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Lazy Afghanistan Army: Afghanistan’s Toking Troops Not Exactly Battle-Ready

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Segami Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-22-09 07:12 AM
Original message
Lazy Afghanistan Army: Afghanistan’s Toking Troops Not Exactly Battle-Ready
 
Run time: 06:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWWWotuUwd0
 
Posted on YouTube: December 11, 2009
By YouTube Member:
Views on YouTube: 0
 
Posted on DU: December 22, 2009
By DU Member: Segami
Views on DU: 964
 
Top NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal calls training local soldiers and cops “our main effort” in Afghanistan. But whipping recruits into shape is a whole lot harder when they’re stoned out of their minds.

“You walk into a whole squad of ANA smoking hashish. They don’t understand that the use of drugs, it effects the way that they accomplish their mission,” says one disgusted marine. “Soldiers come out without helmets, soldiers come out missing a lot of gear.”

Obviously, there are plenty of units that are more professional. But this isn’t the first time red-eyed Afghan troops have been caught on tape.



<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/video-afghanistans-toking-troops-not-exactly-battle-ready/>


<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/04/smoking-weed-ca/>


What the hell are we doing there?
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BakedAtAMileHigh Donating Member (900 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-22-09 07:15 AM
Response to Original message
1. Imperialism on Display: Afghans are not your children
it is called passive resistance.
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DrDan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-22-09 07:33 AM
Response to Original message
2. and the U.S. taxpayers are paying for all of this - ridiculous
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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-22-09 07:46 AM
Response to Original message
3. Lets play imagine.
Imagine the whole economy of the USA went to shit, not because the elites destroyed the economy with their own greed, but because other countries, e.g. Russia and China (just as an example) used the territory and people of the USA to fight a proxy war on behalf of Russian and China. Let's say some years after this war destroys the USA economy, China invades and places a Chinese puppet in nominal charge as US President (but everyone knows Beijing is calling the shots). Let's say Chinese advisers from the invading Chinese army are then placed in charge of training the shattered, de-moralised US army, now mainly comprised of out of work Americans trying to scratch together a few dollars to feed themselves and their families. These Chinese trainers are supposed to motivate and train the army to risk their lives to go fight rebelling US citizens hiding in the hills and backwoods who are resisting becoming part of the Chinese system being imposed on the country by the Chinese speaking, foreign invaders and their compliant US puppets/traitors. I think those Chinese trainers would probably have much the same experience as the US Army trainers in Afghanistan today.


Meet the Afghan Army Is It a Figment of Washington's Imagination?
By Ann Jones

The big Afghanistan debate in Washington is not over whether more troops are needed, but just who they should be: Americans or Afghans -- Us or Them. Having just spent time in Afghanistan seeing how things stand, I wouldn't bet on Them.

Frankly, I wouldn't bet on Us either. In eight years, American troops have worn out their welcome. Their very presence now incites opposition, but that's another story. It's Them -- the Afghans -- I want to talk about.

Afghans are Afghans. They have their own history, their own culture, their own habitual ways of thinking and behaving, all complicated by a modern experience of decades of war, displacement, abject poverty, and incessant meddling by foreign governments near and far -- of which the United States has been the most powerful and persistent. Afghans do not think or act like Americans. Yet Americans in power refuse to grasp that inconvenient point.

snip

Still, the new recruits turn out for training in the blistering heat in this stony desert landscape wearing, beneath their heavy uniforms, the smart red, green, and black warm-up outfits intended to encourage them to engage in off-duty exercise. American trainers recognize that recruits regularly wear all their gear at once for fear somebody will steal anything left behind in the barracks, but they take this overdressing as a sign of how much Afghans love the military. My own reading, based on my observations of Afghan life during the years I've spent in that country, is this: It's a sign of how little they trust one another, or the Americans who gave them the snazzy suits. I think it also indicates the obvious: that these impoverished men in a country without work have joined the Afghan National Army for what they can get out of it (and keep or sell) -- and that doesn't include democracy or glory.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175128/will_today_s_u_s_armed_ally_be_tomorrow_s_enemy_


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midnight Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-22-09 09:43 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. An interesting twist on reality.......
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Le Taz Hot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-22-09 08:05 AM
Response to Original message
4. During Viet Nam
both sides were loaded most of the time -- it's the only way they could stand what they had to endure.
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ClayZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-22-09 10:42 AM
Response to Original message
6. Yikes! K and R
What the hell are we doing there?
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sabrina 1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-22-09 12:25 PM
Response to Original message
7. Maybe we should be learning how to win wars from
Edited on Tue Dec-22-09 12:27 PM by sabrina 1
them. Have they ever been defeated? It's ironic that nine years later, Nato hasn't 'won' that war, and we are training them!

The arrogance is unbelievable.
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