#of civilians in Afghanistan has doubled since January, will triple by end of year

[The Straight Story]

Town Hall With Students Staff and Trainers at Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Center for Complex Operations


Jacob J. Lew
Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources
Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Center for Complex Operations, Indiana
November 19, 2009

DEPUTY SECRETARY LEW: Obviously, there’s been a very intense review process underway. For obvious reasons, I’m not at liberty to describe what’s happened in those meetings. And I wouldn’t predict exactly where it’s going to go because the President has not yet made a decision.

I think that the thing that I have found personally very encouraging about the review is – I’ve spent a lot of years in government, I’ve worked on presidents planning military engagements and civilian reconstruction. And I grew up in a decade when my youth was defined by a country at war. I’m very proud of the process that’s been undertaken, the role that each of us has been asked to play, and the way the President has driven it with a real focus on having the best understanding of what the challenges are, the best understanding of what the options are, and taking the time to do it in a thoughtful, considered way, because he’s aware – we’re all aware – that our soldiers are being asked to go into harm’s way, all of you are being asked to go into harm’s way. And we have to have the confidence that we’re doing it with a mission that we think is best designed as it can possibly be.

I think that’s what’s going to come out of this. And I think that that’s not to say the mission that is underway now necessarily will be radically changed. But the fact that there’s a kind of serious rechecking of do we have things right, should we change parts of what we’re doing, I think is the right way to undertake this kind of responsibility. There’s been no break in the action in the meantime. I mean, your colleagues who have been deployed over the last several months have taken up positions. We’ve almost doubled the numbers of civilians in Afghanistan since January. By the end of the year, beginning of next year, we will be tripling the number of civilians.

As a result of the review, I don’t think the work that you’ll be doing will change fundamentally. There may be some slight change of strategy about the places where we are and the number of places we are. But I think what will come out of it is a combination of a civilian and military strategy that is really best designed for success and to help the Afghanistan – the people of Afghanistan ultimately take over responsibility for many of the things that we’re doing.

Yeah.

http://www.state.gov/s/dmr/remarks/2009/132222.htm

[polpilot]

1. 'Responsible' war. Now that change I can believe in.

[Winterblues]

2. I would much rather my/our money going to civilians building things there than

to soldiers killing things there.. Now if I were a Conservative that probably would not be the case..