Another Way Afghanistan Resembles Vietnam - Drugs

[unhappycamper]

Afghanistan’s Other Battle
By Yochi J. Dreazen
Friday, December 3, 2010 | 11:15 a.m.

MUSHAN, Afghanistan—Early one morning last month, U.S. troops manning a sandbagged position on the top of a small military base here spotted a pair of Afghan soldiers trying to smuggle an 8-foot-high poppy plant onto their side of the shared compound. American soldiers confiscated and destroyed the plant, but the incident infuriated Army Capt. Chris Watson, the base’s commander.

“Listen to me carefully: This is the last time we’re going to have the hashish conversation,” Watson told one of the Afghan commanders at the base. “This is the third time today we’ve seen your men with drugs. They will not, because they’re f—ing high, keep endangering my soldiers.”

~snip~

American commanders in Kabul say that the Afghan army and police are on pace to hit their growth targets months ahead of schedule, a rare bit of good news for the broader war effort. Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who runs NATO’s training mission, said in a recent interview that better-than-expected recruiting and declining rates of attrition mean that Afghanistan’s security forces should grow to 305,000 before the October 31, 2011, deadline. That could make it easier for the U.S.-led coalition to begin handing security responsibility for certain areas of the country to Afghan control early next year, meeting the deadline set out by Gen. David Petraeus, the top allied war commander.

Yet even if the platoons are well stocked, are they up to the task? The United States and its allies have spent more than $27 billion to recruit and train Afghan security personnel since 2002—roughly half of all the money earmarked for rebuilding the nation after decades of conflict—and they plan to spend about $20 billion more on the effort. But the Afghan forces have yet to develop into reliable allies. Attrition levels within the Afghan army units fighting in southern provinces like Kandahar sometimes hit 45 percent, almost double the rate for the army as a whole. NATO officials say that fewer than one in five new Afghan soldiers or police officers can read, and the State Department reported earlier this year that about 41 percent of the police recruits in regional training centers had tested positive for illicit drugs.

~snip~

The continued battlefield failings of the Afghan troops are giving U.S. soldiers in Mushan a newfound sense of respect for the Taliban, a disciplined and tactically proficient force that fights relentlessly. “Maybe this country needs the Taliban,” Staff Sgt. Brandon Cole said one afternoon, shaking his head. “They’re much, much better than the (Afghan national army).”




unhappycamper comment: Many of my Brothers and Sisters came back from Vietnam with a drug habit. :(

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

[w8liftinglady]

2. considering poppies are a huge cash crop there-I doubt this is the end of it

Heroin would be an easily abused drug,because it numbs the pain.

If meth ever starts over there,they better build wings onto the VA

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I don't think meth generally starts where there is easy

availability of other drugs. It's usually a "drug of last choice." Especially in a war zone, I think heroin would be the preferred drug because it releases you from worry, guilt, tec., while amphetamine-like drugs are more associated with paranoia and anxiety.