Although Afghan President Hamid Karzai recognized the death of Osama bin Laden as an "important day" for the fight against terrorism, he remains convinced that the Western military presence in his country needs to be reconsidered. "Year after year, day after day, we have said the fighting against terrorism is not in the villages of Afghanistan, not among the poor people of Afghanistan," Karzai said, as part of his push for NATO to focus its attention on Pakistan.
He's soon going to get to make that decision himself. President Barack Obama has promised to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July; preliminary reports suggest that 5,000 troops could be removed then, with another 5,000 to come by year's end. As the Americans step back, the plan is for the Afghan National Army to step up. The United States has invested a lot in Afghanistan's military: It is drawing up plans to use its special operations forces to mentor Afghan soldiers, and it spent more than $9 billion in 2010 to develop the force.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
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KILGORE_NOBIZ
2:00 PM ET
May 11, 2011
Only part of the story
This article talks up how much the population trusts the ANA; however it completely ignores the fact the populace completely distrusts the Afghan National Police. The ANP is widely considered corrupt and incompetent, yet in many key areas controlled by the Taliban it's the only formal security presence. If all the ANSF were just ANA then there's a reasonable chance we could turn things over within a year or so, but that's the good half of the force. Barring some dramatic changes it will take a very long time, if ever for the ANP to get there.
SAIL1999
2:09 PM ET
May 11, 2011
Can Afgan army stand on its own
Instead of training an army in traditional tactics, the USA should be teaching these young me in special force fighting. This is the future of warfare as attested to by the attack on Usama Bin Ladin. These men look like a bunch of boy scouts, out of their element. They should be ruthless, like the enemy they are fighting.
JACK BOOT
10:31 AM ET
May 12, 2011
Afghan Army
The Afghan Army can no more stand on its own than could the South Vietnamese Army in 1972.
Question: Who was the bright spark who replaced the Afghan Army's AK-47s with M-16s?
There is no way in Heaven or on Earth that a bunch of Third-Worlders can conceivably keep those temperamental prima donnas in working order...
DUNCAN-O
8:01 PM ET
May 14, 2011
They might only use them for
They might only use them for training. I never saw an ANA or ANP with anything other than an AK...unless it was an RPG. Speaking of good ideas. Don't know though, haven't been there in awhile.
JAYDEE001
12:18 PM ET
May 12, 2011
And who really cares?
The Afghan Army had better learn to stand on its own - because I doubt the US and NATO will be around to wipe its nose for very long. We have over 100,000 of our troops there to fight several hundred al Qaeda - many of whom spend most of their time in the FATA on the Pakistan side of the border. The majority of the effort in Afghanistan has been to tamp down the local Taliban insurgency - who we defeated in 2002; we then got distracted by our Iraq mis-adventure and let them reconstitute their strength. The Afghan Taliban are home-grown fighters who for some reason consider Afghanistan more their home than ours - imagine that!
It should be very clear after the hardly-revelatory events of the past 10 days that al Qaeda has been the guests of the Pakistani people. Whatever happens in Afghanistan after the US and NATO depart will matter very little if al Qaeda does not again become entrenched there - and there are many reasons to doubt that Afghanistan really wants al Qaeda to be there. There are plenty of signals that our puppet, Karzai, would make peace with his Taliban if the US would get out of his way. As for Pakistan, it has proven to be the most unreliable ally; let it go back to its obsessive worry about India without our financial and military help. That will always occupy its attention anyway.
While we are getting rid of our pups, lets withdraw the rest of our troops from Iraq. The latest news from that front has al Maliki suggesting that he might ask the US to keep troops there beyond the agreed December 31 date - if there is support amongst Iraq's politicians for doing so. Since Iraq was a war we did not need to fight at all, and since we have lost the lives of another 22 brave US personnel in 2011, it is long past time to get the heck out. Enough already!
DRSTUPID
12:46 PM ET
May 12, 2011
On the salaries
The slide on soldiers' salary is probably wrong, if not in the value presented, than in its logic. It says that the taliban paid 5-10$ a day, which caused defections, which were controlled by paying soldiers 165-245$ per month, which is still 5.50-8.17$ a day.
It seems the amount was not the motivating factor to curb down defections.
CEOUNICOM
5:40 PM ET
May 13, 2011
Afghan Army: A Documentary
Too not-funny.
youtube.com/watch?v=O2F80llZ5F4
The quote from the Afghan officer @ 3:00 is pretty hot.
The motivation speech by the Marine is embarrassing.
I love lines like, "After 7 years of training, most show no signs of any soldiering ability"
Its actually understatement.
DUNCAN-O
7:58 PM ET
May 14, 2011
Is that a female officer in
Is that a female officer in photo #9?
TEJAS RAMAKRISHNAN
12:29 PM ET
May 20, 2011
Looks like a female officer, yes
Yes, that indeed looks like a female officer indeed...
I did not know that Afghans and other muslim nations advocated women working, and one in a military vocation is quite unheard of...
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