I know I haven’t written much lately. That’s a lie….I’m writing, I’m just not posting. I’ve come to a point where I really wonder if anyone reads these things and if me spewing my rhetoric all over the internet is worthwhile. I kinda need to offer anyone who reads this a different perspective on what’s going on right now though.
I was part of an Embedded Training Team with the 201st Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) for most of the year 2006. I left Afghanistan in late November of that year. Within a year I had submitted my request for retirement and by November of 2008 I was officially retired with 20 years of service. Up until that deployment, I’d have sworn to you that I was staying for 30 years…after that deployment I was done. Those are the facts. Here’s the story behind the facts.
Fifteen years ago, I could have told you that exactly what’s happening today in Afghanistan was going to happen. As a matter of fact, there are a few guys who were there with me that can back that up…a couple of them have called me today.
Had we pulled out in 2010 it would have happened during the Obama administration. Had we pulled out in 2018 it would have happened during the Trump administration. As incompetent as I think President Biden is…you can’t blame him solely for the debacle that’s going on in Kabul. This was two decades in the making and destined to happen. Had we stayed until 2040 it would have happened then. The Taliban has been waiting, watching and planning this for 20 years.
When we were conducting our work-up training for that deployment we had some Afghan instructors that taught us a few words to use if we got in trouble and taught us a little about their culture. One guy in particular told us something that really stuck with me. He said “100 years to an American is a generation…100 years to an Afghan is merely a single grain of sand in an hourglass.” He went on to tell us about the threatening “Night Letters” that villagers find strewn about in the mornings that say things like “Remember…The Americans will leave some day but we’ll ALWAYS be here”.
I read everything I could get my hands on before that deployment. It became clear to me before I ever set foot on the plane to head that direction that these guys were playing the long game. By the time I boarded the plane to come back home, I was convinced that nobody in Washington understood that. Our government was playing checkers. The Taliban was playing chess.
We spent small fortunes building schools so children could be educated. We were training and equipping the Army so they could stand on their own. We were ensuring free elections and teaching them the benefits of a democratic society. We were trying to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. The Taliban understood that if they grab you by the throat, your hearts and minds will follow.
So….everyone’s talking about all the blood and money we spilled all over Afghanistan. What you’re probably not hearing is that due to our tax-payer funded equipping of the ANA, we have just armed the Taliban to the teeth. If you pay attention to the news clips coming out of the media, you’ll notice that you’ll see Taliban fighters sitting atop Humvees behind mounted machine guns. If you know anything about weaponry, you’ll notice that you’re seeing a lot more than cheaply made AK-47’s strapped across the backs of these guys. What you won’t see is the digital radio equipment, computers, routers and switches that serve as the backbone of a communications network comparable to anything our military would put in place. The ammunition stockpiles, the vehicles, the fuel stockpiles, the equipment, rations and battery supplies…not to mention the command posts, barracks and tactical operations centers we built across the country. The Taliban sat back for 20 years and watched. They watched while we built them an arsenal and facilities. They watched while we trained soldiers that they knew would swear allegiance to them the second our interest in the region disappeared.
It was pretty ingenious really. For a few years they fought pretty hard. Then for a decade they blew some things up and put on a show once in a while to keep the threat level up. As long as that threat level stayed high, we’d keep pouring money into the ANA. They sent their faithful to join the ANA and be trained for free. Then once they saw that there were enough toys in the box to suit their desires, they decided to talk peace for a while and make it seem like they were done fighting so we’d leave…which brings us to the events of this past week.
We just armed the Taliban to a degree that they’ve never been armed. These guys can make a roadside bomb out of a set of leaf springs and a 40-year-old Russian artillery warhead…and now they’ve got top of the line equipment and some pretty well-trained soldiers. Guess what…you paid for it all.
Anyone else tired of this shit yet? I mean….am I the only one tired of watching people with no tactical military experience, no notable foreign policy experience and not a whole lot of common sense making the decisions on where our money goes and how we react to the rest of the world?
We really need to stop putting “Checkers Players” in office. They put their checkers playing buddies in cabinet positions and appoint them to offices for which they have no experience. It’s come to the point where we’ve got a crew in there right now filled with the kids whose parents had to constantly tell them to stop putting the checkers in their mouth.
If we don’t get smart quick…well…we’re all going to be choking on checkers.