Set To Go

Nine long years of trying to pacify a population comprised of Pashtun warriors invested in violent religious fundamentalist priorities, to retake Afghanistan as Pakistan envisaged when it formed, trained and armed the Taliban, is enough for war-weary Westerners. Besides, politics in Muslim countries of the world is too complex, erratic and morale-stifling for people not having been immersed in that kind of exotica since birth. This is the enigma that puzzles even successfully seasoned riddle-solvers.

So, it didn't prove as palatable to the vast majority of Afghan's people as thought, to bring them onside. To build schools and health clinics and the kind of civic infrastructure that never existed before, for a population that needs it, but a government that doesn't quite value it as they should, else it would all have been in place beforehand. The hearts and minds scenario simply didn't pan out. Now the emphasis is on producing a reliably competent Afghan National Army.

So everyone else can get the hell out of that Gehenna. Horrible, come to think of it, to leave the women to their fate. Desperate to be seen as equals; at the very least as human beings deserving of decent treatment by their menfolk, the girls to be educated and not seen as future breeders before they're out of adolescence. But the Taliban now control an awful lot of the country outside the capital. And they're intent on burning schools and throwing acid in the faces of children, and tormenting women.

And the Afghan men? Well, the police continue their honoured traditions of corruption for this is their heritage in living colour. Besides which, they take their direction from the government itself and all its bureaucratic administrators. That too is tradition and heritage, and a proud culture of self-availment. What's really been going on while NATO commanders boast of the Afghan National Army shaping up and beginning to take control?

Well, naught. As in they're definitely, truthfully, not. Lacking a sense of order and responsibility. No commitment, little interest. Kind of laid back, y'know? All those enterprisingly useful battlefield actions said to have been led by the ANA? A myth, an attempt to build some pride into an army that prefers its lackadaisical pace to that of a self-respecting professional army.

Acting independently without international guidance? Not yet. Perhaps not ever. Not enough of them, in any event, another 60,000 required, and a real need to beef up the contingent of Afghan non-commissioned officers, who have an idea of what should be transpiring, and how to convince their troops in the manner in which they should be behaving.

Meanwhile, the Afghan National Army doesn't take to army rations. They like their food just so, freshly prepared and right on time. Out on a manoeuvre? Well, it takes second place to din-din. Mysterious absences from the ranks? Well, they had prior commitments. Reconstruction of an important bridge, assigned to the Afghan National Army? Well, there were a few Afghan soldiers sitting around while NATO troops did the work.

There are a few un-tribal things that the AFN isn't fond of, and in fact will not engage in. Like patrolling at night, because, damn, you're vulnerable, anything could happen, step on an IED, be confronted by a Taliban fighter. Better the NATO types do that kind of thing. March in the midday heat? Are you crazy, that's for mad dogs and Englishmen, not Afghan soldiers.

Haul their own kit? Come on, what're the Gurkha Rifles for?