Posted on 09/17/2019 12:05:28 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
Back in 2004, when Afghan and American generals were laying the foundations for the post-Taliban Afghan army and security forces the number one question in the minds of everybody around the table was “who will pay for it?”
In those days, it was assumed the burden would fall on the United States and its allies, but that calculation is changing fast with President Trump in office and war fatigue across the capitals in Europe. Today, the answer is simple: Afghans will pay for it through revenues from its vast natural resources and geographical position combined with a national conscription system.
In the early days of U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, there were three schools of thought over the future of the Afghan armed forces. In the first, there were those who believed that Afghanistan does not need a full-fledged army and police but a small defense force to quell local revolts and maintain border security. This was based on the rationale that international security forces would remain for the long run in the country and also due to objections from former Pakistani dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, who opposed the establishment of a large army for Afghanistan for geopolitical reasons. The second school of thought advocated for an Afghan army and security forces in the scale and size of the pre-civil war era (i.e. 250,000 strong with an airforce). Third, was a group of Afghan monarchists and former mujahidin who believed in the mobilization and transformation of the existing mujahidin and militias into an army and police. Of course, none of those options prevailed. Instead, Afghans together with their NATO allies raised, trained and deployed a completely new army based on their threat perception and needs assessment for the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at globalsecurityreview.com ...
GET...OUT!!!!!!
Androids. In Afghanistan they can call them “Turbanators”.
[Androids. In Afghanistan they can call them “Turbanators”.]
Afghanistan's government has bigger problems than modernizing their military. It is not possible to develop natural resources when the country is not safe enough for economic development. Its been 18 years and Afghanistan is still one of the least developed countries on Earth.
[It is not possible to develop natural resources when the country is not safe enough for economic development.]
* This isn’t exceptional. The Vietnam War coincided with significant insurgencies in countries like Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The decades of French and US involvement in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos diverted huge amounts of Chinese and Soviet aid that would have gone to those other countries’ communist movements. As it was, Chinese aid to those movements ended only in the late 1970’s, when even those flawed governments had found their feet and mostly extirpated their communist insurgencies.
Agreed. So-called “Nation Building” is a fool’s errand.
“Back in 2004, when Afghan and American generals were laying the foundations for the post-Taliban Afghan army and security forces the number one question in the minds of everybody around the table was “who will pay for it?””
Looks to me like no one had a clue what the real question should have been. Can it be accomplished knowing the fourth century attitude and the existing tribalism?
It has never been a country. Desolve the central government let tribal leaders take over.
[Looks to me like no one had a clue what the real question should have been. Can it be accomplished knowing the fourth century attitude and the existing tribalism?]
Just past WWII, the Greek monarchy fought a Communist insurgency for 4 years in a conflict that killed 150K people. That’s 2% of the Greek population of 7.5m people, and this was a country where the pre-WWII government simply went back to work after the Nazis were evicted. Whereas the Afghan government is brand new.
* North Vietnam was taking in enormous amounts of Chinese equipment gratis in addition to the billions of dollars of gear they bought from the Soviets right up to the fall of Saigon in 1975. In 1975, the year of the fall of Saigon, it received almost 5,000 artillery pieces and 1m artillery shells from the Chinese.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_in_the_Vietnam_War#Confronting_U.S._escalation
“Back in 2004, when Afghan and American generals were laying the foundations for the post-Taliban Afghan army and security forces the number one question in the minds of everybody around the table was “who will pay for it?”
They started planning the transition 15 years ago.
What more need be said?
Fifteen years of American blood and treasure.
What did we get for it?
Nothing but more blood and less treasure.
One of the problems a conscripted force will have, with so many men who have grown up in the age of the Taliban and what that has done within Afghan’s culture, is how trustworthy will be any one conscript.
The U.S. forces have been plagued with incident after incident of an Afghan soldier working with them turn his loyalty in a seeming instant and fire at them, or individually kill one of our troops. Vetting Afghans coming into positions of working directly with our forces has never found all such “turn coats”; and they have kept cropping up.
I imagine the similar problem for the Afghan regular military would be even greater with forces conscripted from around the country, and likely sometimes even from areas with a large Taliban presence. At least the volunteers have agreed to be on the side of the regular Afghan forces.
Rules of Engagement with Muslims.
1) if no infidels present, Sunni will try to annihilate the Shiite Muslims, and vice versa;
2) if infidel present, Sunni and Shiite will unite to annihilate the infidels before turning against each other again.
3) Are you an infidel?
Afghan’s will pay for it through revenues from its vast natural resources and geographical position combined with a national conscription system.
Suuuuuuurrrrrrreeeeeeeee they will.
I think the Afghan Govt. is also fragile because it is an Infidel based Govt. in a Muslim country. - Tom
Instead of “Cowboys and Indians,” “Indians and Indians?”
Works for me!
If these fools want to live in a 500 BC environment, who are we to persuade them to move to the 21st Century?
Letem keep killing each other, and watchem to see that they don’t come after us!
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