U.S. Speeds Training of Afghan Army; Official Unveils List of Weaponry Needed to Defend Country
KABUL, Afghanistan Feb 15, 2005 — As the United States accelerates its training of Afghanistan's fledgling army, the nation's defense minister has revealed a list of high-tech weaponry he says his nation needs to defend itself.
Defense Minister Rahim Wardak told The Associated Press his requests include Apache helicopter gunships and A-10 ground attack planes, which the more than 1,000 American trainers embedded with the new Afghan army can currently call in from U.S. bases in an emergency.
He would also like U.S. forces to help create and train Afghan commando, engineer and intelligence units. Transport planes and armored vehicles would also help, Wardak said, and predicted a positive response from Washington.
"Once we improve our capabilities, I think we will be good enough to deal with any sort of internal threat," including Islamic militants, drug smugglers and warlords, Wardak said. "We think if we take more of the burden of security it will be much more economical in terms of money and human life for the coalition and NATO."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=501803Abdur Rahim Wardak is a Pashtun leader who fought the Soviet occupation during the 1980s. Although there were many elements employed against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Wardak may have been less sinister than bin Laden (who also aided the resistance along with the Muhajadeen) the arming and training of these Afghans by the U.S. seems to be a repeat of the same mindless meddling that had us supplying hundreds of Stinger missiles (that we are now desperately trying to recover) and funneling money and supplies to these disparate warriors.
It may be that in order to reduce our own military's involvement there, we may have no other choice but to promote and support these new forces, but it seems to follow a predictable pattern of U.S. expansionism which is historically ignorant of the monsters we help create, like bin Laden, and like the Muslim resistance we are helping fight in the Philippines that our government mindlessly recruited and trained in the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Many other examples abound, around the world, of dictators we helped create in our zeal to control some myopic policy, or some zealous ambition for greed or power.
Now it seems we are faced with the prospect of an Afghan army of unknown recruits that will engage in unknowable aggressions against whatever forces that may suit some unpredictable faction's zealous military ambitions. This is another example of the shortsighted, backward ass meddling by the Bush's manufactured wars of opportunity. Arming these folks just to have them split off and compel us to engage and disarm them later is an exasperating circle of violence that these military industry blockheads tolerate so long as it feeds their corporatist ambitions for conquest and greed.
Needless to say, their weak-minded cronies in the halls of our government will always fork over our money to fund whatever boondoggle that further enriches their benefactors. Our security and the safety and well-being of our troops is just an opportunistic afterthought in their ambition to dominate the world, militarily and economically. So is the safety and security of the folks they claim to be defending in these U.S. occupied states. It's only a matter of time before these weapons are turned against innocents by these mercenary forces. We never learn and we continue to let these corporatists convince us that their meddling will make our world safer, but the proliferation of these armies and their new hi-tech boondoggles will not make us anymore secure than the existence of these same tactics through history have kept our sons and daughters from dying in these senseless wars.
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