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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.