The Nagl zombie, Afghanistan and the Newshour.

"LT. COL. JOHN NAGL: So, the basic problem in Afghanistan -- there are many -- one of them is that we're working in a country that's really been devastated by 30 years of war. So the human capital really isn't there.

In Iraq, the soldiers knew how to read. They didn't know how to fight. In Afghanistan, the soldiers know how to fight, but not how to read. And, unfortunately, it's harder teaching people to read than it is to teach them to fight.

So, we're struggling with basic human infrastructure problems. The other big problem is that we really took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan for so many years while we were focused on Iraq.

And we have been playing catch-up ball for the last couple of years.

And so as you rush to build a force in a very short period of time, some bad apples slip through.

And we're seeing some of that. We're also seeing continually cultural connection problems, so,

Americans, even after 10 years working in this country, burning Korans, American Marines desecrating Taliban corpses. And that sort of cultural conflict and tension does erupt into violence in this kind of society.

MARGARET WARNER: Is there any -- you mentioned the Iraq war. Is there any precedent for an occupation force, a force like the United States, training up such a huge indigenous force so quickly in modern warfare? 

LT. COL. JOHN NAGL: We tried to do similar things in Iraq, actually.

After quite cleverly disbanding the Iraqi force, we decided that that was a bad idea and decided to rebuild it. General David Petraeus worked hard in that effort to rebuild an Iraqi force, but he was working from a much larger force that had previously existed, a much better trained force.

MARGARET WARNER: And, as you said, they could read.

LT. COL. JOHN NAGL: And they could already read."  Newshour

--------------------------------

"And they could already read."  Yeah?  So what?  Does Nagl think that these Afghans are killing our men because they cannot read?  I was training 3rd world soldiers when Nagl was in diapers.  Our " manual" was the same warmed over colonial anti-revolution doctrine that Nagl worships.  It sounds better in French.  Their training never had anything to do with literacy.  "Reading" has little to do with basic soldiering, very little.

The Newhour in its headline manages to make it seem that LIEUTENANT COLONEL Nagl commanded the training of the Afghan army.  The Afghan "hands" here can tell us if that is true or if it is true that he trained some smaller number.  The false prophets of the COIN revelation included a number of people who had limited real experience of counter-revolutionary warfare but possessed a burning desire to write a book about what had been "shown" them on "the mountain."  Another man like that is Kilcullen who was a LIEUTENANT COLONEL in the Australian Army.  His real world experience seems to have been one year as the commander of a support COMPANY in East Timor.  The rest of the time he was some sort of analyst.  And then he wrote a book?  No, no, there were several articles.

Nagl says that if only we have patience and stay committed to the COIN mission in Afghanistan for another 10 years, then all will be well.   Perhaps if he had worked for imperial Britain in the mid-nineteenth century that might have been possible.  IMO we will be largely out of Afghanistan by the end 0f 2013.  That withdrawal will end Nagl's fantasy.

One must ask - what does the Newshour think it is doing?  pl

 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/july-dec12/afghanguest_09-05.html

 

Comments

[The Twisted Genius]

So, the bloody wogs can't read the king's english, eh wot! For someone who is supposedly so well versed in "pop centric COIN," Nagl doesn't have a clue about dealing with people. I found a far more insightful take on the problem from major Fernando Lujan, a Special forces officer with experience working with Afghan locals.

"During previous tours in Afghanistan, Lujan’s teams patrolled with Afghans in small groups. “They took care of us,” he said. “They really value the notion of sanctuary and hospitality. If you’re there as a guest to work with them, that is a completely different dynamic than when they see a slave and master [relationship], or an occupation,” he said. “If you start to appear as an occupier, throw your weight around and bully them, they’ll react completely differently. That is the unseen danger.”

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=878

This lesson was pounded into our heads in SFOC in 1981, long before the revelations of Patraus' version of the COIN manual. I believe Colonel Lang had a phrase related to this that went something like, "First you sell yourselves, then you are all sold."

[Fred]

I saw that thing last night, I was wondering when you'd comment on this. . The Afghan's can't read? How many of our founding fathers couldn't read, either? They still beat the best army of the day.

"It sounds better in French." Nagl would probably sound better in Frencn, too. But it would still be so much 'marde'. Too bad the Afghans are shooting privates. One LTC a couple of years ago and they might have saved allot of trouble for all involved.

[Walrus]

"Culural connection problems?" WTF???

[Tyler]

Was he being facetious when he said disbanding the Iraqi Army was a good idea or does he really believe it.

[turcopolier]

Tyler

I think he was trying to apologize for the stupidity of the thing. pl

[turcopolier]

Fred

don't like the French? C'est triste ca. pl

[Matthew]

Col: Why is the new army so much harder to build than the old one?

[turcopolier]

matthew

i presume that you are speaking of Iraq. An army is an "organic" human social institution. The Iraqi Army before 2003 had been grown in place as an institution for a century, growing out of Ottoman times into the Hashemite eraand beyond. whether the opposition and the neocons liked it or not the army was the central institution of Iraqi nationhood. To build something like that takes a long time. Nagl is a sad example of historical inadequacy. pl

[Medicine Man]

I read it as coy criticism of a bad idea. I certainly hope it was intended as such and not genuine.

[Fred]

Pl,

Not so. I do like the French and had great experiences in both my visits, even if Uncle Sam did make my compatriots and I leave Toulon the day after Christmas on my first visit so long ago (meanwhile the entire French Mediterranean fleet was still in port enjoying the holiday - apparently they new the Warsaw Pact wasn't going to pour through the Fulda Gap that weekend). I just didn't think Nagl was making a damned bit of sense, especially that stupidity about reading ability. Does he really have that much contempt for Afghan soldiers?