Clinton: USAID must regain credibility.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY

* U.S. commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly have asked for non-military help, such as engineers, agronomists and reconstruction experts. Such assistance typically would come from the U.S. Agency for International Development. But USAID is a shadow of its former self and mostly hires contractors to do the work. The military is overstretched, and would welcome an expansion of USAID, says Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli. But he does not expect things to change in the near future. "I'm not seeing a heck of a lot of movement to provide that capability yet," he says.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the problem in a recent speech to USAID employees. "We have to...