Photos Afghan Armed Forces (Prior to 2021)

Seems they didn´t learn nothing from the Tadjik Civil War, Chechnya or Syria.... As soon RF get involved they will find an enemy that is going to fight without restrictions.

On Wednesday, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon during a telephone conversation assessed the situation on the border with Afghanistan as very tense, agreed to continue joint efforts to support the inter-Afghan dialogue and promote stability in the republic.

Uzbekistan also started military exercises near Afghan border.
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spotter by helicopter and attack by dronde?

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An Afghan military is in the badest situation now like the Soviets left from an Afghan '90s!

Iran is deploying additional military units to the border with Afghanistan amid the advance of the Taliban.
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All countries near an Afghan border scary and paranoid in an Afghan situation now!
 
All countries near an Afghan border scary and paranoid in an Afghan situation now!

Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan north of Afghanistan are Muslim and were secular for long time but now they have sectarian issues and also ethnic problems so the region is very unstable.
 
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Frankly, I find myself increasingly irritated by the headlines which maps like the ones above prompt in Western media. Most commentators engage in what Popper described as the 'poverty of historicism', resigning themselves to the fallacy that history repeats itself ("graveyard of empires"). Our strategy, they say, was "naïve". Was it, though? Let's not confound sugary soundbites intended for the press with official strategy.

But enough of "our" mistakes for a change, how about we look at what the Afghans should've been able to achieve over the past twenty years (according to historical precedent?). In the West they try to avoid that very discussion because it would inevitably draw accusations of a neo-colonialist or even racist mindset, simply due to the answer being: The Afghans failed themselves.

The Afghan people suffers from debilitating structural deficiencies which are all but self-inflicted. How could external influence possibly make a difference in a country where those in charge of protecting it constantly embezzle their subordinates‘ salaries or refuse to cooperate with one another because of their tribal affiliations? And these are far from being the only issues.

I know a couple of people who were involved in ANSF recruit training; they likened their experience to having to deal with toddlers. But even the average Afghan officer can't be trusted to grasp basic concepts of professional conduct (like punctuality, i.e. appreciating the necessity to show up in time for a planned operation). The special forces kandaks seem to be the only dependable force over there.

Foreigners invested blood, sweat and truckloads of money into Afghanistan's future. What investments were made by the locals? None – at least not collectively. That's because there is no collective. The Taliban are not smarter, more courageous or better equipped; the main difference between them and their domestic opponents is the former have the cohesion of which the latter are in desperately short supply.

So, we don't have to talk about Vietnam or even the Soviet-Afghan War all the time. ISAF neither repeated America's Vietnam-era mistakes, nor did it replicate the Soviet strategy of wiping every insurgent village off the map, creating a river of blood that swept the entire country into resisting them. The cardinal error made by NATO – the failure no one talks about – was not assuming political control.

Nation-building can work and has worked before. But it requires dependable institutions. If the country in question is unable to provide such institutions, they must be provided by outsiders – particularly if said outsiders are perceived as being the ones actually in charge. (The Hague Conventions actually charge an occupying force with establishing an effective civil administration, by the way.)

And no, I'm not thinking of post-war Germany or Japan, in case you're wondering. You needn't look no further than Bosnia to get a glimpse of a modus operandi that might've yielded a better outcome. But Bosnia, that was the 1990's. The Bush'esque pathos of "enduring freedom" hadn't crept into the decision-making process yet.

P.S.: Forgetting to mind the time, I ended up converting a tuna pizza into charcoal whilst writing this comment. This had better be worth it.
 
Women's uprising against the Taleban in Ghor province
Dozens of women in Ghor province have taken up arms against the Taliban today, saying they are defending their land.
womenafghan4.webp
womenafghan3.webp
womenafghan2.webp
womenafghan1.webp


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Nation-building can work and has worked before.
0h, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
 
Taliban conquer Zurmat district in Paktika city
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Frankly, I find myself increasingly irritated by the headlines which maps like the ones above prompt in Western media. Most commentators engage in what Popper described as the 'poverty of historicism', resigning themselves to the fallacy that history repeats itself ("graveyard of empires"). Our strategy, they say, was "naïve". Was it, though? Let's not confound sugary soundbites intended for the press with official strategy.

But enough of "our" mistakes for a change, how about we look at what the Afghans should've been able to achieve over the past twenty years (according to historical precedent?). In the West they try to avoid that very discussion because it would inevitably draw accusations of a neo-colonialist or even racist mindset, simply due to the answer being: The Afghans failed themselves.

The Afghan people suffers from debilitating structural deficiencies which are all but self-inflicted. How could external influence possibly make a difference in a country where those in charge of protecting it constantly embezzle their subordinates‘ salaries or refuse to cooperate with one another because of their tribal affiliations? And these are far from being the only issues.

I know a couple of people who were involved in ANSF recruit training; they likened their experience to having to deal with toddlers. But even the average Afghan officer can't be trusted to grasp basic concepts of professional conduct (like punctuality, i.e. appreciating the necessity to show up in time for a planned operation). The special forces kandaks seem to be the only dependable force over there.

Foreigners invested blood, sweat and truckloads of money into Afghanistan's future. What investments were made by the locals? None – at least not collectively. That's because there is no collective. The Taliban are not smarter, more courageous or better equipped; the main difference between them and their domestic opponents is the former have the cohesion of which the latter are in desperately short supply.

So, we don't have to talk about Vietnam or even the Soviet-Afghan War all the time. ISAF neither repeated America's Vietnam-era mistakes, nor did it replicate the Soviet strategy of wiping every insurgent village off the map, creating a river of blood that swept the entire country into resisting them. The cardinal error made by NATO – the failure no one talks about – was not assuming political control.

Nation-building can work and has worked before. But it requires dependable institutions. If the country in question is unable to provide such institutions, they must be provided by outsiders – particularly if said outsiders are perceived as being the ones actually in charge. (The Hague Conventions actually charge an occupying force with establishing an effective civil administration, by the way.)

And no, I'm not thinking of post-war Germany or Japan, in case you're wondering. You needn't look no further than Bosnia to get a glimpse of a modus operandi that might've yielded a better outcome. But Bosnia, that was the 1990's. The Bush'esque pathos of "enduring freedom" hadn't crept into the decision-making process yet.

P.S.: Forgetting to mind the time, I ended up converting a tuna pizza into charcoal whilst writing this comment. This had better be worth it.

"....I ended up converting a tuna pizza into charcoal whilst writing this comment..."

P.S. We did you a favor....that sounds terrible, a Tuna Pizza--YUCK, no one eats a Tuna Pizza mate!!
 
0h, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
Well, how about Japan, Cambodia or East Timor? Even the Solomon Islands could tentatively be regarded as a success of nation building efforts, thanks to the Australian intervention there.
"....I ended up converting a tuna pizza into charcoal whilst writing this comment..."

P.S. We did you a favor....that sounds terrible, a Tuna Pizza--YUCK, no one eats a Tuna Pizza mate!!
Get out of my sight, you vulgar peasant.
 
They did become stable nations capable of offering their citizens a better future, though. No one meant for Afghanistan to become a "western" country, latte and all. The incredulity with which the notion of turning Afghanistan into a democracy has been met is somewhat undeserved. Tribal societies are generally proto-democratic in that would-be leaders need to amass a following and maintain its support.

Other Western values are more incompatible with the Afghan culture, but if you look at Afghanistan's constitution you'll find that very few of Bush's visions for that country made it into the final version. And those that survived have actually not been unheard-of in Afghanistan either, being copied from the constitution of 1964.

Constituting Afghanistan as a presidential republic was the bigger mistake. A parliamentary federation would've been a more natural choice, or perhaps even a loose confederacy in which tribal states would settle their matters autonomously. Only 40% of the Afghans are Pashtuns, the traditional recruitment pool of Taliban. The fact that 40% can dominate the other 60% is very telling.
 
Beijing has held talks with the Taliban and although details of the discussions have been kept secret, government officials, diplomats and analysts from Afghanistan, India, China and the US said that crucial aspects of a broad strategy were taking shape.
An Indian government official said China’s approach was to try to rebuild Afghanistan’s shattered infrastructure in co-operation with the Taliban by channelling funds through Pakistan, one of Beijing’s firmest allies in the region.
 
Beijing has held talks with the Taliban and although details of the discussions have been kept secret, government officials, diplomats and analysts from Afghanistan, India, China and the US said that crucial aspects of a broad strategy were taking shape.
An Indian government official said China’s approach was to try to rebuild Afghanistan’s shattered infrastructure in co-operation with the Taliban by channelling funds through Pakistan, one of Beijing’s firmest allies in the region.

Not even the Talibans care about the Uighurs?
 

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