Change of Command in A-stan: McKiernan Fired.

[Armati]

And J_W777 speaks to the main point. The "Afghan People" are only casually aware that there is a central Afghan govt. The order of merit is family>tribe>clan>Allah>and then somewhere down the line>nation. Your average Afghan sees little good coming out of Kabul. International aid first gets spent in Kabul making fabulous compounds for rich Afghans, govt officials, NGOs, and the US Dept of State. Then, some of the money is sent the regional Governors and Sub-Governors so then can spend it on fabulous compounds for themselves and their friends. Maybe, somewhere in this huge pool of billions of dollars, a well or a school gets built in village.

Meanwhile, the highly corrupt Afghan National Police are shaking down the Afghan citizenry for 'tolls', 'fees', and other 'taxes.'

Your average Afghan has little use for the central Afghan govt. Their loyalty goes to whomever is offering them the best deal - be it the US military, the Afghan govt, or the Taliban and AQ.

Again, this is an unconventional war. We are not fighting divisions of tanks in the open desert. And the experts in UW (US Special Forces) are being hamstrung from doing what they do best by fruity Dept of State types and lunk headed Big Army type who are only capable of doing Power Point and going "Yes Sir, yes Sir, three bags full."

[John_Wayne777]

And J_W777 speaks to the main point. The "Afghan People" are only casually aware that there is a central Afghan govt. The order of merit is family>tribe>clan>Allah>and then somewhere down the line>nation. Your average Afghan sees little good coming out of Kabul. International aid first gets spent in Kabul making fabulous compounds for rich Afghans, govt officials, NGOs, and the US Dept of State. Then, some of the money is sent the regional Governors and Sub-Governors so then can spend it on fabulous compounds for themselves and their friends. Maybe, somewhere in this huge pool of billions of dollars, a well or a school gets built in village.

Meanwhile, the highly corrupt Afghan National Police are shaking down the Afghan citizenry for 'tolls', 'fees', and other 'taxes.'

The old tale of warlordism and corruption playing out yet again. For those who are students of history, think back to Chaing Kai-shek's enormous blunders. The US gave him 500 million dollars to fund his army against the Japanese and the CCP...and yet most of that money ended up in the pocket of high-level KMT officials while he bled everyone he could dry. Meanwhile the commies instituted a progressive tax system to fund their operations and forced a strict code of conduct on their officials and on their military. Chaing's forces were brigands as were the warlord armies he allied with.

Now those in power in China had always abused their positions for personal enrichment...indeed the entire Chinese political structure was based on corruption for centuries...but it wasn't a state of affairs that the peasants were pleased with. Is it really any wonder that the CCP managed to win the hearts and minds of the peasants?

In these nations the guys with guns make the rules generally at the expense of the poor peasants who are too weak to muster effective resistance. That's why many think it is folly to try and work through Karzai and instead think it better to put forces out in the field cultivating relationships with the Afghans directly. The snag is that we really WANT there to be a stable central government because it's easier on paper to work that way and, frankly, we want to leave.

This would not be the first time in our history that the policy equivalent of clicking our heels together and chanting "there's no place like home!" got in the way of the real work to be done.

Again, this is an unconventional war. We are not fighting divisions of tanks in the open desert. And the experts in UW (US Special Forces) are being hamstrung from doing what they do best by fruity Dept of State types and lunk headed Big Army type who are only capable of doing Power Point and going "Yes Sir, yes Sir, three bags full."