Shana-ba-shana

No, that headline isn't about the 1970s doo-wop band that appeared in the movie musical "Grease." It refers to an Afghan concept of standing "shoulder-to-shoulder" with someone -- a term taught to reporters today by a U.S. military official in Afghanistan in response a question on whether Provincial Reconstruction Teams create a dependency on foreign coalition forces. During the teleconference, Air Force Lt. Col. John "Red" Walker, the commander of the Mehtar Lam Provincial Reconstruction Team in Regional Command-East, said:

One of the things that we've done or one of the -- one of the actions that we've been very cognizantly taking is, all of the PRT actions and all of our processes are nested "shana-ba-shana." I mean, we are really integrated very well with the governor and his staff, so we don't give any opportunity or any projects or development or really any actions without the knowledge and prioritization of that Afghan government entity, whether that's at the district or at the provincial level. And I think that's what President Karzai is getting at, is that the PRTs need to be very well nested with the provincial governor and his staff.

As cooperative as coalition forces have been with their Afghan counterparts, however, senior U.S. military officials have grown increasingly worried about having to continue to operate under a continuing resolution instead of a fiscal year 2011 appropriations bill. As Inside the Pentagon reports today:

Continuing to restrict Defense Department funding under stopgap legislation could complicate the war in Afghanistan by blocking the acquisition of urgently needed military equipment, according to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander there.

If Congress does not pass a fiscal year 2011 defense appropriations bill, the restrictions tied to operating under a continuing resolution could prevent the armed services from buying systems such as MQ-9 Reaper drones needed to support troops in Afghanistan, he said March 18 at the Newseum in Washington.

"The CR is not yet complicating our efforts, but there is a point at which it will," he said. "To give you an example, the U.S. Air Force won't be able to buy the additional Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle [combat air patrols] that we have requested on an urgent joint operational needs statement. And then there are similar examples of that."

Inside the Air Force reported March 18 that the Air Force had exhausted its prior-year reprogramming funding, meaning that the planned purchase of 24 more Reaper drones and other equipment would have to wait for further relief from Congress or until a full appropriations bill is passed.

Petraeus noted a multibillion-dollar fund used to plan, program and implement structural, institutional and management changes in Afghan forces could also be impacted. "At a certain point, the Afghan Security Forces Fund," for which the administration is seeking a budget increase, "would be capped at a much lower level," he said.

On March 17, the Senate passed a three-week continuing resolution to fund government operations through April 8. The House previously passed the bill. President Obama signed the legislation March 18.

Petraeus also reiterated his "grave concerns about the inadequate levels of funding" for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, stressing both organizations have vital work to do in Afghanistan. He recently made the same point in congressional testimony.

"These are national security issues," he said at the March 18 event, sponsored by National Journal. The expertise of, and funding for, the State Department and USAID are needed to "cement the gains on the ground" in Afghanistan, he said.