Kunduz, IMHO, has shown us the future of Afghanistan. In an ethically mixed area of Afghanistan, a group that is largely Pashtu made significant inroads into the other ethic groups and methodically took 70% of the province before storming the city. How?
The majority if the security forces are the same infamous militias that were only recently implicated in abused like the rape of children, and rapes and other abuses were common Kunduz from these ill trained and often brutal 'security' forces. Even the best behaving groups came, usually one on top of another, and demanded money and other materials. Abuses went unpunished, and exploitation is rapid.
In sharp contrast, the Taliban collected a cut of the opium trade once per year and its agents acquired a reputation for fairness (often siding against larger ethic groups according to Islamic jurisprudence - the one thing that crosses ethnic lines in Afghanistan). The result was the continual run up to the inevitable.
Now, we and the Afghan Army have shot our way back into Kunduz. We['ve scattered the Taliban back to ... agh, just outside the city. The Taliban will simply shift forces to another front and apply pressure on a different point until the heat comes off ... and then head right back in.
There have been few acknowledgements of the grievances that drove the situation in Kunduz, and no talk whatsoever of replacing corrupt officials or reigning in and disciplining the daltia forces. The people accept the 'return of governance' under the umbrella of US Air Power and Special Forces lead Afghan forces - who will not remain indefinitely (going back to playing whack a mole with the Taliban who simply move to where we are not - recruiting a fresh group of fighters from the ill governed Pakistani Tribal belt to continuously feed the fight). As the forces shift, as the militias take hold again, as corruption seeps in again ...
This should not be.
We have the manpower advantage by a wide margin. We have a massive material and technology edge. We have better equipment, and more of it. We have better processes and tactics. We have every military advantage conceivable.
The ONLY advantage the Taliban have over us is that they are comparatively far less corrupt than the Afghan government.
And for some reason, that single advantage is enough to have us at a shaky stand still on the battlefield ...
We keep hearing about how we cannot change Afghan Culture, even as Afghan Culture is telling us it loathe the very things we are ignoring and not trying to change. Why we continue to empower corrupt and rapaciously brutal people and think this a state builds is ... baffling. You cannot bomb a people into accepting injustice, something we at least should have learned from the Russians before us.
The majority if the security forces are the same infamous militias that were only recently implicated in abused like the rape of children, and rapes and other abuses were common Kunduz from these ill trained and often brutal 'security' forces. Even the best behaving groups came, usually one on top of another, and demanded money and other materials. Abuses went unpunished, and exploitation is rapid.
In sharp contrast, the Taliban collected a cut of the opium trade once per year and its agents acquired a reputation for fairness (often siding against larger ethic groups according to Islamic jurisprudence - the one thing that crosses ethnic lines in Afghanistan). The result was the continual run up to the inevitable.
Now, we and the Afghan Army have shot our way back into Kunduz. We['ve scattered the Taliban back to ... agh, just outside the city. The Taliban will simply shift forces to another front and apply pressure on a different point until the heat comes off ... and then head right back in.
There have been few acknowledgements of the grievances that drove the situation in Kunduz, and no talk whatsoever of replacing corrupt officials or reigning in and disciplining the daltia forces. The people accept the 'return of governance' under the umbrella of US Air Power and Special Forces lead Afghan forces - who will not remain indefinitely (going back to playing whack a mole with the Taliban who simply move to where we are not - recruiting a fresh group of fighters from the ill governed Pakistani Tribal belt to continuously feed the fight). As the forces shift, as the militias take hold again, as corruption seeps in again ...
This should not be.
We have the manpower advantage by a wide margin. We have a massive material and technology edge. We have better equipment, and more of it. We have better processes and tactics. We have every military advantage conceivable.
The ONLY advantage the Taliban have over us is that they are comparatively far less corrupt than the Afghan government.
And for some reason, that single advantage is enough to have us at a shaky stand still on the battlefield ...
We keep hearing about how we cannot change Afghan Culture, even as Afghan Culture is telling us it loathe the very things we are ignoring and not trying to change. Why we continue to empower corrupt and rapaciously brutal people and think this a state builds is ... baffling. You cannot bomb a people into accepting injustice, something we at least should have learned from the Russians before us.