D.B. Grady
Recently by D.B. Grady
Nov 17 2009, 1:57PM
Security Theater Hurts The Troops
Thanks in large part to the hapless, ineffective, counterproductive, and embarrassing work of the Transportation Security Agency, Americans have grown accustomed to "security theater." The National Threat Advisory scheme at Homeland Security is equally nebulous, if not outright bewildering. Blue alerts? Yellow alerts? Orange alerts? Is there a difference, and which is the bad one? When does one duct tape his or her windows and parcel the cyanide tablets?
There is nothing theatrical, however, about installation security of the Armed Forces. Military police of every branch maintain a defensive posture based on Force Protection Conditions (or FPCON) determined by intelligence agencies. Conditions range from Normal, where dossiers reveal no active domestic terrorist threat, to Delta, when the nation is under terrorist attack. Force Protection Conditions make a difference, and its effects are immediately obvious. At Normal, many bases are open to the general public. At Delta, a government ID card is required for entry, at which point vehicles are searched and registered by military police, parking is restricted, and armed sentries are posted at building doorways.
There is nothing theatrical, however, about installation security of the Armed Forces. Military police of every branch maintain a defensive posture based on Force Protection Conditions (or FPCON) determined by intelligence agencies. Conditions range from Normal, where dossiers reveal no active domestic terrorist threat, to Delta, when the nation is under terrorist attack. Force Protection Conditions make a difference, and its effects are immediately obvious. At Normal, many bases are open to the general public. At Delta, a government ID card is required for entry, at which point vehicles are searched and registered by military police, parking is restricted, and armed sentries are posted at building doorways.
Oct 29 2009, 9:28AM
His Brother's Keeper
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother to Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, is on the Central Intelligence Agency payroll. While the explanations are not expressly damning (C.I.A. and U.S. Special Operations forces rent a compound from him, and often use him as an intermediary to communicate with the Taliban), it's clear how the news will be received in the region. Theories that Afghanistan is a puppet state of the West are confirmed. Rumors that Hamid Karzai's interests rest with American hegemony are bolstered. And it exacerbates a "crisis of confidence" in the Afghanistan government, as experienced by the Afghan people and described by General Stanley McChrystal in his Commander's Initial Assessment. It is, by every measure, a catastrophe for the Karzai administration. And it comes a week before runoff elections strong-armed by the United States.
Ahmed Karzai isn't just a crony governor of a failing state in a spiraling war. He's the opium kingpin of Afghanistan, the Pablo Escobar of the Hindu Kush. According to General McChrystal, the war cannot be won so long as the illicit opium trade remains unfettered. ISAF has spent eight years torching everyone else's poppy fields, and yet, it seems, Ahmed Karzai has a C.I.A. paystub and a free pass. A U.S. official tells the New York Times, "There's no proof of Ahmed Wali Karzai's involvement in drug trafficking, certainly nothing that would stand up in court." The only thing missing is a wink and a knowing smile.
Ahmed Karzai isn't just a crony governor of a failing state in a spiraling war. He's the opium kingpin of Afghanistan, the Pablo Escobar of the Hindu Kush. According to General McChrystal, the war cannot be won so long as the illicit opium trade remains unfettered. ISAF has spent eight years torching everyone else's poppy fields, and yet, it seems, Ahmed Karzai has a C.I.A. paystub and a free pass. A U.S. official tells the New York Times, "There's no proof of Ahmed Wali Karzai's involvement in drug trafficking, certainly nothing that would stand up in court." The only thing missing is a wink and a knowing smile.
Sep 22 2009, 11:10AM
Obama's FDR Moment
Public support for the war in Afghanistan stands at 39%. On the right, George Will wants us out, on the left, Senator Russ Feingold. Thomas Friedman is feeling "ambivalent," and he's not alone. This weekend, President Obama remarked that, "the first question is, are we doing the right thing?"
General Stanley McChrystal submitted his sixty-six-page Commander's Initial Assessment of the war last month, after having offered a supplementary counterinsurgency guide to ISAF leaders days before that. The Obama administration is still "reviewing the document," according to The Washington Post, as though Kremlinologists are required to catch the general's nuance. At two pages a day, they should have an idea early next week. This is on top of ten months of daily intelligence briefings, and eight years of reported successes and failures. The administration is, by all appearances, stalling.
General Stanley McChrystal submitted his sixty-six-page Commander's Initial Assessment of the war last month, after having offered a supplementary counterinsurgency guide to ISAF leaders days before that. The Obama administration is still "reviewing the document," according to The Washington Post, as though Kremlinologists are required to catch the general's nuance. At two pages a day, they should have an idea early next week. This is on top of ten months of daily intelligence briefings, and eight years of reported successes and failures. The administration is, by all appearances, stalling.
Sep 1 2009, 6:30AM
Afghanistan: The McChrystal Assessment
When the Afghan worker called to me, I was more curious than anxious.
It was just after one o'clock in the morning, and double-digits below zero. He stood in the doorway of the ramshackle kitchen like a schoolboy on the lookout, his demeanor more mischievous than malevolent. I always had a friendly relationship with the locals, and there was something inside that he very much wanted me to see.
Like most buildings on camp, the kitchen was assembled with little more than plywood and optimism, and offered no respite from the cold. My host and his three companions stood huddled around a card table, gawking and giggling at a portable DVD player.
It was just after one o'clock in the morning, and double-digits below zero. He stood in the doorway of the ramshackle kitchen like a schoolboy on the lookout, his demeanor more mischievous than malevolent. I always had a friendly relationship with the locals, and there was something inside that he very much wanted me to see.
Like most buildings on camp, the kitchen was assembled with little more than plywood and optimism, and offered no respite from the cold. My host and his three companions stood huddled around a card table, gawking and giggling at a portable DVD player.
Aug 24 2009, 11:29AM
When Patience is Policy
The next president of Afghanistan faces the twin perils of a galvanized Taliban and an international community fast losing patience. But if the Afghan state is to succeed, patience will be a key factor. Unlike Iraq, where the civilizational foundation for a stable republic existed before the first U.S. boot touched ground, Afghanistan is nation building in its purest form. Security is but one part of a campaign that touches on agriculture, economic affairs, political corruption, civil infrastructure, and social policy. Most daunting, the answer to the question of which issue must first be tackled is: all of them.
And the pressure has never been greater. In the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, a majority of Americans have given up on our efforts in Afghanistan. Fifty-one percent of respondents are opposed to the war, with a striking forty-one percent strongly opposed. Support for the Afghanistan surge is an anemic twenty-four percent. Similar polls conducted in Britain, Germany, and Canada are even less encouraging.
And the pressure has never been greater. In the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, a majority of Americans have given up on our efforts in Afghanistan. Fifty-one percent of respondents are opposed to the war, with a striking forty-one percent strongly opposed. Support for the Afghanistan surge is an anemic twenty-four percent. Similar polls conducted in Britain, Germany, and Canada are even less encouraging.
Aug 12 2009, 8:12AM
Twitter: Solidarity On The Cheap
When brave Iranian students took to the streets in protest of a crooked election, Twitter was there. Users colored their avatars in solidarity, and the site flowed as green as the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day. People who might otherwise have vaguely identified Tehran as a country we bombed post-9/11 were speaking authoritatively on Mir-Hossein Mousavi and the sympathies of the Grand Ayatollahs. Bored office clerks across America dependably--they might say heroically--reported movements of the Basij, echoed warnings of street barricades, and quoted the Quran (in Arabic script, natch) with the revolutionary tenacity of Samuel Adams, before he was just a beer.
It would be a challenge to find a single journal of record that didn't call the uprising the Twitter Revolution. With that in mind, a note to would-be revolutionaries: next time, try Facebook.
Today, hundreds of protesters are behind bars. It should come as no surprise that harsh treatment and regular beatings are part of the Iranian prison experience. And it's now reported that the jailed women and young boys are subject to rape and sodomy.
As for the fearless denizens of Twitter? They've moved on to other important news of the day: Lady Gaga. Regis and Kelly. "New Moon."
Iranians in want of democracy must feel a bit like the Kurds following the Gulf War.
Twitter has proven itself not to be a tool of revolution, or a mechanism of change, but a mirror of the excitability and fickleness of the American zeitgeist. Mousavi was all but forgotten when Michael Jackson fatally overdosed. And on Twitter, Jackson wasn't just an 80's
pop star and plastic surgeon's paycheck. He became a humanitarian. A great humanitarian. The greatest humanitarian of his day. Again, the Chicago River flowed, only this time it was with the maudlin tears of children who would be denied another Michael Jackson album. And people whose only exposure to "Thriller" was the dance scene in "13 Going on 30" became aficionados, discussing which b-sides were tragically overlooked.
It would be generous to call Twitter a mile wide and an inch deep. Casual usage would measure its depth in atoms, at best. Supporting change in the world is fun, but only as it allows for narcissistic melodrama. It's hard feel good about yourself when child rape is part
of the story. It's tragic, but not exciting. Celebrity deaths and reality television allow for both.
D.B. Grady is a freelance writer and novelist. His debut novel, Red Planet Noir, is due in bookstores this November. He currently lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and can be found on the web at http://www.dbgrady.com.
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