Fun With Inspectors-General Reports

 

This is a report on the U.S. embassy in Kabul from the State Department inspector general. (.pdf) Among its conclusions:

Embassy Kabul is unique and as complex as the mission of the embassy itself. The Ambassador and his deputy are effectively directing embassy resources toward the transition to a post-combat Afghanistan that the President has mandated for the end of 2014. Balancing the urgency of transition with the needs of the ongoing counterinsurgency demands continual and close civilian-military coordination, a high priority for the Ambassador. 

Three additional ambassadorial-level officers have well-defined span of control, with a clear delineation of chain of command for each agency and section under chief of mission authority. This high-level oversight aims at strengthening the whole-of-government approach that the Ambassador has adopted. All issues are managed along functional rather than agency-specific lines. Some interagency tensions persist, however, and need attention. The executive secretariat continues to improve.  

Some curious omissions, though. The report doesn't address the central question of what the fuck the embassy does. If Hamid Karzai wants to find out what the U.S. government thinks, he can talk to Marc Grossman, the post-Holbrooke Special Representative. He can talk to John Kerry in the Senate. He can talk to Simon Gass, the NATO representative. He can talk to Gen. John Allen, the new ISAF commander, who's probably way more attuned to U.S. policy than new Amb. Ryan Crocker.

Nor does the IG report address the relevance of the embassy to policymaking, or even implementation. In no substantive way does it address how the embassy works with the military to ensure they're not out of sync or at cross purposes. Pretty much every useful question about the U.S. Embassy in Kabul is beyond the scope of this report. 

But there's this:

The public affairs section (PAS) has done a remarkable job of managing a budget that has increased 100-fold since the autumn 2009 inspection. An addition of 35 new positions has ensured the resources to launch many new initiatives, including a comprehensive civilianmilitary strategic communication plan. The section has also put in place procedures to handle its large contracts and grants. Public affairs staff recognizes that the current level of funding and staffing is unsustainable. The section is making preliminary plans to deal with the transition to a smaller and more typical PAS.

It's a good thing the Embassy has a lot of people on staff to bullshit you. Otherwise, I might not think it was such a useful entity. 

Comments

[Trevelian]

The report doesn't address the central question of what the fuck the embassy does.

Is this a serious question? We don't understand state department operations? Can some people recommend some books for the man? You see there are these things called cones ....