Time For Clueless NATO
to Pack Up, 'Lock, Stock and Barrel' (The Nation, Pakistan)
"When the
British invaded in the 19th century, Afghans fled to the mountains and fought until
they had killed all but one British soldier. ... In this millennium, any
assumptions that the Afghan mujahedeen's victory over the USSR could be
explained by U.S. military superiority and help provided by Pakistan have been entirely
proven wrong. The Afghan resistance has virtually worn out the armies of NATO,
which have not achieved their objective of decimating the enemy. Rather, what
they will leave in their wake is a huge reservoir of hostile feeling. It is
time to understand this and pack up, lock, stock and barrel, rather than
leaving behind so-called non-combat troops to keep the pot boiling."
NATO Commander in Afghanistan,
General John Allen: Attacks from Taliban troops have been him under tremendous pressure. But is Western discomfort a self-inflicted wound?
NATO Commander in Afghanistan,
General John Allen, has expressed deep anger and frustration at the trend of
attacks by Afghan security forces on NATO troops and trainers, which are being
called "green-on-blue" attacks. In this year alone, as many as 51
foreign soldiers, mostly Americans, have been shot by Afghan trainees. In an
interview on CBS TV's 60 Minutes on
Sunday, General John Allen said, “Well, I’m mad as hell about them, to be honest
with you. We’re going to go after this. It reverberates everywhere across the
United States. ... We’re willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but
we’re not willing to be murdered for it.”
The reason for his exasperation is abundantly clear: the
continuing loss of American soldiers, the fact that Afghan forces are being
trained to take charge of the country’s security as the 2014 drawdown takes
place, and the fact that the success of this policy is the central plank of ISAF's exit strategy.
This training necessarily involves close coordination and
proximity of the unsuspecting trainers and angry trainees resentful of foreign
troops on their soil, spurred on by regularly occurring incidents of what is
euphemistically referred to as "cultural differences." It was to
avoid such unexpected incidents that for a good deal of time, the training
program was put on hold. But with the 2014 deadline approaching quickly, it is now
almost impossible to defer the training, even in the face of a domestic
population that is sick and tired of a seemingly unending war. There is now no escaping
or containing the human losses or economic cost of imparting this training. One
idea under consideration are larger groups of trainers aided by colleagues doing
round-the-clock monitoring of Afghan forces being trained.
Strangely, despite having been in the country for nearly
11 years, what foreign forces have failed to understand is the Afghan psyche. By
virtue of a tradition going back centuries and hardened by the country's treacherous
terrain, the Afghan people are fiercely and uncompromisingly independent. This
is unmistakably testified to by history. When the British invaded in the 19th
century, Afghans fled to the mountains and fought until they had killed all
but one British soldier [William
Brydon], who was sent back to tell his tale of woe. Then came
the 20th century and the Sovi
et Union, which, with over 300,000 men and modern
equipment like helicopter gunships, was driven out. The moral of its troops and
its economic strength was so badly shattered, it was powerless to prevent its
own dismemberment.
Posted
by Worldmeets.US
In this millennium, any assumptions that the Afghan mujahedeen's
victory over the USSR could be explained by American military superiority and help
provided by Pakistan have been entirely proven wrong. The Afghan resistance has
virtually worn out the armies of NATO, which have certainly not achieved their
objective of decimating the enemy. Rather, what they will leave in their wake
is a huge reservoir of hostile feeling. It is time to understand this and pack
up, lock, stock and barrel, rather than leaving behind so-called non-combat
troops to keep the pot boiling.
