Training the Afghan armed forces

By ⋅ November 30, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
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Afghan National Army soldiers (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

The US strategy in Afghanistan includes a deadline: 2014. The Americans want to turn over security to Afghan forces by then. To do that, the US will have to train enough Afghan recruits to do the job. And the training has not gone well. Just yesterday, an Afghan border policeman killed six American service members during a training mission. The World’s Ben Gilbert was recently embedded with US troops who are “partnered” with Afghan army units in Kandahar. Download MP3

Discussion

One comment for “Training the Afghan armed forces”

  • John Hopkins

    It’s amazing to me that Mr. Gilbert would not understand why it would be inappropriate to take photos of these men being disciplined. If you consider the fact that these men choose to become part of this military not out of true choice but because it is the best of a few very undesirable choices it becomes really clear that it would be humiliating to made to crawl through the dirt or stand on your hands. To have someone then document this humiliation, seemingly with no consideration for the subjects, is understandably frustrating.

    This is an extension of the cultural insensitivity that will doom us to fail in all our international affairs as long as we continue it. Just because we do things one way doesn’t mean that others will do it the same way, or even interpret it the same way. I would expect that this would be taught in Journalism 101.