Dear Congressmember,
As the war in Afghanistan escalates and reaches crisis proportions, I would like to ask you as a constituent to work for the only approach which can win, that which emphasizes jobs and economic development for ordinary Afghans rather than merely more troops. Obama State Department spokesman Robert Wood said last month: "There is no purely military solution to the challenge in Afghanistan so there will be a significant non-military component to anything that we seek to undertake."
Jobs for Afghans, http://jobsforafghans.org a non-profit advocacy group, has researched this issue thoroughly and has proposed specific policies and legislation which I would like you to study and take active steps to translate into action, either by urging President Obama to implement by executive order or by enacting legislation through the US Congress. The agency through which most development assistance flows to Afghanistan is USAID, which is under the executive branch and thus subject to both executive order and to changes in its enabling legislation. US taxpayers are already spending billions of dollars in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan, but it has failed to stem the economic misery of the ordinary Afghan, and has mostly benefited and enriched the contracting corporations. Unemployment in Afghanistan is forty-percent, children are literally starving, and, amazingly, the only employer definitely hiring and paying a decent wage is the Taliban. This is insanity.
Jobs for Afghans has created the following policy guidelines, which may be implemented through congressional legislation or executive order.
The centerpiece of this effort is utilizing US tax dollars already being spent in Afghanistan to generate one million new jobs, so that young men are not forced to join the insurgency in order to feed their families, as they are now.
As a nation with a population of about 30 million, 8 million in the workforce, this would make a significant impact. Colonel Tom Collins, Pentagon spokesman for US forces, said: "There is a low percentage of the total Taliban force who we would call ideologically driven. We refer to them as Tier 1 people who believe their ideology, that what they're doing is right. The vast majority of Taliban fighters are essentially economically disadvantaged young men."
General Eikenberry, former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said before congress in 2007: "Much of the enemy force is drawn from the ranks of unemployed men looking for wages to support their famililies." I urge you to believe these commanders-on-the-ground. These are military men who understand the situation.
The legislation or executive order shall state that:
1) Requests for proposals from vendors bidding for contracts from USAID shall require a job-creation component, in which contractors shall describe the number of jobs for Afghan nationals will be created by the project, plans for the substitution of labor for capital equipment whenever feasible, and plans for the maximization of capacity-building in skills for Afghan nationals. In bid submissions such components shall be weighted at 20 percent of points for awarding contract. Bid evaluation of pricing shall be exclusive of the additional costs of job-development components, so that aggressive job-creation components are not penalized.
2) Subcontractors to the principle contractor shall not be exempt from job-creation requirements, and shall report any data required to the office of the Inspector General of USAID.
3) Overhead for the subcontracting of work to further subcontractors shall not exceed five-percent.
4) USAID shall prioritize rural road, water, electricity, irrigation, and medical clinic projects, at the provincial and district level, in coordination with the development plans of the appropriate Afghan government ministry.
5) USAID shall set a target of the one million new jobs by June 2009, which can be performed by unskilled labor from Afghan nationals, and shall coordinate bids for work in a manner consistent with the achievement of this goal.
As congressional legislation, we believe the above language would be inserted in Title 22, Chapter 82, subchapter I § 7516, in a new section "g," governing USAID assistance to Afghanistan. Monitoring shall be accomplished by inserting as follows into H.R.1535, section 1229 (f)(1):
(A) the oversight and accounting of the obligation and
expenditure of such funds; [INSERT: according to guidelines enumerated in Title 22, Chapter 82, subchapter I § 7516, section "g."]
(B) the monitoring and review of reconstruction activities
funded by such funds; [INSERT: according to guidelines enumerated in Title 22, Chapter 82, subchapter I § 7516, section "g."]
(C) the monitoring and review of contracts funded by
such funds; [INSERT: according to guidelines enumerated in Title 22, Chapter 82, subchapter I § 7516, section "g."]
Below is an op-ed submitted to various American newspapers which summarizes the nature of the problem. We are available to help you compose an op-ed to your home district newspapers. Please circulate the legislation proposed above to your colleagues, especially those in the appropriate committees. USAID budget and operations are determined by the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the Committee on Appropriations, chairman Senator Mitch McConnell, and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chairman Rep. Howard Berman.
It is unfortunate that the political opening which now presents itself is a result of shortsightedness which now has the Taliban at the outskirts of Kabul. But as the noted scholar Ahmed Rashid said: "It is still not too late for the Americans to reverse course: the majority of the Afghan population has no desire to return to Taliban rule. What gains the Taliban have made can be attributed to fear and intimidation – and the inability of the Kabul government to provide security and economic development."
A one-million-$10-per-day job surge in Afghanistan would be the fiscal stimulus needed to put money into the hands of those who will build Afghanistan's future: the Afghan people. This would be similar to the tax rebates in the US used to stimulate growth, albeit this would be much more effective, as economic conditions in Afghanistan fall in the precise region where economists say such stimulus is most effective: excess-labor, low-inflation, slack-industrial-capacity conditions.
As we know, Afghans are enterprising people, and savers who will buy a taxi or a produce stand given a chance. They are outstanding traders and small businessmen. But to pull ones-self up by the bootstraps first there must be bootstraps. Let us change the direction of this war. If the Afghan people and the American people can come together in equal friendship, it will be an historic breakthrough in the history of this terribly troubled region, whose people have so long been tormented by war and conquest. When this happens, the world will be a much safer place.
US soldiers are counting on the congress and the president to do their jobs as well as the soldiers are trying to theirs, against enormous odds and amid mounting civilian and US casualties. In the near future I will request a report on what action steps you have taken on correcting the US course in Afghanistan. Thank you and many kind regards.
Sincerely,
(Constituent)
HOME TO JOBS FOR AFGHANS
-Link and to FY2008 legislation creating the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Office:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h1585enr.txt.pdf
-Link to Title 22, Chapter 82, subchapter I § 7516:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode22/usc_sup_01_22_10_82.html