As it is currently structured, Afghanistans biosecurity framework is weak and offers little to no protection to US troops against the threat of either infectious disease outbreaks or a biological weapons attack by terrorists. If fact, the only legitimate biosecurity practice of the Afghanistan government is to respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases. Such responses are debilitated by a devastated infrastructure, harsh and often times impassable landscape, and non-compliance by Afghan citizens.5 As such, US troops (and, indeed, Afghan citizens) are left susceptible to these endemic diseases to a degree beyond their own control. I believe an alternative biosecurity framework could be implemented that would alleviate this threat.6 Because Afghanistan remains a decentralized and tribal society, the crux of this proposal is that biosecurity measures are to be reallocated to the local, tribal level. I will further expound in greater detail on the reasons for this proposal in section four below.
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
