| http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-nato-attacked-seven-u-soldiers-wounded-014622779.html I just finished a year in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor. Allow me to give my views:
1. Killing/Fighting is ingrained in this society. A man is not considered a man unless he has killed someone in battle. That is why these people are continously fighting each other. It's cultural. They won't stop because the West says it's Stone Age thinking.
2. Most Afghan peasants -- for lack of a better term -- are uneducated, and illiterate. Most could not read the Koran, or recognize it, if it was put in front of them. 30 years of war, and 10+ years under the Taliban, saw to that. The Afghans are not stupid, don't get me wrong. They are cunning, and crafty, people. But, they are ignorant as to the ways of the modern world. They don't want any part of "modernity." Our ways are not theirs. And, they don't want any part of it. They are happy living in their mud hooches, or in their tent villages. A 2-story McMansion with a white picket fence and 2 Bentleys in the driveway is a totally foreign concept.
3. Referencing #2 above, most Afghans out in the countryside get their news, etc, from the local Mullah, or Imam. These guys are the religious establishment, and most have Taliban leanings. Do you think they are going to tell the people the truth? Hardly. All it takes is a Imam to say that we desecrated a Koran, or insulted Mohammed, and off the people go. It is a mob mentality. They are not taught to question, or to ask, "Show us proof." Even if they did, the Imam could show them a burned copy of Time magazine, and claim it was a Koran. The average villager wouldn't know the difference.
4. The Afghan Army. God help us if this is what will protect Afghanistan after we withdraw. Having seen them first-hand, and having lived among them, I would agree that they are not the most trustworthy. They spent more time trying to chase the American female Soldiers on our site, instead of going after the bad guys. When the ANA weren't smuggling Taliban sympathizers on to our camp, they were pacing off targets for rockets or mortars, or supplying the Taliban with cell-phone photos of our defenses. The ANA on our camp concentrated harder on raiding our supply section than fighting the Taliban. We even caught the Afghan Army Colonel in command of the ANA on our site stealing light bulbs out of our warehouse! The U.S. Army was no better, I have to add. They helped themselves to our supplies as well. Our security had video of both sides climbing over our walls and razor wire, and stealing whatever wasn't nailed down. We turned our proof over to the US Govt for action. Nothing was said or done. As for the ANA, they will dissolve as soon as we pull out. And, all of the weapons, etc, we are leaving in-country will end up in the hands of the Taliban.
5. I agree with some of the comments made about this article. When we withdraw, the Taliban will take over. Those Afghans in the puppet government -- Karzai, for one -- will run crying to the U.S. to save them. We'll take them in, and give them cushy houses in D.C. where they will spend their days running the "True Afghan Govt in Exile", or some such nonsense. And, 5-7 years after that, we will find ourselves back in-country because it has reverted to a terrorist haven.
The Afghans have had 10+ years to get it right, or at least make a start. They have done nothing. And, they won't. Unity, or a Government that represents all, is not in their view of "nation". Afghans are loyal to Islam first, and Tribe second. They don't care about nationhood. They don't care about democracy. Give an Afghan a pencil, and try to teach him write. He will only use it as a weapon and try to kill you with it.
It's time to pull out, and let them go their own way |
