To curb India's clout, Pak eyes Afghan role

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

A beautifully reasoned reply until here. Even here, though, there's no cause that prevents Pakistan, ISAF, and Afghanistan from coming to an agreement that mitigates those concerns-unreasonable in your view or not. Frankly, it's important that Pakistan acknowledge the climate of distrust which exists and stands to prevent the closer relationship needed to bridge the gap of misunderstanding.

I agree - there is no cause that prevents the concerned parties from coming to an agreement on this matter. I would however like to point out that the climate of distrust exists both ways, and is not helped when Karzai and other Afghan officials make inflammatory comments regarding the Durand.

I do think however that the establishment of such collaboration on the military-intelligence front is exactly one such way of clearing distrust. The soldiers trained are of course going to be deployed in support of anti-Taliban operations and overall security. Pak-Afghan interactions, especially at an officer level, should provide each side with better understanding of the other. That is one of the reasons behind the US increasing the size of training programs for Pakistani military personnel, specifically officers attending courses in the US.

Finally, as a technical matter, I've been intrigued by the difficulties America has faced in reconciling training programs between various entitities involved in raising forth Afghan security forces and the overarching doctrinal publishing necessary to provide appropriate guidance at all command levels of the Afghan military. This, of course, is exacerbated by the crippling levels of literacy currently prevailing among Afghan soldiers and policemen.

There's lots of room for assistance. How Pakistan approaches offering such and the care exhibited by recognizing the realities of distrust there now will go far to determining what degree of success is achieved.

Thanks.

Some quick thoughts on that would be that Pakistan would focus training programs (within Afghanistan) in the Pashtun areas, and be able to draw upon the significant Pashtun presence in its military to ease the training process.

Cultural and ethnic affinities with Afghanistan in general might help in terms of training the other ethnic groups, whether in Afghanistan or in Pakistani military schools, though I would think that given the distrust, a large Pakistani presence might be kept to a minimum for a while in the non-Pashtun areas, though training on Pakistani soil would still be feasible.

I don't think cultural familiarity eliminates all of the technical problems you referred to, but it should ease the burden somewhat compared to NATO.

 

[Storm Force]

I don,t get wat the big deal is in Afghanistan.

Its simply a wasteland totally undeveloped worn torn islamic terror groups roaming in mountains whwere noboDy can control anything.

The brits and Americans CANT WAIT TO GET OUT.

India should do the Same.

Theres nothing Strategic in AFGHANISTAN that india needs.

WITHDRAW TO ITS OWN BORDERS. LET AFGANISTAN and all nearby ROT