US-funded program to arm Afghan groups begins

[ThoughtCriminal]

US-funded program to arm Afghan groups begins

RAHIM FAIEZ
AP News

Jan 31, 2009 06:41 EST

A U.S.-funded program to train and arm community members in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions as a way to defend against the Taliban has begun, the country's interior minister said Saturday.

The U.S. will provide funds to arm the community force with the same weapons used by Afghan police — Kalashnikov rifles, said Interior Ministry Mohammad Hanif Atmar.

The program has already begun, but Atmar refused to say where, citing security concerns. Other officials have said the program will begin in Wardak, an increasingly dangerous province on the southwest side of Kabul.

"After training they will have the responsibility of protecting the people, providing security for the highways, schools, clinics and other government institutions," Atmar told a news conference.

Afghan and Western officials have struggled to fight the perception that they are creating regional militias, and officials are even sensitive over the name used to describe the program. Atmar said the program is called the Afghan Public Protection Force.

Critics note that the program will put more weapons into Afghan hands, reversing years of government efforts to reduce the number of arms around the country.

"I should say that these units are not militias, they are not guards," Atmar said. "They are official units of the Interior Ministry. We shouldn't use any other names for these units. We don't have in mind anything like a militia or arming militias."

Atmar said the top U.S. general in the country, Gen. David McKiernan, supports the program.

U.S. Ambassador William Wood, at a news conference in late December, said the U.S. was interested in promoting Afghan communities, and noted Afghan villagers have defended themselves throughout history.

Wood at the time denied the U.S. would be providing weapons for the program. The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment on Saturday.

The tactic of engaging local Afghan communities is endorsed by Gen. David Petraeus — the former top U.S. commander in Iraq whose outreach to Sunni sheiks helped oust al-Qaida-inspired militants from key areas and sharply decreased attacks.

Petraeus, who now oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, told The Associated Press late last year that Afghanistan has not had a tradition of a strong central government extending far into provinces and districts.

[mikepro8]

Uhm... Didnt we as a country try this before... with GRAVE consequences? The name Osama Bin Ladin comes to mind....

[Philbert]

Uhm... Didnt we as a country try this before... with GRAVE consequences? The name Osama Bin Ladin comes to mind....

The US funded Afghan resistance to the Soviets, including those who would later form the Taliban but also many of the Taliban's later enemies. I think the popular idea that the CIA directly created Al Qaeda or the Taliban is way overstated.

Our mistake in Afghanistan was losing interest in the future of the country after we got what we wanted.

[deputy]

Great idea then they can use the guns against us when they turn on us!

[adymond]

The US funded Afghan resistance to the Soviets, including those who would later form the Taliban but also many of the Taliban's later enemies. I think the popular idea that the CIA directly created Al Qaeda or the Taliban is way overstated.

Our mistake in Afghanistan was losing interest in the future of the country after we got what we wanted.

1000000% in agreement with this post. What we need to remember as a nation is that by going in (agree with it or not) and leaving too soon creates power vaccums that often have negative consequences.

This has been my whole argument about leaving either Iraq or Afghanistan too soon. We need to make sure they are stable before we turn tail and leave. It is starting to pay off in Iraq now.

[ChamberedRound]

I guess our government still hasn't learned what "Blowback" is.

[MichaelJ]

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801. ME 3:321


"It would seem impossible that an intelligent people with the faculty of reading and right of thinking should continue much longer to slumber under the pupilage of an interested aristocracy of priests and lawyers, persuading them to distrust themselves and to let them think for them... Awaken them from this voluntary degradation of mind! Restore them to a due estimate of themselves and their fellow citizens, and a just abhorrence of the falsehoods and artifices which have seduced them!" --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807. (*) ME 11:156

"The right of nations to self-government being my polar star, my partialities are steered by it without asking whether it is a Bonaparte or an Alexander [Emperor of Russia] toward whom the helm is directed." --Thomas Jefferson to M. Correa de Serra, 1815. ME 14:330


We need another Jefferson, not a Kennedy or a Lincolin.

[billamj]

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural Address, 1801. ME 3:321


"It would seem impossible that an intelligent people with the faculty of reading and right of thinking should continue much longer to slumber under the pupilage of an interested aristocracy of priests and lawyers, persuading them to distrust themselves and to let them think for them... Awaken them from this voluntary degradation of mind! Restore them to a due estimate of themselves and their fellow citizens, and a just abhorrence of the falsehoods and artifices which have seduced them!" --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807. (*) ME 11:156

"The right of nations to self-government being my polar star, my partialities are steered by it without asking whether it is a Bonaparte or an Alexander [Emperor of Russia] toward whom the helm is directed." --Thomas Jefferson to M. Correa de Serra, 1815. ME 14:330


We need another Jefferson, not a Kennedy or a Lincolin.

Please, please, please don't quote the hypocrite who gave us the two party system, along with Mr. Madison, when you are trying to make reference to the fact that the two party system is screwed up.

[MichaelJ]

Please, please, please don't quote the hypocrite who gave us the two party system, along with Mr. Madison, when you are trying to make reference to the fact that the two party system is screwed up.

We aren't a two party system, it just seems that way for the millions of walking wounded that refuse to invest themselves in governing their own nation.

I agree with your assessment of the two party system, but this is about keeping our American noses out of other countries. Taking Madison in the context of his time and experience I feel he is a good man.

[billamj]

We aren't a two party system, it just seems that way for the millions of walking wounded that refuse to invest themselves in governing their own nation.

I agree with your assessment of the two party system, but this is about keeping our American noses out of other countries. Taking Madison in the context of his time and experience I feel he is a good man.

I would also point out that Jefferson was the first president to take us to war overseas. "Shores of Tripoli" and all that. Not your best choice for a reference to keeping American noses out of other countries.