View Full Version : Months after Americans leave, an Afghan base in disrepair
BMT (RIP)
08-03-2012, 06:18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/months-after-americans-leave-an-afghan-base-in-disrepair/2012/08/02/gJQApMfzSX_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
BMT
Streck-Fu
08-03-2012, 07:07
U.S. officials say that after years of depending on Americans for tactical and logistical support, Afghan soldiers often struggle to adapt to a sudden surge in responsibility.
“They’ve just never had to rely on their own leaders. They’ve always had the Americans for a backstop,”
So are the Afghans failing to take the reigns or are we failing to prepare them for going it alone?
Lead a horse to water and all that jazz...
You can't tame wild animals.
Team Sergeant
08-03-2012, 10:25
So are the Afghans failing to take the reigns or are we failing to prepare them for going it alone?
I don't think that was ever in question. Once we leave a civil war "will" break out, last a few months to a few years.
The taliban will once again reign in the region and they will start planning on exporting terrorism again.
The more it changes the more it stays the same.
And I agree, you cannot tame wild animals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ZeIoLz8FE
I am reminded of this commercial every time I think about the US handing over things (bases, equipment, etc.) to host nation folks across the globe...
Whether it is apathy, ignorance, lack of training, poor leadership, corruption, or a failed logistics system, I can't tell you how many times the nice shizzle that we have passed on/turned over to the HN in countries around the world has ended up being used/treated much like in this commercial...
Oldrotorhead
08-03-2012, 12:07
I don't think that was ever in question. Once we leave a civil war "will" break out, last a few months to a few years.
The taliban will once again reign in the region and they will start planning on exporting terrorism again.
The more it changes the more it stays the same.
And I agree, you cannot tame wild animals.
Do we still have friends in the northern areas of the country or did we alienate them? Without some local friends any return will be a lot harder than the first time.
mark46th
08-03-2012, 15:20
The closest I ever came to a firefight in Thailand was when we closed down one of the camps. Our counterparts locked and loaded when we started to load the air conditioners and pool table on a truck...
Inflexible Six
08-05-2012, 07:06
Daddy takes the T-Bird away...
When we left our counterparts standing on a paddy dike in Quang Nam Province there was not a one of us looking back at them out the ramp of that 46 who would have bet a nickle that things would not soon go to hell in a handbasket.
You can throw a billion dollars at them, you can shed buckets of blood, but the situation will regress--when you walk out the door--to the level of their original savagery or below...the only difference is now they have more guns. JMHFO.