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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a conflict in possession of no military solution must be in want of more troops. Or so one would think from the recommendations on how to succeed in Afghanistan made by Gen. John Nicholson, the force commander in Afghanistan; Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of Central Command; and Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. More troops with greater authorities will break or end the stalemate that all agree exists. Greater authorities means putting U.S. troops back in direct combat with the Taliban and authorizing them to risk killing more Afghan civilians.

More troops may shift the terms of the stalemate slightly and make it last longer, though it will probably last as long as the United States wants to pay for it. With or without more troops, under the present strategy, the U.S. commitment would have to be eternal, because it does nothing to mitigate the geopolitical conditions that created an enabling environment for global terrorism in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and which can be addressed only by political means. Terrorism is not caused by the existence of terrorists, and killing terrorists does not eradicate terrorism. The United States may define counterterrorism as its core interest in the region, but both those we label terrorists and those fighting them have political objectives rooted in the history of their societies. The Taliban were a product of the decades-long collapse of the Afghan state under the pressure of Cold War and regional rivalries. Al Qaeda, a product of the Arab world, developed in the ungoverned space created by war and support for, first, Afghan mujahidin fighting the Soviet Union and then the Taliban. The Islamic State, a product of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, has gained a foothold in Afghanistan by exploiting these same conditions.

Afghanistan has not been able to recover from the collapse of its state triggered by the 1979 Soviet-Afghan war, because the conflicts and shaky governments that followed could not address the core problem: Afghanistan is a landlocked state whose economy, ranked 172 out of 184 countries in gross domestic product per capita by the International Monetary Fund, cannot pay the cost of governing or defending a population scattered in enclaves separated by deserts and mountains. Since its demarcation in its current borders by the British and Russian empires at the end of the nineteenth century, the Afghan state has needed foreign subsidies to survive, and foreign subsidiesand troop deploymentsextend the reach of the power that provides them, regardless of its stated objectives.

When a foreign power, whether British Empire, the Soviet Union, or the United States, supports a state and its army, its enemies and rivals may feel threatened. Afghanistan was stable, first, when the British and Russian empires agreed that the British would subsidize a strong centralized state; that this state would submit to British control of its foreign relations; and that the two great powers would not use Afghanistan to challenge each others spheres of influence in Persia (Iran), Bukhara (Central Asia) and India. During the first half of the Cold War, the United States and USSR, despite their global antagonism, worked out a modus vivendi in Afghanistan, under which each supported different sectors of the state and worked in different areas of the country. It was not difficult to maintain this agreement as long as the stakes in Afghanistan were relatively small.

That Afghanistan is landlocked has two additional consequences. First, support for Afghanistan by an offshore power like the United States requires the cooperation of neighbors with direct access to international waters or airspace, in this case Pakistan, Iran or Russia, which controls offshore access to Central Asia. Second, growth of Afghanistans economy requires cooperation with those and other neighbors for access to international investments and markets.

Given current U.S. relations with Iran and Russia, U.S. access to Afghanistan depends on the cooperation of Pakistan. That dependence is no less real for being problematic: Pakistan provides a safe haven for the Afghan Taliban leadership to pressure the United States and the Afghan government over the Indian presence in Afghanistan and Afghan claims on Pakistani territory. Many U.S. and Afghan analysts argue that pressure on Pakistan to abandon the Afghan Taliban is the solution to the Afghan conflict. As long as U.S. forces and personnel are in Afghanistan, however, U.S. logistical dependence on Pakistan places limits on how much Washington, DC can pressure Islamabad, Measures like sanctions, designation as a state sponsor of terror, cross-border attacks, or cancellation of bilateral assistance could lead Islamabad to cut U.S. supply lines. As long as U.S. relations with Russia and Iran preclude transit through those countries, the United States is stuck with Pakistan.

When Pakistan closed the military supply lines after a series of incidents in 2011, the United States supplied its forces in Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia. It cannot do so now, and transit through Iran remains impossible. Pakistan is also better situated to resist U.S. unilateral pressure than before. As a result of Chinese construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) linking Chinas western Xinjiang province to the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, Pakistan and China are closer than ever. China does not support Pakistans policy of sheltering the Taliban and would like to help the United States stabilize Afghanistan, but not through a confrontation with Pakistan. Russia and Iran have also grown closer to Pakistan as Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has strengthened ties with the United States.

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America Can't Terror-Proof Afghanistan - The National Interest Online

The American dream is coming true for a young Afghan man and his family. But, it came with a high price.

Anne Allred, KSDK 10:26 PM. CDT March 22, 2017

HaseebAhmadi

The American dream is coming true for a 26-year-old Afghan man and his family.

Haseeb Ahmadi, his wife and 18-month-old daughter landed at Lambert Airport to begin a new life in the United States.

Ahmadi worked as a translator helping some local U.S. Marines communicate with the Afghan Army they were aiding in Afghanistan in 2014. It was a job that put Ahmadi on the Talibans hit list.

The minute you start working with U.S. forces, the Taliban will put a hit out on you in the tribe where you came from, said retired Gunnery Sgt., Hugh Tychsen.

Everybody knows you, so you cant ever go back to that tribe, continued Tychsen.

Tychsen, a Ladue resident, saidAhmadi was invaluable during the operation.

He can read the body language in the room in Afghanistan and if something is about to happen, hell let you know, Tychsen said.

When the Marines pulled out of Helmand Province in 2014, Ahmadi was forced into hiding for the next three years to avoid the Taliban.

During that same three years, Tychsen was working to sponsor Ahmadi for a U.S. Visa so he could come to St. Louis permanently.

I feel like we owe it to him to make sure hes safe. Hes the kind of guy you can trust your life with, he said. In mid-March, Ahmadi officially began calling St. Louis his new home.

I feel like I left my family there but now I have a new family. I am very happy here, said Ahmadi.

The International Institute of Saint Louis is providing Ahmadi with an apartment. In 30 to 60 days he will have a Social Security card and will be able to start applying for jobs.Ahmadi says his goals are simple. He wants to save a little money, buy a car and maybe one day, a home.

He doesnt want to come here and get a free meal," Tychsen said. "He wants to work hard, he just wants freedom and safety for his kids and his family.

2017 KSDK-TV

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American dream coming true for military translator from Afghanistan - KSDK.com

In the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Defense Department sent two teams of Army Special Forces soldiers to Afghanistan to bring down the Taliban.

But the two didn't know about each other, and though each team's story became a book, they've been brought together for the first time in "Legion of Brothers," a documentaryproduced by CNN Films along with journalist Peter Bergen and documentarian Tresha Mabile.

"All these years, weve become so compartmented because the wars continued. We didnt know each others stories," retired Master Sgt. Scott Neil said Wednesday evening at a screening of the film in Washington, D.C. "I was amazed every time I would hear another teams stories about the things they did."

Using personal photos and video from the deployment, blended with group and individual interviews of the former members of 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group and their wives, director Greg Barker brought together the stories of Operational Detachment Alpha 574 and ODA 595.

Production began back in 2015 and, the retired Green Berets said, the opportunity to participate came just at the right time.

"Our entire team was nearing retirement, and we knew they were going to complete their time on active service," said retired Maj. Mark Nutsch, team leader of ODA 595 in the fall of 2001.

"For the American people to understand, kind of, how we went out on our mission that was extended for weeks and months," he said, adding that they did it all without body armor or tactical vehicles, living with Afghan partners and following an Afghan plan.

Nutsch's team, who became known as the " horse soldiers" because of their old-school transportation, was in charge of leading the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan to unite against Taliban rule.

Green Berets from 5th Special Forces Group were among the first to deploy to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Some of them rode into battle on horseback alongside fighters from the Northern Alliance. Photo Credit: Army Meanwhile, in the south, retired Lt. Col. Jason Amerine led ODA 574, which was tasked with guarding future Afghan president Hamid Karzai as he coordinated his Pashtun allies to bring down the Taliban in their Kandahar stronghold.

The campaign was considered a stunning victory a couple dozen guys in their early 30s taking down a brutal regime with a tragic end.

On the morning before the Taliban surrendered, an Air Force bomber accidentally dropped a joint direct attack munition on ODA 574's position outside the city.

"Everyone I've ever led in combat has been killed or wounded," Amerine said in the film.

Master Sgt. J.D. Davis was killed immediately in the blast, while Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory died of his injuries later that day.

An investigation later found that the Air Force joint tactical air controller attached to the unit had accidentally calibrated his equipment with his own coordinates rather than those of the target ordered by battalion commander Lt. Col. David Fox.

"What makes it so personal, and really kind of sinks its claws in me, is that we had two friendly fires within a week of each other caused by headquarters bombing themselves, that never should have been calling in airstrikes," Amerine told Army Times.

Hamid Karzai, center, who would go on to be the president of Afghanistan, stands with members of 5th Special Forces Group's Operational Detachment Alpha 572 during the early days of the war. Photo Credit: Army The Green Berets theorized in the documentary that Fox wanted to bomb a suspicious looking cave that day, hours before the Taliban were due to surrender, to score himself points as a battlefield commander. "It's something that I'll take to my grave with me," Fox said in the documentary.

Lessons, not learned

"I think we did make it look too easy," Amerine said in the film.

Asked after the screening what went wrong in the ensuing 14 years of combat deployments to Afghanistan, the retired officer said there was a failure to debrief.

"Fifth Group never captured the lessons learned. We never did the, 'What should we sustain? What should we improve?'" he said. "What was amazing was the organization worked, the training worked, the organizational culture worked."

But once they got home, the team was quickly spun up again to help with the Iraq invasion while "big Army" sent brigades into Afghanistan.

The plan was to "cordon off Baghdad and train up some guerrilla forces to take Baghdad in a couple months," Amerine added. "There were insane things that, to me, showed that people really didnt get what went on in Afghanistan."

The reason it worked early on, the men said, was because they worked with Afghan leaders and, essentially, helped them execute their own home-grown plan.

"All of that was forgotten and kind of left behind, and that was kind of the tragedy of what followed," Amerine said. "When big Army came in, 5thGroup picked up and went to Iraq. All of our relationships were lost. They had to reinvent the wheel."

Now, the Army is reaching back to those legendary ODAs for their wisdom. A year and a half ago, Nutsch and retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 Bob Pennington, an ODA 574 veteran, visited 5th Group to talk about the current conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

"The teams now are a lot younger than we were at that time ... but that doesnt take away from how good those guys are on the battlefield and what they can do, especially when they work with the indigenous forces and apply all the knowledge that theyve learned in all the schools that we actually produce," Pennington said.

Army special operators confer with Afghan chieftains and resistance fighters during the early days of the war in Afghanistan. Beginning Oct. 19, 2001, 12-man Special Forces detachments from 5th Special Forces Group began arriving in Afghanistan in the middle of the night. Photo Credit: Army The men were once again reminded of the operation late last year, when retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the defense secretary.

When the JDAM hit ODA 574 on the morning of Dec. 5, 2001, the closest medevac support was 45 minutes away at Camp Rhino, a forward operating base in Afghanistan, where then-Brig. Gen. Mattis was in charge of more than 1,000 Marines.

Mattis, according to reports, declined to send help because, at the time, no one knew that it was a friendly bomb and he opted not to risk his men in the midst of what could have been an enemy attack.

The story of the attack and the aftermath is recounted extensively in the book " The Only Thing Worth Dying For," by Eric Blehm, which was published in 2011.

In the meantime, Petithory succumbed to his injuries before an Air Force medevac arrived hours after the attack. That decision still doesn't sit well with Amerine.

"Everyone involved in both sets of decision making, basically, was selected for promotion," he said. "The guys that killed my men became generals."

"A lot of careers, in my opinion, should have ended over a lot of the things that went on in 01," he said. "It felt to me like in 01, we really didnt want to acknowledge heroism, and we didnt want to acknowledge the cowards. The awards we put in for our guys for valor were all downgraded."

Others came to Mattis' defense, citing the chaos and short-order planning at the time.

"Commanders, Im sure, would like a do-over. No doubt," Nutsch said. "I hope these other commanders have learned their lesson, and I hope some of these mistakes arent repeated again."

"Legion of Brothers" is set for a limited release over Memorial Day weekend. It will air on CNN this fall, Barker added, before going to Hulu.

Link:
Green Berets who liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban tell their stories in new documentary - ArmyTimes.com

Suicide Bomber in Afghanistan Rams Car at Militia Base, Officials Say New York Times KANDAHAR, Afghanistan At least four and possibly as many as 14 members of a militia belonging to the Afghan intelligence agency were killed in a suicide car bombing at their base in the southern province of Helmand, Afghan officials said on Tuesday. and more »

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Suicide Bomber in Afghanistan Rams Car at Militia Base, Officials Say - New York Times

Second vice president said 64 percent of people in Afghanistan over the age of 15 are illiterate and that the country needs to fight this phenomenon.

Mohammad Sarwar Danish, Second Vice President said on Thursday that the high illiteracy rate in the country was terrible and that many of the countrys problems are rooted in this.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the start of the new school year, Danish said: 64 percent of people (in Afghanistan) over the age of 15 are illiterate.

He said the country needs to fight this phenomenon but added that people were now sending their children to school.

In addition, despite enormous achievements having been made in the education sector in the past 15 years, there are still problems in the sector, Danish said.

He said this year, one million new students would start school, of which 43 percent of them are girls.

He said however that insecurity is a key challenge for the education sector in the country and because of this, thousands of students drop out annually.

He pointed out that the increase in violence against women could also be linked to extremism and to those who are uneducated.

He claims the lack of proper school buildings in the country is also a problem.

Danish said security forces are determined to re-open schools in insecure parts of the country and also called on the public to help with this.

The new school year officially started on Thursday.

In the meantime, the acting minister of education Asadullah Hanif Balkhi said that millions of children still do not have access to education.

Balkhi said 9.2 million children are in school in Afghanistan of which 39 percent are girls.

This comes after Save the Children showed that more than 1,100 Afghan children a day are expected to drop out of school in 2017, putting them at risk of exploitation.

More than 400,000 children in Afghanistan over 1,100 per day are expected to drop out of school this year due to growing instability and a spike in forced returns from Pakistan, it said in a statement.

The statement said that the stark projection comes on the first day of the new school year in Afghanistan, when almost a third of all children across the country 3.7 million are unable to go to school, leaving them at increased risk of child labor, recruitment by armed groups, trafficking, early marriage and other forms of exploitation.

On the start of Afghanistans school year, Save the Children Country Director in Afghanistan, Ana Locsin, said:

Today should be a happy day in Afghanistan as children go back to class for the first time after a long winter. Instead it is a day cloaked in tragedy for the millions who cant access education and are struggling to survive.

We know that children who arent going to school are at increased risk of early marriage, entering the workforce where they can be exploited, or even recruitment into armed groups or being trafficked. And the longer they are out of the education system, the less likely theyll ever go back, she said.

Last year also saw major flare ups in fighting across the country, killing 923 children and making 2016 the deadliest year on record for Afghan children. This year, the UN predicts that 450,000 Afghans will be displaced due to fighting, while more than 9.3 million people across the country will need urgent humanitarian assistance, including over 1 million children suffering acute malnutrition.

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Illiteracy Rate in Afghanistan is Terrible: Danish - TOLOnews