Articles from the Afghanistan Study Group 12/19

From ASG
Priorities And Perspective: Are We Reasonably Allocating Our Resources In The Af-Pak Region
Afghanistan Study Group by Mary Kaszynski
If Pakistan and Iran are truly our most important foreign policy challenges, why do we continue to invest in the Afghanistan war?
ARTICLES
12-18-11
The IED: The $30-Bombs That Cost The U.S. Billions
NPR by Rachel Martin
The IED, which is essentially a homemade bomb, became the weapon of choice for the insurgency in Iraq. The U.S. has officially declared the end of the war there, but one lasting legacy will be the IED and how it changed the way the U.S. thinks about warfare.
OPINION
12-14-11
The National Defense Authorization Gesture
National Interest by Paul Pillar
A defense-authorization act is supposed to set the limits for appropriations for national defense and update the rules and standards by which the Department of Defense is to operate. This bill has become a Christmas tree of topics on which members of Congress want to make gestures.
12-15-11
Running Out of Time for Afghan Governance Reform
Foreign Affairs by Stephen Biddle
Reasonable people can differ on whether a tolerable result is worth the sacrifice in Afghanistan. But no one can justify continued sacrifice for an unsustainable result.

Administration Bait and Switch in Afghanistan?
National Interest by Doug Bandow
If the president plans on keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the promised 2014, he should ‘fess up. Then the American people can make their views known. And, more important, they can take appropriate action in next year’s presidential election.
12-19-11
This isn't the COIN you're looking for
Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel by Michael Few
COIN as a strategy cannot work in today's world, given the current limitations in available resources, time, and national will. It was a collection of tactics and operational arts developed for twentieth century wars of nationalism and communism. Strategy, defined as the ends, ways, and means of American policy, must rise above a collection of disjointed tactics that have no proven cumulative effect.