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Our friends across the pond are not too fond of our President at the moment
"Restoring our reputation around the world."Our friends across the pond are not too fond of our President at the moment
Important to remember we were all BUT outta there... Until Pres 44 decided we needed to build back up and try to nation build. Bring the poor downtrodden Afghanis out of the Iron Age. Pres 43 knew better, and talks about it at legnth in his "Decision Points" book.They should have never tried to take over the country in the first place imo. I wish they could have been more patient and let Bin Laden and his cronies get cocky while we sit and wait for the opportunity and then do a targeted attack on him and his cohorts while leaving Afghanistan the mess its always been. The minute the US tried to take over the country I thought I cant believe we just made the same mistake the Russians did
Here's today's column in the local paper from a guy who spent four years trying to train Afghani soldiers. Very illuminating.I dont see how anyone can overcome the culture entrenched in that place
Koen: Reflecting on my time training Afghan soldiers
DAVID KOEN | Amarillo Globe-News
It seems this has been an interesting week. I’m sure by now everyone knows that President Biden officially pulled American military support out of Afghanistan.
This was a much-needed thing to happen, however, it seems the execution hasn’t been great. There is one thing I’m sure of, though.
The people in the positions to make the decision to do this had no idea what it was like on the ground in Afghanistan. I lived worked and trained the Afghan National Army for four years as a civilian after I got out of the Army. I was employed by a company that made a small four-wheeled tank style vehicle to train the Afghans on it.
What was supposed to be training on military equipment quickly became teaching them the fundamentals of being soldiers. How to shoot, move and communicate. How to react to enemy fire and how to set up supply lines from one side of the country to the other. It seemed like after my first few months all I could relate this to is the Prime Directive from "Star Trek."
This basically states that civilizations which are below a certain threshold of technological, scientific and cultural development; preventing starship crews from using their superior technology to impose their own values or ideals on them. It seems funny to think about, but Afghans do not have a countrywide identity.
Depending on what side of the bed our soldiers woke up on, it seemed one day they would be ANA and the next Taliban. I always felt like nobody wanted to take the blame for not being able to force western ideals onto the Afghans.
Over four years, soldiers and generals came and went. They always said the Afghans were about to turn the corner and we were getting so close to them being able to govern and protect their own country -- instead of saying this is an impossible mission and until the Afghans develop a national identity worth fighting for they would not fight.
They needed an Afghan version of George Washington to pull the country together and lead it onto the national stage. The Taliban however have an identity and set of core values that they fight for which makes them more lethal and willing to fight for the cause.
I remember after the classroom portion of training for the ANA we had to take them out and begin training them on how to actually use the equipment. It didn’t take long for us to realize most of the young soldiers we were tasked to train did not know how to drive.
They didn’t have any sort of licensing requirements, and most of the soldiers we were training didn’t have enough money to own a car or reason to. We had to change the training to take this into account.
We first taught them basic principles of driving with golf carts we had acquired to transport us up to the training area. After a few days, which was all we could afford, we then transitioned the best drivers to driving the tanks. Trust me, a five-ton armored vehicle drives differently from a regular car and a golf cart.
If I remember, they rolled one or two on the very first little test mission. Either way, with good leadership and a small crew of American advisers they could have held the country. They had the training and equipment to do so, just not the desire.
Here's today's column in the local paper from a guy who spent four years trying to train Afghani soldiers. Very illuminating.
Koen: Reflecting on my time training Afghan soldiers
David Koen's column reflects on the four years he spend training Afghan soldiers following the recent collapse of the nation's governmentwww.amarillo.com
Dubya had us all but out of there. He wasn't interested in any nation building there.This should have been obvious from the outset not to mention a level of resentment that was surely to exist among many for foreigners coming into their country trying to push their way of life on to them.
All these people involved in the fraud are complicit in her son's death.
"I'm just glad we have a real leader in the White House now, who doesn't say mean things on Twitter," said one man sheltering in a house in hopes that the Taliban doesn't murder him. "It was really embarrassing for me living here abroad whenever Trump would make a typo on Twitter. But now, our president doesn't post anything mean on Twitter. Or anything, really, since he probably doesn't know what Twitter is. In fact, he doesn't say anything because he barely ever gives press conferences and just turns his back on the press whenever they ask a question. So he doesn't say anything mean."
"Finally -- America is back, baby!"