Afghans Trained by Blackwater Defect to Taliban

Remember when Sarah Palin said that "the surge principles that have worked in Iraq need to be implemented in Afghanistan." Well...as Ms. Palin would say, many Afghans working for the Afghan security forces are now switching sides and are now defecting to the Taliban.

Guess who trained many of them? Blackwater!

An Aljazeera producer was able to interview some of those defectors who were unafraid to reveal their identities and were not bashful about their Blackwater issued IDs.

Afghanistan is not Iraq. The surge methods will not work in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai's government is on the verge of collapse and it will be hard paying off the Taliban not to attack its forces.

This video is pretty revealing.

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV

Follow Jamal Dajani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamaldajani

Comments

[ScipioAfricanus]

12:25 PM on 10/17/2008

A good piece, but narrow in focus. This goes beyond Blackwater; it's about the entire effort to try to impose a mirror image of our government and our military structure on what is still at base a tribally-centered society. Notice how our effort in Iraq shifted over time from trying to build a centralized American-style Iraqi military to paying off the tribal leaders/players (read the "Awakening" movement) to not plant IED's and kill Americans--and thus all the talk about replicating the Iraq surge "strategy" in Afghanistan. The only way Afghanistan will change is if the Afghans want to change. No amount of blood and treasure expended by us will change them. Alexander the Great learned that the hard way. So did the Brits. So did the Soviets. We're kinda a slow that way....

[newsjunkie5]

12:53 PM on 10/16/2008

This is a great article!

Poetic justice it seems...

[klo]

11:47 PM on 10/15/2008

Brilliant!

[surfcitysteven]

08:43 PM on 10/15/2008

Lernin from our mistakes in Afghanistan has not been our strong suit.

[Infokronea]

08:37 PM on 10/15/2008

Great blog. As for the Blackwater SNAFU: What can I say? It was bound to happen eventually. Mercenaries have a tendency to produce more mercenaries. It's the nature of the beast. Which begs the following question: Has anyone checked to see who Blackwater is working for these days? Just curious. (Perhaps all will be revealed when Ms. Palin accuses the Democrats of denying critical funds to the U.S. Military for the purchase of surge protectors?)

[leonardox1]

07:01 PM on 10/15/2008

Didn't she say that Afghanistan was next Alaska? or was that Canada?

[jad114]

03:29 AM on 10/16/2008

She actually referred to Afghanistan "our neigboring country"

[Daps]

03:39 PM on 10/15/2008

"Remember when Sarah Palin said that "the surge principles that have worked in Iraq need to be implemented in Afghanistan."

Didn't her kid cut the brake lines on public school buses? She's therefore an expert on "insurgent" tactics.

[justice2008]

03:27 PM on 10/15/2008

The reason the surge semi worked in Iraq is because the Sahwa (Awakening) tribe members got sick and tired of insurgents raiding their towns and villages. Taliban members are residents of these villages who resent a foreign occupation.

[glesslib]

03:27 PM on 10/15/2008

Wouldn't you like to know what that Blackwater training cost the U.S.? And wouldn't you love to have that money back?

Just file this under "Money Wasted On MiddleEast".

[MagisterLudi]

03:24 PM on 10/15/2008

According to Al Jazeera: "some 70 police and soldiers have switched allegiances across the western region in the past two months."
Same article stats" Afghanistan Interior ministry training graduated 2,000 officers during September."
That's an attrition rate better than in some police departments in U.S.

Other news: Up to 100 Taliban fighters were reportedly killed in two separate battles with international coalition forces in southern Afghanistan."
Not a bad rate of exchange.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2008/10/2008101323612787777.html

[S1m0n]

03:06 PM on 10/15/2008

What we're calling 'Taliban' is in reality the political and military vehicle of the Pashtuns, the largest tribes of southern afghanistan. They resent having a government imposed by outsiders, and resent being under occupation, (as everyone under occupation does) even though Karzai himself is a member of one of the pashtun tribes.