Afghans Urge Obama to Send Aid, Not Troops to Afghanistan

President Obama is expected to unveil a revised Afghanistan strategy Friday that will focus on expanding and improving the Afghan national police force. The Afghan police have been the target of recent attacks and insurgents killed nine police officers and injured six in the southern and central parts of the country Thursday. Richard Holbrooke, the Special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, told a security conference in Brussels last Saturday that the President’s new plan would address the widespread perception that the police are “the weak link the security chain.”

President Obama’s revised Afghanistan policy is also expected to send more troops to counter the Taliban’s expanding influence in the southern part of the country, which the New York Times reports, is made possible by direct support for the Taliban by operatives in Pakistan"s military intelligence agency.

Investigative journalist and Corpwatch managing editor Pratap Chatterjee traveled recently to Afghanistan and asked a number of Afghans what they would like to see from the new American President.

Pratap Chatterjee is also the author of the new book “Halliburton’s Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War.” In a recent article for Corpwatch Chatterjee analyzes President Obama"s new strategy for Afghanistan and asks who will win the contracts to train the Afghan police and soldiers.

Well, Pratap Chatterjee joins us now here in the firehouse studio to answer that question and more.

Pratap Chatterjee, award-winning investigative journalist, managing editor of Corpwatch, and author of Iraq Inc. His latest book is called "Halliburton"s Army: How a well-connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War."

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