I don’t think this is a good idea and I have to say I am not looking forward to seeing the outcome. The Afghan military and in fact the entire government is corrupt to the highest levels. This is a known fact and not a new revelation from the Bouhammer. The steps that worked in Iraq were great for Iraq. AFGHANISTAN IS NOT IRAQ!!! It isn’t.
Anyone that has been to both, to include many in the recently returned 2/7 Marines will tell you that Afghanistan it nothing like Iraq.
When I give my briefings on Afghanistan I tell people that there has been no other war in our lifetime like the one in Afghanistan. The only thing that is similar is that people die the same. They bleed the same, and they are ripped apart by IEDs the same. That is about the extent of it.
I am so happy that the tactics and techniques used in Iraq work, but as noted on here several times and by many other leading experts (to include CJCS Mullen and GEN Petreaus), the steps taken in Iraq will not work verbatim in Afghanistan. The people in Afghanistan are desperate, they have nothing, they live on dirt, in dirt and they farm dirt. One village that was not far from my FOB had 50 families living in it and all they did was pick up big rocks and carry them about 2 miles one way to a quarry to sell them for the quarry to crush them for gravel. Yep, that was all they did. There was no farmland around them, there was no skill or trade for anyone to practice. They simply picked up rocks by hand (like aluminum cans) and carry them to a rock crusher. This is one small village out of tens of thousands, some of which have never seen an American.
Iraq has oil production and a way to generate revenue. What does Afghanistan have? Opium, and nobody wants that exported. There is no tax system, there is no national product to export in order to raise money. The country lives off of the handouts from the USA and NATO. So who is going to pay these guys one day when we leave? The government? With what? We pay their salaries now that it is.
So if you are getting paid to be a militia and you know that the day that Uncle Sugar leaves so will your salary, do you think you are going to let Uncle Sugar leave? No, you would start planting IEDs yourself to keep the place unsafe and keep Uncle Sugar-Daddy right there.
All this will do is make Afghanistan an even bigger welfare state than it already is. And trust me it is nothing more than one big hand sticking out looking for your free money.
The quote below from the article says a lot in the few short words. The only ones with decent weapons are those that use them against us. If they want to make a difference by using the local populace, they need to EDUCATE the local populace. We have to provide the people of Afghanistan another means of knowledge besides whatever the corrupt and anti-coaltion mullah says on the loudspeaker in the center of the village.
“their salaries “won’t be close” to what Afghan soldiers or police earn and that, as in Iraq, they will not be given weapons. “They’re generally already armed,” adds the official traveling with Gates.”
I started this post saying I don’t think I will like this idea. Now that I am done writing, I know I don’t like it and in fact it pisses me off.
My colleague Mike Jacobson and I are not the only ones to recently highlight the connection between a prominent, designated charity (Jamaat u-Dawa, JUD) and the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Yesterday's Saudi-owned Asharq Alawsat ran an editorial by the paper's editor-in-chief, Tariq Alhomayed, entitled "Charities...Again!" in which the author also notes this connection and decries the continued terrorist abuse of charities. Calling for "strict financial monitoring of charitable work," Alhomayed speaks truth to power when he writes, in the Arab press:
It is unfortunate that the exploitation of financial aid offered by charities, and the damage that is being caused to the concept of charity, is continuing, with reports of new scandals surfacing from time to time. The West certainly has its own problems regarding the abuse of charity work, but these problems are corrected through high levels of transparency and continuous efforts.
Transparency is indeed what is needed, especially given the evolutionary nature of illicit finance and the tendency for terrorist-affiliated charities shut under one name to reopen under other names.
As Jacobson and I noted in our recent study, "The Money Trail," charities are especially susceptible to abuse and, when abused, can serve as ideal money laundering mechanisms.
Evolution of terrorists’ financing methods have cut across the spectrum of raising, laundering, transferring, storing, and accessing funds. As authorities have cracked down, for example, on charities that were financing illicit activity around the globe, some of these charities have devolved decisionmaking to local offices and personnel. Some charities tied to illicit activities reportedly instruct donors to fund their regional offices directly, instead of going through central offices. They also hire local people as staff so as not to raise suspicion among authorities. Speaking of radical Islamist efforts to radicalize and recruit young Muslims in Zanzibar, Tanzania, a local Islamic leader noted that “there are some [charitable] agencies that sometimes use a native of the village [to recruit] because the others would be caught by the police.” Similarly, there has been a shift in funding from investment in specific programs to investment in large infrastructure projects. Such infrastructure is not only much needed but also provides effective cover for the transfer of substantial sums of money overseas. In the Philippines, for example, investigators found that terrorist financiers supporting the Abu Sayyaf Group and Raja Sulayman Movement facilitated the construction of mosques and schools under the supervision of Mohammad Shugair, a Saudi national linked by Philippine authorities to terrorist financing.
As I've written before, there can be no doubt that charity is a value of paramount importance to donors and recipients alike. Recognizing, as illicit actors already have, that the charitable sector is vulnerable to abuse and devising policies that protect charities from abuse even as they promote charitable giving is the true challenge. That a prominent columnist in a prominent Arab newspaper concurs is progress worth noting.
Starting next year, the Army will provide full military honors for all soldiers killed in action when they are laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Starting next year, the Army will provide full military honors for all soldiers killed in action when they are laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Starting next year, the Army will provide full military honors for all soldiers killed in action when they are laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
A former Navy serviceman was charged with murder and other crimes after a bomb explosion at a bank that killed two law enforcers and critically injured a third, officials said Monday.
A former Navy serviceman was charged with murder and other crimes after a bomb explosion at a bank that killed two law enforcers and critically injured a third, officials said Monday.
How much have we spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The answer: $904 billion, according to a new report by Steven Kosiak, the renowned defense budget number cruncher at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in Washington, D.C.
How much have we spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The answer: $904 billion, according to a new report by Steven Kosiak, the renowned defense budget number cruncher at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in Washington, D.C.
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s), myself included, and not intended as a directive or recommendation. Your ability to in turn express your opinions are just one of the rights I defended as a United States Army soldier. I respect and encourage that right. I ask only this; if you disagree with any of the material presented, either by the author or by posters, take a deep breath and think before you post. Be introspective. Be concise. Form a complete, well thought, and above all polite response before posting. The inability to communicate politely and succinctly on emotionally charged issues will do nothing to promote productive sharing of viewpoints. We must speak rationally and intelligently to each other as individuals before we can ever hope to do it as a country. To do anything less is to denigrate each other, hide away the truth, and perpetuate that which we seek to overcome.
