How long will it take to train an Afghan army?

[charles brough]

Perhaps ten, twenty years? I remember our troops had only three months training during WWII. They didn't desert en mass or pull back from battle. They weren't corrupt or sell their equipment. We did not have suicide bombers and spies among them . . .

So, why is it taking so long? Have any of you figured it out?

 

[Ringel05]

Afghanis are not Americans, completely different culture and mind set, it's still mostly a tribal society. As for training them, that's the easy part, instilling a national identity and a different set of values? Maybe in a hundred years, maybe never.

 

[syrenn]

We should not be training any army other then our own.

 

[Synthaholic]

We should not be training any army other then our own.

I agree!

 

[Sunni Man]

The Afghans soldiers are only there for a paycheck.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

It is a very different culture over there. One of the guys I was at school with last term spent two years as a trainer in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

It doesn't help that both sides have huge cultural confusions. Things we think of as minimal acceptable human relations standards are either incomprehensible or what they consider extremely rude.

And there just plain is no Afghan or Iraqi identity. Americans all see each others as part of the same group, despite all the weird ways we divide.

I am not even sure Iraq will survive as a unitary state. Maybe when the tribes get sorted they will do better.