I completely love this project. I love ground support and I have been following this project from when they first began speaking about it.
But let me say this:
Afghanis aren’t Arabs but both Arabs and Afghani *despise* fixing things. They are hard-pressed even to fix their own personal rifles which they did not make.
there is some mindset there that maintenance and repairing is stupid or it’s unglamorous.
Nobody does it, so unless our own people are there to refuel and maintain these aircraft in every single way, my prediction is it will all be junk within six months or so of them having it.
So we should understand and be mature about that before any of this aid is given. in other words, it’s not just the airplanes themselves, it’s other things also.
“if Allah WILLS the tank to start, then the tank will start”
“the prince wields the blade, the slave sharpens it”
“Generally, societies that do not find work in and of itself “pleasing to God and requisite to Man,” tend to be highly corrupt (low-education and dogmatic-religion societies also are statistically prone to corruption, and, if all three factors are in play, you may not want to invest in the local stock exchange or tie your foreign policy to successful democratization). The goal becomes the attainment of wealth by any means.”
Spotting the Losers: Seven Signs of Non-Competitive States
http://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/parameters/Articles/98spring/peters.htm