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2009-02-01 Afghanistan
US begins program to train and arm villagers to fight Taliban
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Posted by trailing wife  2009-02-01 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11138 views ]  Top

#1 so what is the over/under that this turns into

US begins program to train and arm villagers to fight join Taliban?
Posted by Abu do you love">Abu do you love  2009-02-01 00:51||   2009-02-01 00:51|| Front Page Top

#2 I am glad the messiah came along...I would have never have thought of it
Posted by Bill Uneang8288 2009-02-01 01:09||   2009-02-01 01:09|| Front Page Top

#3 I wonder if the next step will be to announce the "strategic hamlet" program? CIDG revisited, +40 years.

As far as I know, every village in Afghanistan has always been armed to the teeth, and village boys have always been trained to wage war as soon as they can walk.

Warfare has actually been a prime form of conducting routine business in Afghanistan, virtually forever. The way to harness the warrior spirit and turn it to productive pursuits is to frame "security" activities into the context of profitable business.

And - the benchmark ti beat is the profitability of opium/heroin production and smuggling.

Good luck with re-channeling such efforts.
Posted by Lone Ranger 2009-02-01 01:54||   2009-02-01 01:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Actually the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) program worked pretty well in Southeast Asia until NVA regulars moved south and things became a bit more conventional. In 2001 elements of US Army Special Forces were used somewhat clandestinely in Operation Enduring Freedom (AFIE) in the Afghan Northern Alliance. General Dostum was quite proud of his advisors. Photo at link here.
Posted by Besoeker 2009-02-01 08:33||   2009-02-01 08:33|| Front Page Top

#5 As far as I know, every village in Afghanistan has always been armed to the teeth, and village boys have always been trained to wage war as soon as they can walk.

Who are routinely chewed up and spit out by professional soldiers. This 'warrior' from birth mythology works when they fight each other or draftees/conscripts or chop up women, but falls flat on its face when primitive warfare meets modern warfare.
Posted by Procopius2k 2009-02-01 09:04||   2009-02-01 09:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Actually the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) program worked pretty well in Southeast Asia until NVA regulars moved south and things became a bit more conventional.

I don't argue the direct point - but the failure of the CIDG program in Vietnam was ultimately because the people in the villages really did not identify with the SVN government. This is the same problem that exists in Afghanistan - there is no central government for which the villages have any respect - or with which they can identify. There is no national identity outside of Kabul.

This 'warrior' from birth mythology works when they fight each other

But - they will be fighting each other - the Taliban are basically the same as they are.

Afghanistan is a waste of blood and treasure. It will be three orders of magnitude more difficult to stabilize than was Iraq - perhaps one order of magnitude tougher than Somalia. Draw a line from those starting points - and get the hell out of Afghanistan.
Posted by Lone Ranger 2009-02-01 09:24||   2009-02-01 09:24|| Front Page Top

#7 isn't this part of how the taliban started. the US trained ppl the mujahadeen too fight the soviets then a few years later the ISI turns alot of them into the taliban movemenet. And i believe they all have weapons so why are we gonna pour more of them into the area when the pakistanis can't even keep aid and supplies too ANTO safe
Posted by rabid whitetail 2009-02-01 11:03||   2009-02-01 11:03|| Front Page Top

#8 
Link modified because the article led to this. Either the AP re-used the link, screwed up, or blind-sided everyone (same mis-directed article shows up at other news sites).
Posted by Pappy 2009-02-01 12:25||   2009-02-01 12:25|| Front Page Top

#9 rw, no, that is not how the Taliban got started. They were a bunch of kids in Pakistani madrassahs armed by the Paks and sent to Afghanistan to take control of the civil war.
Posted by Mike N. 2009-02-01 12:33||   2009-02-01 12:33|| Front Page Top

#10 isn't this part of how the taliban started. the US trained ppl the mujahadeen too fight the soviets then a few years later the ISI turns alot of them into the taliban movemenet.

Not exactly. The Taliban originally was formed from the refugees who fled the Soviets, then both went into religious studies and efforts to form a resistance group. It's probably more correct to say the Taliban were formed and trained from the religious elements of these refugees by the ISI, with funding from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The problem is not so much the training as it is ensuring the indigenous defense forces have proper backup and supervision.

Arming villagers, giving them minimal training and then leaving them to fend for themselves is a good way to either get them killed off or subject to Taliban pressure. The Pakistanis have been masters of that with their own people in the northwestern territories.
Posted by Pappy 2009-02-01 12:39||   2009-02-01 12:39|| Front Page Top

#11 See also PAKISTAMI DEFENCE FORUMS > SIR JOCK STIRRUP: NOT EVEN A SURGE WILL DEFEAT THE TALIBAN [best ultimately for US-NATO/Allies to dev a strong and prosperous local Govt].; + INDIA LAGS BEHIND PAKISTAN IN [strategic BM]MISSLES. INDIA has only the "PRIVTHI" SHORT-RANGE STRATMISS???;

* SAME > INDIA > NEPAL RECLAIMS LANDS FROM INDIA [100,000-KM **2 in VARIOUS INDIAN STATES LOST DURING ANGLO-NEPALESE WARS + Treaty of 1816, etc.] + INDIA'S BJP WILL CARRY OUT MILITARY SURGICAL STRIKES AGZ MILITANT-TERROR CAMPS INSIDE PAKISTAN AS NEEDED IFF NDA GOVT WON'T, + HINDU EXTREMIST GROUP SRI RAM SENE CLAIMS PRO-INDIA/INDIAN ARMY SUICIDE BOMBERS ARE READY TO LAUNCH ATTACKS AGZ MUSLIMS!?

* SAME > TARGET PAKISTAN: WAHINGTON'S NEXT WAR
[Undeclared] MAY HAD ALREADY STARTED?, by Order of now-former POTUS Dubya last 9-11-2008 [MYT]???
+ GLOBALRESEARCH.CA - CONTROL OF THE WORLD'S OCEANS: A PRELUDE [Catalyst] FOR WAR? THE PROLIFERATION SECURITY INITIATIVE (PSI)AND THE US 1000-SHIP NAVY [OWG-Global Multi-Mation "Task Force"]???
Posted by JosephMendiola 2009-02-01 20:07||   2009-02-01 20:07|| Front Page Top

#12 CAFGU forces is standard procedure to help villages defend themselves. This is not really news, it's standard FID procedures.
Posted by 49 Pan 2009-02-01 22:55||   2009-02-01 22:55|| Front Page Top

23:55 eltoroverde
23:29 gorb
23:24 Glenmore
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