It may not only be the 35 year old mistakes of Viet Nam which the US should take a lesson from but the more recent ones made in Iraq that are being repeated in Afghanistan, with only slight variation. Unbelievably the US is relying even more heavily on private security contractors now in Afghanistan. Practically on the same day Obama announced the troop level increase by 30,000 (which will still leave troops outnumbered by private contractors) the Army Times reported on the growing problem. 

Although the convoys sometimes carry U.S. military vehicles and represent a vital lifeline for the coalition effort, no Afghan, U.S. or other coalition military forces accompany them. Instead, each convoy is protected by Afghan security guards armed with AK-series assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in sport utility vehicles — “black 4Runners, full of guys in these tan uniforms, with lots of guns sticking out of them,” said Capt. Casey Thoreen, commander of 2-1 Infantry’s B Company, which operates from Combat Outpost Rath, located less than 100 meters from Highway 1 in the town of Hutal. “These guys are like gun-toting mercenaries with probably not a whole lot of training. … They’re just light on the trigger finger.” Haji Obidullah Bawari, the Afghan government’s district chief for Maywand, rendered an even harsher judgment. “Most of them are addicted to heroin,” he said.

  At the congressional hearing the day after Obama’s speech, Secretary of State Clinton answered a question from Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) chairman of the subcommittee on contracting oversight. Clinton noted that the policy should strike a balance between regulation and “agility in doing business”.

To make matters worse, the Pentagon has not yet filled 600 oversight officer positions to monitor contracts in Afghanistan. Gates said he was not aware of the large number of vacancies but would look into it. “We have to be able to manage risk without being risk averse,” Clinton said. If oversight is taken to the extreme, government officials are not able to make “smart decisions,” she said. “We want to account for every penny,” but the government has to be able to balance the inherent tension between oversight and agility in doing business. McCaskill agreed that there is “real tension,”