Afghanistan: Still Impossible

[Direckshun]

I've posted before about the green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan, a country where we've dominated our enemy, Al Qaeda, and retain firepower and started making significant inroads against the Taliban. Meanwhile, however, their democratic process under Karzai is increasingly in shambles, and the coalition now suffers under a wave of green-on-blue attacks, where members of the Afghani military and police force kill our troops. We've had over 60 this year, by far the most we've seen, and the rate of these attacks are starting to accelerate.

This was me back in September:

The ENTIRE basis for our involvement in Afghanistan at the very start, THE VERY START, was to oust al Qaeda and build a nation that can protect itself with a central government.

Central to that -- at the very center of all of this -- is training Afghani troops.

Progress was decent enough, but green-on-blue attacks have gotten worse and the Afghani military leaders themselves don't even know the true loyalty of the Afghani troops they're cultivating. Rumors are, Pakistan is sending over some Taliban to get money and weaponry.

But the American military itself only attributes 10% of these attacks to the Taliban.

Reports are, now, that that percentage is much higher than 10%. NATO now says 25%. That the Taliban has now effectively turned infiltration into a battle strategy, and it is now widely expected that they will go as far as a civil war if they have to in order to win Afghanistan back.

So. ****.

Ideas, anybody?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8BN03D20121224

Afghan policewoman kills coalition contractor in Kabul: NATO
By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi
KABUL | Mon Dec 24, 2012 7:49am EST

An Afghan woman wearing a police uniform shot dead on Monday a civilian contractor working for Western forces in the police chief's compound in Kabul, NATO said.

The incident is likely to raise troubling questions about the direction of an unpopular war.

It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan's security forces carried out such an attack.

There were conflicting reports about the victim.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a U.S. police adviser was killed by an Afghan policewoman. Then ISAF said in a statement only that it was a "contracted civilian employee" who was killed.

Mohammad Zahir, head of the police criminal investigation department, described the incident as an "insider attack" in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on Western troops they are supposed to be working with. He initially said the victim was a U.S. soldier.

After more than 10 years of war, militants are capable of striking Western targets in the heart of the capital, and foreign forces worry that Afghan police and military forces they are supposed to work with can suddenly turn on them.

The policewoman approached her victim as he was walking in the heavily guarded police chief's compound in a bustling area of Kabul. She then drew a pistol and shot him once, a senior police official told Reuters.

The police complex is close to the Interior Ministry where in February, two American officers were shot dead at close range at a time anger gripped the country over the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base.

"She is now under interrogation. She is crying and saying 'what have I done'," said the official, of the police officer who worked in a section of the Interior Ministry responsible for gender awareness issues.

TIPS FOR TROOPS

The insider incidents, also known as green-on-blue attacks, have undermined trust between coalition and Afghan forces who are under mounting pressure to contain the Taliban insurgency before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

Security responsibilities in a country plagued by conflict for decades will be handed to Afghan security forces.

Many Afghans fear a civil war like one dominated by warlords after the withdrawal of Soviet occupying forces in 1989 could erupt again, or the Taliban will make another push to seize power if they reject a nascent peace process.

At least 52 members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force have been killed this year by Afghans wearing police or army uniforms.

Insider attacks now account for one in every five combat deaths suffered by NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, and 16 percent of all U.S. combat casualties, according to 2012 data.

Hoping to stop the increase in the attacks, Afghan Defense Ministry officials have given their troops tips in foreign culture.

They are told not to be offended by a hearty pat on the back or an American soldier asking after your wife's health.

NATO attributes only about a quarter of the attacks to the Taliban, saying the rest are caused by personal grievances and misunderstandings. Last year, there were 35 deaths in such attacks.

Afghan forces are vulnerable to "insider attacks" of their own. In Jawzjan province in the north, a police commander shot and killed five comrades overnight, the Interior Ministry said.

Last year, he defected from the Taliban, said the ministry.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the commander had rejoined the Taliban. That could not be confirmed.

[go bowe]

my best guess is that afghanistan will go the way of south vietnam...

the american-imposed democracy will quickly fall to the islamic revolution, just as svn collapsed when we left...

we lack firm popular support (one would surmise based on the green on blue attacks) and the afghan forces are inept (given that we've been "training" them for 10 years) and ineffective...

in that aspect it is eerily like vietnam...

we should leave as quickly as logistics and force protection permit and let the inevitable happen and save further american losses...

again, eerily like vietnam, but there is no widespread anti-war movement this time...

there should be...

[scott free]

Yeah, as soon as we go they'll descend right back into chaos.

There just arent enough forward thinking people in that hellhole to stand up against their caveman cousins and last for very long.

Pull out, leave them to their self-imposed misery and savagery and tell them to not even look wrong in our direction again, we'll be watching.

[Comrade Crapski]

The surge.

Another one of Barry's success stories.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by go bowe

there is no widespread anti-war movement this time...

there should be...

It's eerie that there's been virtually zero coverage for something like three years now on Afghanistan.

[stevieray]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

It's eerie that there's been virtually zero coverage for something like three years now on Afghanistan.

ya, eerie.

[CoMoChief]

Our troops are over their growing Opium. That's the main reason why we're there and won't leave....don't plan on leaving anytime soon either.


and it's absolutely NOT to fight terrorism.