Afghan National Police: Pot Before Patrol
A member of the 82nd Airborne Division recorded this clip of Afghan National Police puffing on a marijuana pipe before going out on patrol.
In an interview with Al Jazeera correspondent Clayton Swisher, US soldiers don't feel as threatened by the drug-dazed ANP but find them "silly" and have a hard time getting them to be quiet and to focus.
This is the group that President Karzai says will be able to take over full responsibilities for security from ISAF soldiers by 2014.
These are also the units that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin has reported so much progress in US-led ISAF training and partnering programs. My respectful difference with Senator Levin is that the Afghan military and police drug use Swisher reports on is not anomalous and more the norm.
-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note, is editor-at-large at Talking Points Memo, and Clemons can be followed on Twitter @SCClemons
Look on the bright side -- America would probably be a better place if our cops were stoned most of the time. Maybe their police should train ours!
July 26, 2010 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
lol....I will not comment on this one my friend.
July 26, 2010 10:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
So then you're saying America's cops AREN'T stoned out of their minds most of the time?
July 27, 2010 8:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
The recently released "War Logs" include some published by the New York Times, with this summary.
NYTimes:
The Pentagon is spending billions to train the Afghan forces to secure the country. But the police have proved to be an especially risky investment and are often described as distrusted, even loathed, by Afghan civilians. The reports recount episodes of police brutality, corruption petty and large, extortion and kidnapping. Some police officers defect to the Taliban. Others are accused of collaborating with insurgents, arms smugglers and highway bandits. Afghan police officers defect with trucks or weapons, items captured during successful ambushes or raids.//
Also in the news today is Pentagon coverage of the top US military man, Admiral Mullen, in a visit to a police station in Afghanistan.
Defenselink:
"At the station, Mullen praised the Afghan police for their dedication and their willingness to step forward to defend their nation and the Afghan people."
Admiral Mullen also said: "We have learned and adjusted. . .The next seven to nine months will be absolutely critical."
It's the end of Friedman units (six months) and on to Mullen units (seven to nine months) -- change you can believe in, because the Afghanistan police, despite what you might read, have a dedication and a willingness to step forward to defend their nation and the Afghan people.
In other news, beer has no calories and men understand women.
July 26, 2010 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I remember correctly (and I do) the Taliban had pretty much established security and stamped out the drug trade in Afghanistan before the American military arrived to make a career out of reversing both accomplishments.
When we leave Afghanistan with our tail tucked proudly between our legs, the Taliban will no doubt re-establish whatever passes for "security" in Afghanistan. And they won't require any "training" and/or "assistance" from the American military, of whom Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak once remarked: "The only thing the Americans can train Iraqis to do is kill Americans. How stupid can they be?" As the Donkey said to Shrek: "Only a true friend would be so cruelly honest."
July 26, 2010 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know about "stamped out".
Afghanistan has consistently been a major producer of heroin since the 80s. There was a period in the late 90s/early 00s(working from memory here) where Mexico took the lead, but Afghanistan was still a player.
The Taliban certainly tried, but they had fewer resources then than the ISAF does now, and no aerial surveillance capability to speak of.
July 27, 2010 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Taliban had a much greater level of success eradicating poppy cultivation in Afghanistan than anything the Americans (or their ISAF fig-leaf cover) has managed. The Taliban success didn't last long simply because America wouldn't tolerate it and (temporarily) overthrew the Taliban, returning to power in Afghanistan the same corrupt warlords who depended on the heroin trade for their financing. As a matter of fact, the American-dominated "ISAF" has managed to undo all of the Taliban's success in this area while turning Afghanistan into not just another narco-state, but the all-time record-setting producer of heroin. What exactly does making things worse have to recommend it?
And what in the hell has "air surveillance capability" to do with anything? Who needs it when it mainly manages to "identify" wedding, funeral, and baby-naming parties for cruise-missile and drone-murders while U. S. Marines on the ground tiptoe through the poppy fields in full bloom, refusing to eradicate the crop on the grounds that this will alienate the local population? We Americans had far more "air-surveillance" resources than the Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians, too. The drug trade in Southeast Asia only blossomed.
Since you have apparently failed to notice, let me point out to you that the self-deluding American War on Drugs has spectacularly failed. Like the equally-failed War on Terrorism, it has only produced more of what it (ostensibly) set out to diminish -- all in an enormously expensive, high-tech way, of course. Thanks to America's self-bankrupting efforts, Drugs and Terrorism have won. As King Pyrrhus, the Fool of Hope, once remarked after winning a battle but losing most of his army: "Another such victory as this and we are undone!" Way past time for America to stop stupidly undoing itself "winning" so much and so often.
July 27, 2010 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hm. It would have been helpful if I'd spent some time researching and not simply relied on memory.
I'll say two things that I think you'll agree to:
- aerial surveillance is very useful for identifying preponderance of plant types. Both satellite and aircraft can be employed to identify flora. (Silly me - I made an assumption that ISAF was employing them as though eradication was the goal.)
- our War on Drugs has succeeded in normalizing elements of a police and surveillance state in the USA such that our concepts of "justice" have been ... altered, for lack of a better way to express what I mean. (and who is to say whether that may have become the goal at some point, or not.)
August 3, 2010 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
great material to bring to the discussion Don.
July 26, 2010 10:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
'Puffing on a Marijuana Pot'? Ya mean a reefer? Or a 'potful of MJ'? Crap lingo there, Steve.
And it's been out for months that most Security Police are hooked on heroin, not just pot. Pot is not equal to poppy.
Last time anyone checked Blackwater's training of security forces there, most didn't even know how to sight in their flipping rifles, according to Foreign Policy Magazine.
But they got the New Contract to train Police and Security forces...
July 26, 2010 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
The next six to nine tokes will be critical.
July 26, 2010 8:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
One toke = One Friedman Unit?
"Don't Roll Another One!"
Ya kill me, UA! LOL!
July 26, 2010 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Heheh. Let's Roll.
July 26, 2010 9:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
A cinnamon roll for a bad case of the munchies?
July 26, 2010 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
mmmm donutsssssss....
July 26, 2010 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvGJvzwKqg0
;-)
July 26, 2010 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Smoke 'em if you got'em!
I guess the isn't exactly like Vietnam. There it was our soldiers lighting up.
July 27, 2010 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hi Wendy -- you figured me out. I'm not too versed in weed lingo. I need to watch that show by the same name. Changed marijuana pot to marijuana "pipe" above. best, steve
July 26, 2010 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
It looked like a pot to me, on the floor, but what do I know
July 26, 2010 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was pretty funny, Steve! Now we know you were never a Hippie, whether or not that's to your credit! LOL!
Thanks for answering, and havin' a bit o' fun!
Shorter: "Steve Clemons never inhaled."
You heard it here first!
July 26, 2010 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The video says, "puffs on a marijuana pipe."
Dunno what you are smoking, but it is affecting your hearing.
July 27, 2010 1:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
What you *are* or *aren't* smoking may be affecting *your reading*:
From *The Man* Above:
"Changed marijuana pot to marijuana "pipe" above. best, steve"
Posted by Steve Clemons in reply to a comment from wendy davis
;-)
July 27, 2010 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Correction: 'Many", not 'Most'; apologies to all...
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/11/24/hiring_trigger_happy_heroin_addicts_as_security_guards
July 27, 2010 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tom Engelhardt has a fascinating piece on the Afghanistan air force and their Russian aircraft including "The Little Training Program That Couldn’t".
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/26/opinion/main6714885.shtml
The next seven to nine months will be absolutely critical.
July 26, 2010 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
What we used to derisively call the six-month "Friedman Unit" has now morphed into the "Mullen Unit" (requiring a few more "critical months" before -- whatever). In fact, any such Orwellian misnomer only means "the next last chance." About four years ago, I explored this oxymoron in "Boobie Last Chance Scenarios," only one episode of my in-progress epic of post-linguistic comparative misanthropology: Fernando Po, U.S.A. Due to length considerations, I'll just post the link.
http://themisfortuneteller.blogspot.com/2006/12/boobie-last-chance-scenarios.html
How I look forward next year to the next last chance after this most-recently announced last one. Or, as we used to say back in Southeast Asia forty years ago:
"If we knew what to do, we'd have done it already."
And:
"If we could have, we would have; but we didn't, so we can't."
July 26, 2010 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
You call yourself an ex-patriot?
"I know my own nation best.
That's why I despise it the most.
And I know and love my own people, too, the swine. I'm a patriot.
A dangerous man."
-- Edward Abbey
July 26, 2010 11:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the quote, Don. I'll treasure it.
I don't claim to have invented the philosophy of ex-patriotism, but I've done my level best to exemplify it in both word and deed. Personally, though, I give pride of place to Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce who wrote in his Devil's Dictionary:
And, of course:
I think the extent of my native "patriotism" began to dissolve about the time in elementary school (during the Eisenhower/McCarthy administration) when I started having to hold my breath during the enforced daily loyalty oath so as not to have extorted from me any superstitious animist utterance proclaiming me and my country "under" some sort of Republican Party spook. Today, if I could offer an ex-patriot alternative, I'd have the little future fascists recite "The Boobie Pledge of Subservience."
http://themisfortuneteller.blogspot.com/2008/04/boobie-pledge-of-subservience.html
At any rate, in this thread the discussions about "training" foreign peoples to fight against themselves in the interest of an occupying power (the U.S.) focus on the details of desultory disobedience (which one ought to expect) rather than on the absurd supposition that foreign peoples require or desire training from anyone -- especially Americans -- to do any such thing.
July 27, 2010 3:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, there is nothing wrong with sparking up and tuning out...except before accomplishing your work for the day. Working and space truckin' do not go hand in glove with one another. I don't find the fact that they smoke troubling, many cops here in the US do, when off duty. What is a problem is when the ones in Afghanistan choose to enjoy some of Mother Earth's gifts. When you get high all you want to do is ponder the universe, let your mind wander and listen to music often sounding like this. But in terms of having a functioning police force in Afghanistan at any time in the near future this is not reassuring news...
July 26, 2010 9:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to fear, there is a top-secret pilot program for a solution to nip this right in the bud.
July 27, 2010 4:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
HAHAHA...classic. It could work but the punishment for the kid's other crime would be much more severe in Afghanistan.
(:-O
July 27, 2010 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Levin kind of squicks me out. He's a little too, I dunno...."that guy." I don't know what he's up to and I don't trust him.
July 27, 2010 12:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I would just say to our troops...don't forget where the term "assassin" comes from in the first place!
July 27, 2010 1:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't those troops realize allowing this information out might jeopardize American troops?
How about trying to arrest THESE guys, National Security folks?
Afraid of a little bad press... or a couple hundred million angry countrymen?
Once again, we find that National Security has more to do with CYA than making sure our REAL PATRIOTS who are dying are safe....
The bottom of this nation's barrel resides... and has been residing... in Washington these past several decades... IMHO
July 27, 2010 1:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Getting loaded before battle is as old as warfare.
July 27, 2010 1:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Getting loaded before battle is as old as warfare.
July 27, 2010 2:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
A bit old but representative. I don't think many have seen this.
LINK = http://www.vbs.tv/watch/vbs-news/obama-s-war
July 27, 2010 4:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I spent three years at Pope AFB which is a part of Fort Bragg. Our aircraft hauled the 82nd wherever they needed to go. I had plenty of chances in my particular job to accompany them. Nothing ever phased those guys and I'm glad to see they have retained that. I'll admit though, I could never come to terms with jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. They thought nothing of it. I happened to have been the NCOIC of the section that serviced the computers on the aircraft that figured out where their DZ was and commanded them when to jump. Some of them who I knew thought that was a big deal but in my opinion what they did was a much bigger deal. For me, it still is.
I lived off base on a quiet cul de sac in Fayetteville. My next door neighbor was a detective in the sheriffs office and a retired gunny and he was the same way as the guys in the 82nd. Nothing ever bothered him. I guess it just goes with the territory for these guys. You get the impression they're all a bit crazy. But you always wanted them on your side. They never wavered in their friendship or honesty. You had to have been there.
July 27, 2010 8:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think you wanted the word "fazed" (as in "disturbed the composure of") instead of "phased" (as in "electrical alternating voltage"). Given the number of American servicemen electrocuted in Iraq due to faulty -- but very patriotic -- Haliburton/KBR wiring, I'd say that one could easily phase a soldier/cop/guard simply by hooking him or her up to a 220v power source.
Otherwise, does your military idolatry have a connection with the current thread discussing drugs and other forms of corruption within the American-trained Afghan army and police? I served almost six years in the U.S. Navy, the last eighteen months in the now-defunct Republic of Vietnam. Many of the career lifers I met used to joke: "Don't knock the war, it's the only one we've got." Nothing about what they did to the Vietnamese fazed them in the slightest. Personally, I never found them or their bigoted attitudes a source of veneration or worship. I feel the same about many of our professional foreign legion today who have hardly distinguished themselves or brought credit to our country. Some have, but many -- far too many -- haven't. That their behavior doesn't faze them, I count as something of an indictment rather than commendation.
Retired Air Force Lt. Colonel William Astore has recently posted a pretty good article on military idolatry called "Wars Don't Make Heroes" at the TomDispatch website. I recommend it.
July 27, 2010 9:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175276/tomgram%3A_william_astore%2C_wars_don%27t_make_heroes___/
July 27, 2010 9:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
You seem to have made some assumptions which happen to be false.
In my comments I referred to people, individuals who were good persons and friends. I made no commentary to what we were doing, if I agreed with it or any suggestion of idolizing any aspect of it.
July 28, 2010 5:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's disconcerting to me that our troops are not training these Afghan police in the proper methods.
I mean, first of all, the tube on that bong is way, way too long. Plus, while I am heartened that the first bong hit cough sounds the same no matter what dialect the smoker has, that could all be avoided if our troops were able to win the hearts and minds of these fine police officers by teaching them the Fulton Puff Method.
I mean, allegedly.
July 27, 2010 9:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
(cough) What he said.
July 28, 2010 6:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't really a new development. The VBS had a piece on this problem years ago with British troops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc8w0IX4UQc
July 27, 2010 9:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hold the phone...troops there are using pre-battle techniques that date back to at least 430 BC?
Woah.
Just...woah. News flash.
July 27, 2010 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
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July 29, 2010 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink