How can they fix the stoned Afghan Military? I was as upset as many

[Thickasabrick]

people when I heard the "surge" announcement but then I resolved myself to thinking that maybe we were being told the truth and it was just a matter of getting the Afghan Military "ready".

Then I saw this video of these guys and I gotta tell ya - there is no fucking way!! I had no idea that everybody is stoned over there all the time - not that I don't like to be occasionally too - but I'm not carrying a gun when that happens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc8w0IX4UQc

How could anybody get these people "ready"?

[Moochy]

1. K&R

Thanks for posting this... definitely worth seeing.

[Neecy]

2. It's a real problem

I just read Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman and Jon Krakauer writes about the Afghan units that are attached to US units. Apparently they chew a gummy concoction that is mainly opium and according to some soldiers he spoke to they're 'cooked' 24 hours a day. Really inspires confidence.

[Thickasabrick]

6. How was that book? Tough read? Depressing? nt

[Neecy]

9. Sad, infuriating, and informative

There's a tremendous amount of information about Afghanistan in it, which makes it pretty timely reading.

And Tillman really was a hero. What the military did in covering up how he died was an incredibly shameful chapter of the Bush years.

[jgraz]

3. You're assuming the goal is to get the Afghan Military "ready"

I doubt very much that's what we're going over there.

[Echo In Light]

10. +1

[MadMaddie]

4. This is NOT about Afghanastan it is about the mountain region

bordering Afghanastan and Pakistan. It is about a unstable Pakastani governenment. Al Queda is massing in the mountains and there have been more bombings in Pakistan.

If the militant Al Quida were to get their hands on the Pakistani nukes who do you think they would hit? Israel, India and any other countries they hate.

It's about Nukes....

[Flaneur]

7. Of course it's about Afghanistan!

Those guys were Afghan National Army soldiers.

Al Qaeda is massing in the mountains? Have you been smoking the same thing as those soldiers?

[yurbud]

5. if they needed help getting ready, how did they chase out the Brits, Soviets, and now us?

It's a little like the same lame argument about Iraq: if they were a threat to us, why is it so hard to give them a decent military?

The answer in both countries is not that it is difficult to find and train people to fight, but that it is difficult to find people who will fight FOR US AGAINST THEIR OWN PEOPLE.

When you think about it that way, the job will never be done.

[formercia]

8. They chased them alright.

A paramilitary officer who had operated with them in the field told me that the biggest problem was that, any time the had a 'victory', and it didn't take much, they would get high and celebrate for a couple of weeks. The Afghans like to grab-ass and play practical jokes. They don't take War as seriously as we do.
Things take time over there. Their whole concept of getting things done is totally alien to the Military-Industrial mindset.

The ones I worked with were pretty laid back for the most part.

I heard of one who was a bit crazy. He liked to sneak in under the wire and collect a few heads. Upon return he would throw them into a shell crater he had set aside. Last I heard, he had collected 300 or so.

[Goldstein1984]

11. It's about

Empire
Oil and pipeline routes
Projecting power
"Vital national interests"
Sending Americans as fodder for RPGs and IEDs.

It's about not learning from history--there's or ours.

(Vague, I know. But the details are unnecessary)

[divideetimpera]

12. oh, the horror....

...that humans should actually enjoy life and live it at a leisurely pace, enjoying themselves.