendship. It is not in arms, but in the Afghan people
that we will find our greatest strength in the struggle against
extremism. Upon this relationship lies the stability of the
entire world. Failure is not an option.
DRAFT LEGISLATION, JOBS FOR AFGHANS
H.R. [number to be assigned by Clerk]
One Hundred Eleventh Congress of the United States of
America
AT THE FIRST SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on [DATE]
An Act
Making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following
sums are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise
appropriated, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for
other purposes, namely:
Title: Afghanistan Stability Act of 2009
I. For an additional amount for `Afghanistan Stability Fund'
$3,700,000,000 to remain available until September 30, 2010, for:
a) Contributions to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund of the
World Bank for publics works projects qualified by the Afghan Ministry
of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, in conjunction with the
Community Development Councils, which can be defined as "cash for
work." Cash-for-work projects shall be defined as those which hire
exclusively Afghan labor, with small exceptions for consultative
overhead, which utilize labor-intensive methods for an overall rate of
70% of total project funding allocated to wages for line workers.
b) Funding to be administered through USAID for cash-for-work
projects in zones deemed by ISAF to be relatively secure, to obviate
the need for high security overheads for project managers and
inspectors. Priority shall be given to projects involving roads,
canalization water, irrigation, sanitation, and trash collection and
disposal.
c) Cash-for-work projects shall have in place, at a minimum, a
basic
audit trail for cash payments consisting of worker punch cards, which
included photos of workers, and field master lists of workers, signed
as a guarantee of receipt.
II. Projects funded by block grants authorized under the proposed
legislation shall participate in the new ARTF Incentive program,
(established SY1387 (March 2009)), which will reward Afghan government
through additional financing for progress against annual benchmarks.
The benchmark in this case should be percentage of hiring goals
accomplished relative to targets.
IV. No project funded by the Afghanistan Stability Act shall
include
as a condition for participation that contractors be required to
participate in “post-battle clean-up.”
