Post by BruceR. at Flit, first link well worth the read:

Today’s essential Afghan reading: Bing West

Reviewing Kilcullen:

Because they are partnered with our troops, Afghan soldiers are copying our rules of engagement and risk-avoidance procedures. Since they wear our heavy armor, they too cannot pursue the light and mobile Taliban forces. When the enemy initiates contact, the Afghan soldiers are trained to wait alongside our troops until our attack helicopters force the Taliban to flee. The Afghan soldiers will not be able to fight that way as U.S. resources are reduced. The Afghan security forces simply cannot take over the fight anytime soon.

Reminds me of what I wrote (point #7) [also WWTR] fresh from the fight last August.

More WWTR from Australia–a way of looking at things that would be most unusual in many Canadian circles.  Realpolitik: do it, and do it right:

Diggers need freedom to win freedom

Update: Another view from down under (with more Realpolitik) about, er, others down under:

NZ puts nation first, war second
…
Certainly there are concerns about corruption in the government in Kabul led by Hamid Karzai. But the Karzai government is the only viable administration that Afghanistan has right now. There are many instances where the Allies have supported flawed governments during times of conflict – most notably Joseph Stalin’s communist dictatorship in Moscow when the priority was to defeat Adolf Hitler and Nazism.

Whatever its faults, the Karzai government offers more hope for both Afghans and peace than an Islamist dictatorship run by the Taliban. Also, under Karzai, Afghanistan is unlikely to become a base for the export of Islamist terrorism of the kind that led to the murder of Australians and New Zealanders, among others, in such places as New York, Bali and London…

…New Zealand…has a proficient army, which the conservative Prime Minister does not want to deploy to assist an ally. Once were warriors, indeed.

Ouch! And we too have a Conservative prime minister.

Upperdate: Another ouch!  Good on the French (via Defense Industry Daily):

France: More military trainers to Afghanistan

France’s military will soon send 250 more trainers to Afghanistan, bringing the overall French force to 4,000 people.

The chief of the French defense staff, Edouard Guillaud, said in French Senate hearings that the French troops in Afghanistan “are 3,750 men and women who are engaged in a difficult operation.”

He adds that “they will soon be 4,000, with the deployment” of new police and military trainers.

He says the war Afghanistan is “a war for the long term [emphasis added].”..

Mark
Ottawa