Afghanistan Documentaries

[AVID]

Journeyman Documentaries: http://journeyman.booserver.com/home

There is an assortment of 28 Afghan documentaries well worth a night of watching.
I use them in class and have an annual membership, but a 7 day pass is only $5.

I used "Between the Fronts" for discussion today: http://journeyman.booserver.com/store?p=3168

Publisher: Journeyman
Published: 28 Jul, 2008

Teaser: "EXCLUSIVE: For the first time we can offer an action packed view of life on the Taliban front! This is the Afghan war far from the sanitized images of the embedded journalists. It's bloody, it's fierce and the Taliban look nowhere near to being defeated."

One discouraging statistic comes from a quote by one the ANA Elite force training commanders about 20 minutes into the film. There are only about 3000 Elite ANA soldiers battle ready (and if you watched the "Embedded in Afghanistan" video, http://journeyman.booserver.com/store?p=3585, you learned that anything less than an elite force Afghan soldier is borderline worthless, addicted to opium, or high on hashish most of the day). But the most discouraging news I got form the "Fronts" video was that 1 out of every 10 ANA elite force graduates disappears right out of training and half of those most likely join the Taliban.

After watching four of the documentaries until 3am last night, it's easy to understand any and all opposition to this increase in troops. I just don't see how we can meet the objective of training the army to be self sustained. It's fucked up over there.

(The Opium Video is a good one too: "Opium Trail" (http://journeyman.booserver.com/store?p=3135)

"Over 90% of the world’s opium now comes from Afghanistan. In this shocking new film, we ride the drugs caravan, from cultivation, to process, to market. On route, we lift the curtain on the hidden world of the drug barons; learn how to process heroin in the crudest of laboratories and encounter deadly gunfights on the Iranian border..."

[sabrina 1]

1. Thank you for posting this ~

Whenever they say they are 'training' Afghans, or Iraqis to fight, I wonder whose idea it was to assume that we could teach those people anything about fighting on their own terrain. They are fierce and effective fighters obviously. I think those who sign up with the occupiers do so just to get paid or to undermine what to most of them, is the enemy. If we were so great, how come we still haven't won either war? It just doesn't make sense at all. What a waste of lives and money it all is.

[kid a]

2. a multi-complex issue with strong evidence for several directions

I hope Obama is as open to the idea of any earlier withdrawal as he might be to an extension or further increase.

10 months, over half-way to the proposed exit, ought to be show if all three of the objectives are realistic.

If it is failing (and a status quo would be failing), come home.

[sabrina 1]

3. I guess I just wish they would tell the truth about why we are there.

I'm also beginning to believe that the president has little to say about any of it, if he wants to remain in power and that Eisenhower was right after all.

One thing is obvious though, the people who suffer the most from these foreign adventures Empires engage, are the citizens of the countries who have something the Empire needs. And the conditions of the people of Afghanistan are heart-breaking. No decent human being could continue to support the suffering these wars have inflicted on them.