Vietnam and Afghanistan

It is a confusing world out there some times, then other times, like the weather, it clears. I was reading last night an article in the latest Newsweek on our efforts to train the national police force in Afghanistan. Now this deal isn't on the current Administration but on eight years of the last one under Bush.

We have trained 170,000 national police in Afghanistan and as we speak there are 30,000 reporting for work. Most of those absent are receiving checks they just don't know there whereabouts. And it went on to outline the missing rifles and rocket launchers that are being sold on the black market to the Taliban.

I remember our 'Allies' in Vietnam, the ARVN's - the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. I remember a Marine grunt out fit that was surrounded on a hill by a US grenade called a bouncing betty because when you stepped on it, it flew three feet in the air and exploded, a nasty little weapon. Seems that 10,000 of our bouncing bettys that were sent to our 'Allies' and ended up with the Viet Cong and they surrounded this Marine hill with them and wiped out over 50% of the Marines. Umm, sounds a little like what I read last night with the Afghan Police.

I interact with a lot of Marines today who have or are serving in both war theaters, Iraq or Afghanistan. And a few contractors working and fighting there. None believe these people will be defending themselves once we leave. A lot like the Fall of Saigon is one the way I'm afraid.

I had no problem with our kicking the Taliban out in Afghanistan after 911. I did wonder 'what were they thinking' going in to Iraq? I had the opportunity to meet a British General over dinner one night in Florida. I expressed my disbelief that we didn't appear to have a plan on entering Baghdad? The General explained that he was retiring but he had been a war planner during the invasion and was in fact in CentCom when our first troops arrived well ahead of schedule and said there was a combined 'Oh Shit' in the headquarters because there was in fact 'no plan' for after the war. Incredible!

And now we're repeating the mistakes of past wars. In fact the article went on to say that a big part of the problem is that the contractors hired to train the police were handed a program by the government to execute. It was to train these police for 8 weeks, which they disagreed with, but were told they had 'numbers' to meet. The new administration, while sitting in disbelief over the lack of progress, cut the training to six weeks.

By the way, the police they are training are 89% illiterate, under no obligation to return since they don't participate in contracts, the same applies to their Army we are training ... unbelievable.

And this is the same outfit that bankrupted social security, medicare and now we're going to trust health care to them. It is our government under any of our last four Presidents at least.