Afghanistan: Hope in the Army
Smiles, self-congratulations, utterances of gratitude all around. As Canadians prepare to pull their troops out of Kandahar and hand the responsibility of security over to American troops, even while the United States has pronounced through the sober words of their president that it's time to go.Assured by strident words of confidence by Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai that the country is prepared to be assertively self-protective.
The Afghan national army, with its recruits' casual relationship to duty, and its large rate of abandonment, its soldiers who cannot read or write and who lack numeracy skills, augmented by the corrupt and inefficient national police will be taking over responsibility for security from departing ISAF troops.
By 2014, the Americans will also fully withdraw their troops, starting with the 33,000 to be gradually withdrawn within the next year. The Taliban, duly warned, are patient. They've been patient for a decade, while they regroup, enlist new recruits whom they pay better than government pays national army recruits, funded by opium sales to Europe and the Middle East.
Even while NATO's presence still secures key areas of the country, the Taliban express their contempt for the presence of 'foreign invaders' by mounting spectacular bombings and suicide attacks. A handful of Taliban were able to hold the superior numbers of the Afghan National Army troops off for five hours in the recent attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.
The siege by Taliban armed with AK-47s and suicide vests roaming the hotel, terrorizing those within, was ended finally by the intervention of NATO helicopters flying overhead and killing off tso Taliban marksmen on the roof. This incident and many like it, with Taliban striking at supposedly safe and secure sites, heavily guarded government buildings, army recruitment offices, inform ordinary Afghans that their national army on its own will be hopeless.
The transition from NATO to Afghan security as foreign troops withdraw and leave Afghanistan to the army and the police, while NATO forces remain in smaller numbers to continue training their Afghan counterparts hasn't raised the trust of ordinary Afghans. The unprofessionalism and corruption that is endemic in society and which runs rampant through the national police and the government does not give confidence to the people of Afghanistan.
But there is just so much and not a whole lot more that Canadians, Americans, British, Dutch and other foreign diplomats, civilians, armed forces personnel and humanitarian aid workers can accomplish. At some point the country itself must muster its resources and flagging determination to care for itself.
Labels: Afghanistan, Conflict, Corruption, NATO
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, July 06, 2011
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