Sunday, December 6, 2009

Raw materials ...

I've elaborated on the difficulties of trying to get Afghans to see themselves as "Afghans" (and not primarily part of their tribe Pashtuns, Tajiks, Turkmen, etc.) and turn them into a national army. What I didn't take into consideration was that, on top of all these "mindset problems", these guys love their dope too much:

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As someone who has spent time in Afghanistan, Howie pointed out that the thing that nobody seems to want to admit about Afghanistan is that it's not actually a country, its a bunch of tribes. And everybody's stoned --- their culture is organized around growing opium and they have the best hash in the world.

This is not a value judgment. It's just an observation of a strong, thousand year old culture and thinking US soldiers can change it in a "couple, three years" is so absurd you just know they aren't even remotely serious about doing it.

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We're doing nothing but wasting lives and money. Digby's money line is this:

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But hey, maybe that's what they've got the DEA doing over there. After all, it's been such a roaring success here in the US.

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If it's up to the DEA to change attitudes over there, we'll be in the Hindu Kush for another century.

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