Training Day 3

Spent a lot of time in the last 48 hours talking about the Afghanistan/Pakistan region.  Lots of the guys here have done a recent tour over there so we have been talking a lot about their experiences. Trying to draw as much information from them as possible.  Some of these dudes have pretty impressive "in country" resumes.  Things like regular foot patrols with AFG Army, village engagements, briefing US Generals on key regional projects, and the list goes on. 

We have had some far ranging discussions on US involvement in AFG and what that is going to look like over the next three to four years.  The biggest topic seems to be uncertainty.  All the players (China, Pakistan, AFG, Taliban, etc) are all in "wait and see" mode.  My deployment will be right in the middle of the transition.  Should give me something to write home about. 

Something I wasn't expecting out of this particular course is the amount of language training we are getting.  This course isn't designed for my particular program and is a more generic course for any/all Air Force advisers to AFG.  So when they told us we were getting some basic lang training I was pleasantly surprised.  Current learning method is flash cards and auditory repeats with the instructor (who spent 6 years as an interpreter for SOF types over there).
 
The US adviser mission  (to foreign governments) has a long history dating back to our time fighting in the Philippines after the Spanish American war.  Of course the adviser mission in Vietnam tainted the political reputation of that type of engagement, but it didn't diminish the demand for US military expertise abroad.  Ultimately the adviser mission can allow the US to build partner capability without having to deploy a huge US "staying" force to a region to pursue our interests.  It's not a perfect mission set, but it has huge strategic value in an environment where relationships in country are more important than how many tanks the enemy drives.  And by the way we're broke and its cheaper...

PL