U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011? Yeah, Right!

In the largest U.S. led offensive in Afghanistan since 2001, the American Marines have swept into Marja and are now being "reinforced" with additional Afghan government troops, as they seek to win the loyalty of the local inhabitants. Why is this strategy not going to work? C.J. Chivers of The New York Times writes today in an item entitled "With Marja Largely Won, Marines Try to Win Trust":

"The Afghan soldiers who accompanied Company C, he said, had looted the 84-booth Semitay Bazaar immediately after the Marines swept through and secured it. Then the Afghan soldiers refused to stand post in defensive bunkers, or to fill sandbags as the Americans, sometimes under fire, hardened their joint outpost. Instead, they spent much of their time walking in the bazaar, smoking hashish.

Company K had stories of its own. As its own Marines stumbled wearily across friendly lines, much of the Afghan platoon that worked with them was straggling behind, unable to keep pace.

The first phase of the campaign for Marja was ending. Captain Karabin had paid aggrieved shop owners $300 to $500 each for their losses to the Afghan Army’s looting."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/world/asia/01marja.html?hp

In less than a year and a half the U.S. is going to hand this mess over to the Afghan army, which will then be combat-ready to confront the Taliban? Apparently, the Afghan troops are not the only ones high on hashish.