07.13.12
Aghanistanization
It’s a play on the old pejorative “Vietnamization,” the word for the failed strategy of propping up the old Army of the Republic of Vietnam with US air power while transferring the job of fighting the war to it.
Without US air, the Afghan toady army, like the ARVN, gets beat up.
US bombing always suppresses or removes the enemy, like removing a boulder blocking a road to nowhere.
“Asked how Afghan soldiers or police officers might manage a similar tactical problem in the same canyon, Commander Burks gave a knowing frown,” reads the Times. “I don’t know, but they’re not going to do this.???
And the Steve Aftergood’s Secrecy blog has recently posted a Congressional Research Report on Afghan Army casualties. It is here.
There are two important figures.
And the numbers, if reliable, on Afghan National military casualties.
One can only tell the national toady army and police force don’t bear the brunt of any fighting. When they do fight, they are more likely to die than US forces.
This may also indicate other problems.
The Afghan National army may, like the ARVN, be casualty and risk averse, reluctant to fight. And that when it fights, it loses.
It may also often be ambushed, in its barracks, at home or in the field. And that the handling of those blown up or shot is much less effective than US retrieval of combat casualties, meaning you are more likely to not survive if hit in the war.
Over ten years in Afghanistan and the US military cannot make a decent fighting force out of the locals dragooned to finish the war for an unpopular central government.
Surprise, surprise.