VBS - WHY NOBODY'S WINNING ANYTHING IN AFGHANISTAN ANYTIME SOON

To enhance* the viewing experience of this week's "Inside Afghanistan" series, we're asking Ben Anderson a couple questions about each day's episodes. Today our chief concerns are a) why is mainstream coverage of Afghanistan so terrible? and b) how in Sam Hill are we going to get out of that country when the army that's supposed to replace us is made up of stoned, rebellious teenagers who won't wear their helmets cause it doesn't look cool? If you've got any questions for Ben, feel free to post them below. We're not saying he's going to answer them or anything, but hey, you never know.

Vice: There is basic fucking information in some of your footage that explains so much about the situation and we're only finding out about it now, seven years in.
Ben Anderson: Well, I think I'm right in saying that no US TV networks have a permanent correspondent in Afghanistan, although more soldiers have died there than in Iraq for the last few months. I should say though, coverage in the UK has been pretty good recently. Basically, there was a media blockade for the first few years, but then soldiers started posting their own pictures and videos of what was going on there on the internet and it looked horrendous. So the Ministry of Defense kind of thought, "OK, we're losing this. We'll let journalists in, but we'll try to control the story," which they couldn't do. But as a result lots of people got in to film.   

The media here sometimes bring up the point that the Afghan National Army is "unprepared" to take over security for the country, but it's always framed in this sense where it seems like, oh they just need to work out a few logistical issues and they'll be set. Nobody says "These guys are barely soldiers. They can't handle things like carrying their own water, following basic orders, or wearing armor." Is this just like willful optimism on their part?
Our most senior brigadier in Afghanistan caused a stir on Sunday by saying that we will not win an outright military victory in Afghanistan. The best we can hope for is to get the insurgency down to the levels that the Afghan National Army can manage. Officials talk about getting the ANA up and running like it's a fairly easy thing to do. All the soldiers I spoke with said it's going to take at least 10 years to train them. And that's just the national army. The national police, they haven't even started training them, and someone told me that would take 30 years.

Continued tomorrow...

*Haven't condom ads and spam totally wrecked this word? It's like what porn did to "facials." Actually it's worse, since middle-aged women were the only ones who used the term facial beforehand. It was mom jargon. On the other hand, you used to be able to use "enhance" to talk about all sorts of things, like electronics and drugs, whereas now it refers strictly to dongs. I guess in this case it's probably closer to the pre-Stonewall usage of "gay".

Comments

[Douche]

I don't know, I didn't really learn anything new about afghanistan. Anyone who reads the paper or any sort of foreign affairs magazine knows this stuff. I am surprised to hear this guy say that no American orgs have permanent fixtures in Afghanistan, as I was under the impression that a number of american journos were there or had been there for years. Also, what did you guys do, take all the scraps dude had from the BBC production and buy them up to make a vice special? for shame. get your shit together, vice. I want to see robert young pelton hanging with somali pirates, or something about the gangs in port moseby.

[Larry Tee]

I already knew that the British see themselves as babysitters for the Afghanis but I did learn today that the reason is for this is that the Afghani army is in fact, comprised of babies. Who the fuck refuses to wear a helmet in combat?

Anyways, I'm going to hold off final judgment on the series until it's made it a little past the first of eight parts.

[palau seribu]

10 years to train a soldier? What does it take to hold and aim a gun?

[Taeil]

I think it's funny of guys being critical of the ANA for not wearing their helmets. Just like every Special Forces/Blackwater dudes I've seen in Iraq. I think the core of the problem lies in the fact the army is paid for shit and the Taliban somehow is able to pay them off for information or directly supporting the resistance.

I'm sort of scratching my head on the idea Afghanistan isn't being covered in the mainstream press. You can log on to LiveLeak.com or read anything Afghanistan related from Newsweek or Time and they say how bad it's been out there. Benefit to VBS is showing a lot more fire fight footage than any other news source.