generalspeaking

Plans - and - Realities

The plan is a surge of NATO forces, starting with 30,000 new American troops, and another possibly ten thousand when all responses have been received, of other NATO-country troops. And then, quickly as possible, withdrawal. Sounds very interesting. NATO and the United States are giving themselves a year and a half to train triple the number of Afghan military that the country currently possesses, and a like number for the Afghan police.

And then, so long, it's been good to know you. As if. But then, perhaps, after all. But if foreign governments think that Afghanistan will prosper and evolve into a self-sustaining quasi-democratic nation once on their own, they've been indulging in too much of that opiate plant grown by Afghan farmers that enriches many of Afghanistan's parliamentarians, along with the Taliban. Nothing wrong in dreaming, though.

As long as reality is also recognized. Which is that Afghan self-motivation appears to be rather sanguine bordering on inert. This is truly a primitive society, judging from the standards of education and societal justice prevailing within the country. The future lies with the children of the country becoming enabled to attend schools that will actually educate them, not continue to mire them in ignorance and fundamentalist religious thrall.

Those schools in the critical provincial areas are being destroyed almost as quickly as they're being built. Currently, over 90% of Afghan soldiers are illiterate. Their pay is so low they cannot adequately care for their families. The rate of absenteeism is huge. The rate of corruption is only overtaken by that of the country's police force, whose size roughly equals theirs, and whose ineptitude also equals that of the military.

These men are not infused with love of nation, they are products of clan and tribe and there their allegiance lies. Their ranks have been well infiltrated by the very insurgents whom they are being trained, alongside foreign troops, to battle. They are being taught military professionalism by skilled foreign solders who cannot communicate in their own language, but must do so through interpreters.

Recruits haven't the most basic knowledge, not only of military procedure, but more elemental fundamentals such as using modern civil conveniences; they are more accustomed to living in truly primitive conditions. Hugely illiterate, they cannot access information in manuals, and do not take easily to training in the use of sophisticated weaponry.

It is estimated that, to become independently capable of caring for its own security, the country would require over three times the military personnel - and the police, it currently possesses. And if that increased number remains as incapable, as inexperienced and as disinterested as the present military and police, an increased number would be useless.

When General Stanley McCrystal, U.S. forces commander in Afghanistan, requested 40,000 additional American military personnel from his commander-in-chief, he did not envision a very short time-frame for action to lead toward success. In response to his request, General McCrystal has been given a temporary 30,000 and an hastily-abbreviated period in which to invent victory.

General McCrystal, back in August, put Americans on notice that they should anticipate a "long-term" fight; they were not to look forward to quick fixes. "This will require patience and commitment." Little did he imagine that it would be thrown back on him; that statement, that is.

Patience, commitment, and very, very little time.

Labels: NATO, Troublespots, United Nations

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, December 06, 2009