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Soldier, Home on Leave From 6 Months in Afghanistan, Surprises His Daughters
Soldier soldier surprises daughter, soldier surprises girlfriend, soldier surprise, soldier surprises sister, soldier surprises brother, soldier surprises mom, soldier...
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Soldier, Home on Leave From 6 Months in Afghanistan, Surprises His Daughters - Video
The Voice of Afghanistan: Knockouts - Episode.14
On this round of knockout from each group only one performances - ...
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The Voice of Afghanistan: Knockouts - Episode.14 - Video
1TV Afghanistan Pashto News 02.09.2014
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By: 1TVKabul
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1TV Afghanistan Pashto News 02.09.2014 - Video
Gene Aloise, deputy special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, told a gathering of federal watchdogs Wednesday that their oversight of government is crucial and is producing real results.
People, companies and agencies need to be held seriously accountable for stupid decisions, dereliction of duty, corrupt behavior and subpar performance, he said. Otherwise, we simply foster the expectation that additional waste, fraud and abuse will be tolerated.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Mr. Aloise pointed to his agencys investigation of the $104 billion that the U.S. has spent rebuilding Afghanistan.
He said some contractors werent properly installing countermeasures to protect coalition troops against improvised explosive devices, but quick corrective military action might have saved many lives.
Mr. Aloise said the militarys contracting process may be letting in businesses that aid terrorists.
His agency identified 43 cases of Afghanistan contractors labeled by the military as actively supporting the insurgency, but the Armys suspension and debarment officers decided that these designations were not adequate grounds for suspension or debarment and rejected all 43 cases, he said.
We do not understand why the Army permits deadly enemies and their sympathizers to get federal dollars which can be used to buy the means to kill our troops, Mr. Aloise said.
The U.S. must scrutinize the lessons learned in Afghanistan if it hopes to avoid mistakes in the future, he said.
It is clear that reconstruction progress needs to be measured in realistic and useful ways, Mr. Aloise said. If we are going to learn anything from the reconstruction experience, we need to have accurate assessments of the proximate cause of both successes and failures.
Once any investigation has been completed, Mr. Aloise said, its important to alert the public, spur action and deter fraud. Publicity, however, is not meant to give personal glory to the investigators, he said.
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Afghanistan inspector says government oversight is crucial to prevent fraud, waste
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FILE - This April 30, 2014 file photo shows Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers standing guard during a military exercise on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. The Afghan National Security Forces depend exclusively on billions of dollars in funding from the US and its allies, money that is now at risk after President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign a security agreement to keep a small U.S. force of trainers in the country after the NATO-led coalition ends its mission and withdraws at the end of the year. Alongside the exodus of US troops from Afghanistan before the end of the year, soldiers who hail from countries like Singapore and Slovenia, Mongolia and Malaysia have been packing up too, leaving behind an ever-shrinking NATO coalition. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) Alongside the exodus of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, soldiers who hail from countries like Singapore and Slovenia, Mongolia and Malaysia have been packing up too, leaving behind an ever-shrinking NATO coalition.
The coalition has been fighting the war for more than a decade, but that combat mission ends in 17 weeks. On the agenda at this week's NATO meeting in Wales is nailing down which countries will contribute how many troops to the post-2014 mission to continue training the Afghan forces and who will pay the salaries of the Afghan policemen and soldiers going forward.
"There already has been so much blood and treasure invested no one wants to see this turn into what is happening in Iraq right now," said retired Adm. James Stavridis, who was NATO supreme allied commander from 2008 to 2013. "I think people realize we need to continue to advise and mentor the security forces for several more years."
There are about 30,700 U.S. forces still in Afghanistan, and President Barack Obama has said he wants to keep 9,800 American troops in the country after the end of the year. The number of non-American troops stands at roughly 14,400 down more than 65 percent from a peak in May 2011 and is shrinking fast.
Some countries like Britain with 3,936, Germany with 2,250 and Italy with 1,653 still have a sizeable number of troops in the country. But 17 countries representing about a third of current 48-nation coalition have just 25 or fewer troops still deployed. They are: Austria, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden, Tonga and Ukraine.
At its peak, about 50 nations were contributing troops to Afghanistan. Stavridis, who is now dean of the Fletcher School, a graduate school of international affairs at Tufts University in Massachusetts, predicted that the number of troop-contributing countries will drop to between 15 and 20 after the end of this year.
Starting next year, the U.S. has committed to keeping 9,800 troops in Afghanistan as part of a new NATO mission dubbed Resolute Support, which will train, advise and assist Afghan soldiers and policemen. About 4,000 to 5,000 non-American troops mostly from Britain, Germany, Italy and Turkey will be deployed as well, although the actual size of the new mission has not been finalized.
Formalizing those deployments will be contingent on the U.S. and NATO signing formal agreements with the Afghan government, which is in the throes of a bitterly contested presidential election. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign them, leaving the job to his successor.
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Afghanistan's NATO coalition is shrinking - fast