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| Afghanistan |
| Canada takes notes from failed Soviet war |
| 2008-07-12 |
| "The main reasons behind the fall of the pro-Moscow regime in Kabul were not defeat on the battlefield nor military superiority of the resistance but the regime's failure to achieve economic sustainability and its overreliance on foreign aid," says a document called Economic Development in Afghanistan during the Soviet Period 1979-1989: Lessons Learned from the Soviet Experience in Afghanistan. In fact, it says, the Soviets focused too much on security. "The emphasis on the security situation in Afghanistan compromised sound economic development during the period 1979-1989 ... The Afghan economy continued to be overly dependent on foreign aid. The study argues that without breaking this dependency, no long-term solution to stabilize Afghanistan is possible." The authors say Afghanistan should redevelop its petroleum wealth as part of the solution. "Revenues from the sale of natural gas were a substantial part of Afghan state income until 1986. The development of oil and natural gas industries has great potential to benefit the Afghan economy." Other lessons Defence researchers gleaned from the Soviet period include: -- "Successive battlefield victories do not guarantee strategic success." -- "Engaging and enfranchising local populations and power centres is of critical importance." -- "Building Afghan security forces is vital." |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #6 Anonymoose, I recognize you from 'back in the day' as the kids say. About the time I found the 'Burg on the internets, I was saying make that sh*thole a showcase but then the whole Iraq thang, and I'ma still hoping for a showcase, now in Iraq, to redirect the foul Izlamoids. So, whatever. Let's show the Religion of Peace our generosity or our fury. I just want them to process the message ASAP that they can never win. |
| Posted by: JDB 2008-07-12 23:42 |
| #5 Anonymoose has got it right here. The benighted souls in these countries have equal creation, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That they live in foul cultures, which deny these, is a horror that they must overcome. Perhaps with the slight help that we can offer, they will. |
| Posted by: rammer 2008-07-12 23:09 |
| #4 Muslims put jihad obligation over economic interests. When the Soviets invaded Central Asia's latrine, they posed grandiose development schemes. For Pashto Muslims then and now, emulation of and co-operation with the despised disbeliever (kaffir) is anathema. They only co-operate for the same reasons why the Soviet Union allied with the West in WW2. Taliban will stop fighting when there are no kaffirs in their filthy little country. We need to destroy the most dangerous sections, while partitioning the rest. Forget about the UAE and Cologne connections: 9-11 was made in Pashto, Afghanistan. We need to think of them as having the humanity of a cockroach. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-07-12 21:11 |
| #3 This is one of the big elements I suggested at the very onset of the Afghan campaign. Because the Afghan minimum wage is about $50 a month, we could have employed almost every unemployed man in the country. 1.67 million men for just $1B a year. We could have put this army of manpower to work rebuilding their country, buying every bit of food the farmers could grow to feed them, and sending their wages home for their families. Maybe $2B a year total, which by our standards is peanuts. They would be digging canals, preparing new land for farming, rebuilding entire towns, planting forests, mining mountain passes for professionals to pave as roads, and anything else we could think of. The women would be set up as town councils, with micro banks to create all sorts of small businesses as the family business for when the men returned home. Mandatory secular school for all children. The central government would be given a MacArthur constitution, in force without change for 10 years, and their government would be required to function to modern standards. Their courts would be Common Law, and no Sharia at all. All religious sermons would have to be approved by the government. Most of our soldiers would become a de facto border patrol, to keep out the Pakistanis. The first few years, western professionals would run the government while training Afghans to do their job. Then the Afghans would run the government while the westerners supervised, until they were confident that they knew every aspect of their job. Then the westerners would monitor them for another two years. Government employees would also cross train in other offices, so they could either move laterally or be competent in promotion. Yes, it is utterly authoritarian. And yes, after a decade or two, it would be fully functional, and the old ways would be dead and forgotten. Then we could leave, and no Pakistani could cross the border into Afghanistan without total supervision and control. Democracy would start from the bottom up, and it would be run by the women, not the men. Voting would be mandatory, at least until everybody understood how it worked. When we left, we could completely leave. Their economy would be so good that little or nothing would be left of the public works projects, as it would pay too little. Their economy would probably have a growth rate between 10-20%. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-07-12 20:51 |
| #2 Don't lets forget Islamabad, Cliting Panda8382. ;-) Good thinking by the Canadians. I didn't know that about Afghan petroleum -- I didn't realize they had any. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-07-12 18:18 |
| #1 Jihad is the controlling purpose of muslims. It cannot be stopped. If you launch limited war against them, you fail in the end. We need to wage the same war of de-conversion that they wage against us. I would start by dealing with Mecca, Medina, Karbala and Qom. Neutralize those jihad viral carriers, and you eliminate islam as an ideology. |
| Posted by: Cliting Panda8382 2008-07-12 18:10 |