Afghanistan

[rbbailey]

I don't think helping the country evolve is really our job -- Constitutionally. But if it is, I don't think the military is the way to do that -- that has always seemed like an oxymoronic thing to have the military do. Not that they should just go around leveling the place either, but you get my drift.

Fighting the bad guys in the mountains doesn't really work unless there is a relationship of some kind with the locals. It's just that I'm saying the rebuilding of the country, shouldn't be what the military does.

NGO's, doctors, teachers are the way to do that.

[robcantrell11]

Dec 10, 2009 13:30:42 GMT -8 rbbailey said:

I don't think helping the country evolve is really our job -- Constitutionally. But if it is, I don't think the military is the way to do that -- that has always seemed like an oxymoronic thing to have the military do. Not that they should just go around leveling the place either, but you get my drift.

Fighting the bad guys in the mountains doesn't really work unless there is a relationship of some kind with the locals. It's just that I'm saying the rebuilding of the country, shouldn't be what the military does.

NGO's, doctors, teachers are the way to do that.

I like this. Maybe I wasn't clear - Afghanistan needs to evolve for it to become stable. We are not here to facilitate evolution - the military is to stabilize the playing field so that the people who can aid in evolution, primarily teachers and doctors, can do their jobs. Doctors can't operate, and teachers can't teach, when there is a constant threat at their door. And really, the military is not here to do the stabilizing either - we are here to train and aid the Afghanis to do it for themselves without constantly reverting back to tribal in-fighting and sectarianism. The evolution - or revolution - cannot occur if the Peace Keeping forces are not here. We don't actually do any peace keeping, we just crush those who would disturb the peace. It doesn't always work. We cannot absolutely root out the insurgents, it's just not a physical possibility. The goal then is to get the insurgents to not want to be insurgents anymore. Give them some sort of incentive to change their ways. Unfortunately, a lot of the insurgents are foreign, and they are not here for any other ideal but money and Allah. If you think about it, too, it behooves Pakistan, Iran and Uzbekistan to have a destabilized Afghanistan - an Afghani government that could actually be a power in the arena would do well for these nations, especially Pakistan.

So, the military aids the Afghanis to create a secure nation so that the teachers, doctors and NGO's can do their work. It does them no good to teach in an area if they are just going to get their head cut off because they are not teaching only Sharia and Koran, or are teaching girls, or their beards aren't long enough. And it happens - and the areas where the Taliban shadow government has control are kept poor, ignorant and sick.

[rbbailey]

Here is an interesting in-depth set of videos on Afghanistan. Not academic, but a mix of first hand and commentary from people who are/were there. It's a tag-along with the Brits, and there is some colorful language, and all the other stuff you might expect from a documentary about war.

www.vbs.tv/watch/vbs-news/inside-afghanistan-1-of-2

But it seems pretty good, pretty straightforward, not skewed much, just a picture of what it is like there. So, RobC can give it a grade if he has time to watch it. Anyway, I'm a very visual learner, so this does a lot for me, as long as my pals tell me it's realistic.

[rbbailey]

Plus, there's lots of cool Rovers in the footage!