My comment is live on the World News Network on August 23,2010 on the Subject: "Karzai Defends Contractor Phaseout"-The New York Times .

With best compliments,
B.N.Singh.

Subject: "Karzai Defends Contractor Phaseout"-The New York Times .

Bishwa Nath Singh from Dalmianagar (Bihar),India.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has forcefully defended his order to remove all private security contractors from his country by the end of the year, saying that they were running a parallel security structure in the country that was looting and stealing national wealth from the Afghan people.Mr. Karzai has further clarified that the foreign embassies, aid organizations and diplomats traveling around the country would still be allowed to hire private guards. But we will definitely not allow them to be on the roads, in the bazaars, in the streets, on the highways. Karzai has further clarified that his Govt. will not allow them to provide protection to supply lines. That is the job of the Afghan Govt. and the Afghan police.American diplomats, generals and lawmakers have expressed support for the goal of phasing out the tens of thousands of private security contractors, domestic and foreign, who operate in Afghanistan. More than 26,000 private guards from 50 companies work for the United States government alone. But these officials say that the Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s tim-table is too ambitious and that Afghanistan’s fledgling security services will be unable to fill the gap capably in just four months. Mr. Karzai has dismissed that criticism very forcefully recently laying emphasis that the widespread reliance on private security contractors was stunting the growth of Afghan’s security forces, and siphoning off its best recruits with offers of higher wages. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has further clarified that their presence is preventing the growth and the development of the Afghan security forces, especially the police force. It is a million dollar question that why an Afghan young man would come to the police if he can get a job in a security firm, have a lot of emoluments and that too without any discipline. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leading Republican on the Armed Services Committee who has just returned from Afghanistan, called on Mr. Karzai to fulfill his commitments to improve security, fight corruption and combat the growing Taliban militancy. He has got to be all in to win. Graham further said that US Govt. is not at war with the insurgency. They need to change their laws to allow us to detain people who are security threats. Afghan President Hamid Karzai needs to fight corruption. Graham put Mr. Karzai in prominence that he is capable of doing that, but he is certainly going to make sure from Congress’s point of view that we have benchmarks and measurements. It’s now time to put him to the test. Karzai had said that it is now time to put ourselves to the test because we’re running out of time here at home. Karzai also forcefully defended his order to remove all private security contractors from Afghanistan by the end of the year, saying that they were running a parallel security structure in the country that was looting and stealing from the Afghan people. How sad is that four American service members were killed in fighting in eastern and southern Afghanistan very recently and a former guerrilla leader who battled the Soviets decades ago was killed by a roadside bomb in the country’s north! Three of the Americans died in insurgent attacks very recently and one was killed by a homemade bomb that is what NATO had said. Let us hope that Afghan President Hamid Karzai will regain lost glory of his country by providing a very clean and honest Govt. in Afghanistan!


World News Network
August 23,2010.