What will be the Fate of the new Afghanistan?

  US and NATO forces are tabling down their operations in Afghanistan so they are stepping back and allowing Afghan Security Forces to take the lead in defending their own country. The big question mark is how well will they fare after we leave?

 A former resistance fighter during the Soviet occupation of his country, Afghan Col. Turab Adil knows that Afghans can put up a good fight.

He recalls how in the 1980s the mujahedin, as they were known, slipped through the hills and valleys to drive out the Communist superpower and its attack helicopters, tanks and fully armed troops.

Today's Afghan army will fight just as ferociously against Taliban fighters, but Adil and others say it can't defeat them under the current U.S. military strategy that calls for the withdrawal of all combat forces by the end of 2014. Remember that both the Taliban and the ANSF are cut from the same cloth.

The US acknowledges this also but yet we will remain firm in our comittment to leave at the specified time as well we should. Things will be tough and the ANSF will certainly need all of the help that we can give them. They will also have to make a quantum leap forward but it is possible for them to hold.

I think that if they can overcome the corruption that is inherent in their ranks and in the Afghan government they will be OK, but this is a tough considering that corruption is all that they know.

One problem with having the US and NATO in country is that they are viewed suspiciously by Islamists who live there so our presence is an alien presence. Things will probably get easier for Afghan Security Forces when we leave because maybe they won't be seen as US puppets, however there have been tensions between elements of the ANSF and civilians. The problem is that many security personnel were using their authority to terrorize the civilians that they were supposed to protect. This of course didn't help them at all.

The US troop surge has been successful for the most part so the Afghans are being handed the advantage. They will need US technology and tactical help in order to maintain their advantage which we will supply. The objective is to gain enough control of the situation so that our military ring customers in all branches of service will be able to come home soon.