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Few Afghans know about 9/11, reason for war

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  • Few Afghans know about 9/11, reason for war

    I dunno, maybe its just me, but perhaps we should be letting the the locals know why the fuck we've been in their country for the last 9 years? Maybe, just maybe, it might be a good idea to have done that from the very beginning or at least start now?




    KABUL — Afghans in two crucial southern provinces are almost completely unaware of the September 11 attacks on the United States and don't know they precipitated the foreign intervention now in its 10th year, a new report showed on Friday.

    NATO leaders gathered in Lisbon for a summit on Friday where the transition from foreign forces — now at about 150,000 — to Afghan security responsibility will be at the top of the agenda, with leaders to discuss a 2014 target date set by Kabul.

    Few Afghans in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, Taliban strongholds where fighting remains fiercest, know why foreign troops are in Afghanistan, says the "Afghanistan Transition: Missing Variables" report to be released later on Friday.

    The report by The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) policy think-tank showed 92 percent of 1,000 Afghan men surveyed in Helmand and Kandahar know nothing of the hijacked airliner attacks on U.S. targets in 2001.

    "The lack of awareness of why we are there contributes to the high levels of negativity toward the NATO military operations and made the job of the Taliban easier," ICOS President Norine MacDonald told Reuters from Washington.

    "We need to explain to the Afghan people why we are here, and both convince them and show them that their future is better with us than the Taliban," MacDonald said.

    The report said there was a continued "relationship gap" between Afghans and the international community, describing the lack of understanding as "dramatic."

    U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Islamist Taliban government in late 2001 for sheltering al-Qaida leaders who plotted the 9/11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people.

    The war has now dragged into its 10th year and violence is at its worst, despite a record number of foreign troops, with military and civilian casualties at their highest levels.

    Exit timetable
    Attention is now focused on an exit timetable. U.S. President Barack Obama, who will review his Afghanistan war strategy next month, wants to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from July 2011.

    European NATO leaders, under pressure at home to justify their continued commitment to an increasingly unpopular war, are following a similar timetable. Some are withdrawing troops and others are looking to move from combat to training roles.

    While Afghan President Hamid Karzai has set a target of 2014, NATO's civilian representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said this week "eye-watering levels of violence by Western standards" might mean the transition spills into 2015.

    That throws the emphasis back on the Afghan government — widely seen as so corrupt and inept that it is unable to support itself — and the readiness of Afghan forces to take over.

    The ICOS report showed 61 percent of respondents in Helmand and Kandahar believe Afghan security forces would not be able to provide adequate security when foreign forces withdraw, and that 56 percent believe the Afghan police are helping the Taliban.

    It noted there was clear "potential for the Afghan security forces to switch sides" after being trained by NATO forces.

    The report said 81 percent of those interviewed in the south thought al-Qaida would return to Afghanistan if the Taliban regained power, and that 72 percent thought al-Qaida would again use the country to launch attacks against the West.

    'Negative blowback'
    ICOS senior policy analyst Jorrit Kamminga said the "negative blowback" of the foreign presence could be managed by addressing the chronic poverty, food shortages, unemployment and displacement faced by ordinary Afghans.

    The report noted improvements in some areas of the south, with the number of people in Marjah, a key battleground in Helmand, who thought NATO-led forces were winning the war almost doubling to 64 percent between June and October 2010.

    It was also a very different picture in the north, with 80 percent of 500 men interviewed in Parwan and Panjshir provinces thinking the central government was protecting their interests.


  • #2
    Yeah no kidding

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    • #3
      Doesn't surprise me. I saw some footage recently of some troops from a FOB going into a village with their interpreter. They showed the footage to a stateside group fluent in the local languages of Afganistan. The interpreter with the troops clearly misinterpreted what the village elders were saying. At one point the villagers were asked "how is security here? Where is the enemy?". The elder replied with "What security? The enemy is just beyond the ridge, maybe 1.5 kilometers. We are scared.". The interpreter turns to the troops and says "He said everything is fine. There is no enemy here.". This clearly pissed the troops off, thinking the villagers were protecting the enemy. Jesus, can we say communication problems? What a total clusterfuck.

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      • #4
        You will find afghans that think the prophet mohammad walked the earth 100 yrs ago also. They have no concept of time, money, tv, internet, etc. I have been to a village on the PAK border. The reconstruction team was there to discuss building them a school. "how much money do you need to build the school" "$500,000 US dollar" I thought the female Master Sergeant was gonna slap the red dye out of his beard. These people lived in tents and were nomads, they could build a school with $5 US dollars. Hell they will just steal the supplies from our convoys anyway.

        I have been here 5yrs and I do not find it odd they have no idea about the Twin Towers of the acts of war committed against us on 9/11.
        Fuck you. We're going to Costco.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Dave View Post
          Doesn't surprise me. I saw some footage recently of some troops from a FOB going into a village with their interpreter. They showed the footage to a stateside group fluent in the local languages of Afganistan. The interpreter with the troops clearly misinterpreted what the village elders were saying. At one point the villagers were asked "how is security here? Where is the enemy?". The elder replied with "What security? The enemy is just beyond the ridge, maybe 1.5 kilometers. We are scared.". The interpreter turns to the troops and says "He said everything is fine. There is no enemy here.". This clearly pissed the troops off, thinking the villagers were protecting the enemy. Jesus, can we say communication problems? What a total clusterfuck.
          Typical terps....most of them know exactly what is going on and how to control their emotions so it looks like they are telling the truth. The terps are 90% hired in country by a subcontract for the military. The military does not employ them they are only borrowing them. It is also sick to see how the unit will fall in love with their terp. "oh, I am gonna get him his citizenship and bring him out of this place" a very common statement. That terp is telling his brother who is talib everything about what you guys do.
          Fuck you. We're going to Costco.

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          • #6
            fuck'em all

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            • #7
              Originally posted by kbscobravert View Post


              Typical terps....most of them know exactly what is going on and how to control their emotions so it looks like they are telling the truth. The terps are 90% hired in country by a subcontract for the military. The military does not employ them they are only borrowing them. It is also sick to see how the unit will fall in love with their terp. "oh, I am gonna get him his citizenship and bring him out of this place" a very common statement. That terp is telling his brother who is talib everything about what you guys do.
              So where is the software and the speak and spell to replace them. I'm sorry but this seems to me to be a serious problem. You gotta figure, lives depend on this communication. This should be as high a priority as ammo IMO.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Dave View Post
                So where is the software and the speak and spell to replace them. I'm sorry but this seems to me to be a serious problem. You gotta figure, lives depend on this communication. This should be as high a priority as ammo IMO.
                You will not find an argument with me there Dave. I have caught terps lying to me on the FOBs. They tend to freak out when you speak to them in Dari/Farsi. I do not near enough to carry on a conversation but only to cover simple greatings and enough to tell them what to do. I would love to learn more but I do not plan on being here much longer.

                I used to use two terps sometimes when asking questions but not at the same time. Asking the same questions to see if the other terp say the same as the first or the other way around. But I am not doing this in a combat role so it is easy for me to armchair quarterback.

                It would be nice to have a handheld device to translate for you if nothing else to keep the terp honest. Cause don't think for a minute that the terp misunderstood, he didn't; he lied.
                Fuck you. We're going to Costco.

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                • #9
                  When we "spread democracy" we let the country getting invaded know last. lmao
                  “There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods". Aldous Huxley 1962

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                  • #10
                    This is why you can't convert Islamic countries to democracies. It's a huge waste of time and money and lives.

                    You just leaflet bomb them and show them why we are going to blast them to their God and 72 virgins, and then you do it. End of story.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by AnthonyS View Post
                      This is why you can't convert Islamic countries to democracies. It's a huge waste of time and money and lives.

                      You just leaflet bomb them and show them why we are going to blast them to their God and 72 virgins, and then you do it. End of story.
                      turkey , albeit with a questionable human rights record, does alright.

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