OBAMA'S VIETNAM: AFGHANISTAN IS 90% ILLITERATE AND UNABLE TO EVER PROVIDE ANY GOVERNMENT STABILITY OR POSSIBILITY OF A REAL COUNTRY OR ECONOMY

The Memorial Day Holiday long weekend the media always has a variety of army and war related programs, ranging from the usual reruns APOCALYPSE NOW to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. I admit to being a world history buff, and have probably seen every war movie ever made, and since I have I usually find some documentary about some aspect of war that I have not seen previously.

That happened this weekend as I stumbled upon a PBS airing of a AFGHAN documentary which followed for several years the life and travails of an Afghan General and his interaction with the "coalition" forces working with him, after the Russians left that country.

That was an eye opener like I have never seen before; the daily struggles and the hopelessness of that entire "war" effort carried on behind the scenes we never see reported on the new media.

This documentary took place over the period of time since 2001 till recently and included the struggles of the general in dealing with the constantly "rotating" American National Guard units that he has to interact with on their 1 year rotation in and out of his country. He has been in the army since he was 13 years old and no 30 years later it is the same ( he is killed by a roadside bomb later).

Every year he gets a new commander to work with, and every year they leave and a new one takes its place starting from scratch. It was like that movie GROUNDHOG DAY.

Nothing changes, just the faces. The AFGHAN army commanders are shown in their meetings with Americans sharing their frustration and desperation...inability to even have their soldiers show up on time to a roll call or go on a patrol. Their soldiers run away when a firefight starts, their soldiers desert at the first sign or a battle, their soldiers communicate with the Taliban giving away their positions, their soldiers sell the arms and bullets themselves to the Taliban, etc., etc...

The soldiers are mostly illiterate, as many as 95% at times, can not read or write so the translation of any military books or manuals is worthless.

They are not trustworthy as their tribal rivalries prevent them from being a cohesive army. They have no ability to ever a sustaining force and most have joined up to make the $61 a month which is more than they can make in Pakistan working, but will run away at the first sight of a battle.

Their own army supreme commander was shown talking to them telling them that he is ashamed of the way that they sell the bullets to the Taliban, and that they have no fighting spirit, that he is ashamed of being their commander. He is then shown going back to his office and literally crying!

Our soldiers are frustrated when they discover this upon arrival....they are shocked to see that the Afghan troops are not dependable at all. For instance they called a meeting for a training exercise at 9 am, and nobody showed up because they can not tell the time, and another a 4 pm had nobody show up either because it appeared to be at the time of the afternoon prayer.

The Afghans complained that they may have to deal with another American commander shortly and that they would have to change everything again with the one year, or what if an Italian or French commander come in, then again, and again...nothing is accomplished as most of the troops desert anyway before any training is finished?

Has anyone noticed that we have been training their army for 10 years now, and there literally is no army to speak of?

The Afghan General describes how no money gets down to his level as the corruption above him steals it all, nothing of substance gets to his level of command. He does not know who is Taliban affiliated and who is not, and never will.

This is a nation at war for over 30 years, with no end in sight!

Last week, leading Senate expert on military matters ( as explained by him, otherwise a total moron), Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), said he opposed dispatching more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until the U.S. has trained more Afghan military and police. This guy has no clue! This army is never going to be trained, it can not read or write or learn to use sophisticated weapons or read a manual!

The Afghan military is overwhelmingly illiterate.

According to U.S. military officers, the percentage of Afghans in the military who can read and write is likely in the single digits, certainly no more than 10 percent.

So there's perhaps a 90 percent illiteracy rate. Which means that training the Afghan army won't be as easy as translating the U.S.'s English-language training materials into the Pasto or Dari languages spoken in Afghanistan and telling Afghan recruits to study them.

A recent Associated Press story had this example:

Afghan army recruit Shahidullah Ahmadi can't read — and neither can nine out of 10 soldiers in the Afghan National Army...

..."I face difficulties. If someone calls me and tells me to go somewhere, I can't read the street signs," Ahmadi, 27, a member of a logistics battalion, said while walking through downtown Kabul. "In our basic training, we learned a lot. Some of my colleagues who can read and write can take notes, but I've forgotten a lot of things, the types of things that might be able to save my life."

Testifying before the Senate Armed Service Committee Tuesday, Joint Chiefs Chair Adm. Michael Mullen acknowledged the illiteracy problem makes training the Afghans difficult (impossible is more like it), to say the least.

ADM. MULLEN: Well I think it's —- I mean —- basically focused in a way that we know what we need — we know what they need to learn. It is a huge challenge because of the literacy rate with the Afghan soldiers and police. It's at the single digit level, sort of 9 or 10 percent.

Yet, we've got a program with the army where we've put that in place to increase their literacy level. We haven't done that with the police, we're just starting to do that with the police right now. So we know that that's going to be a requirement.

So the U.S. is in the position of having to teach literacy and military skills simultaneously if it has any hope of leaving an Afghan force behind that can be effective.

With public support declining for the U.S. involvement in Iraq, will the U.S. military have the time it would take to both teach Afghan recruits how to read as well as fight a counterinsurgency? Based on the polls, it looks increasingly doubtful.

And at yesterday's Senate hearing, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) made the larger point, that the illiteracy rate doesn't bode well for the U.S. leaving behind a viable government, economy and civil society when it finally does depart.

Chambliss, being charitable when it came to the literacy rate, said:

With a literacy rate of somewhere, let's assume it's in the teens or assume its 20 percent. That means 80 percent of the people in that country can't read and write. What will we do — how do we leave that country in a state, non-militarily, that they can survive?

Senator, you need to watch PBS some more, and save us a lot of needless money and American soldier's lives on a "war" that is not possible to win.