Happy Dependence Day

In reference to William J. Astore's Bracing Views Blog entry:

Why Can’t American Troops Just Leave Iraq?

https://bracingviews.com/2021/07/27/why-cant-american-troops-just-leave-iraq/

My comment in response to another comment by JerryS* https://bracingviews.com/2021/07/27/why-cant-american-troops-just-leave-iraq/comment-page-1/#comment-25429

I have to commend JerryS (July 27, 2021 at 9:30 PM) for calling “Bullshit!” on the word-like noise “training” as employed in the context of endless U.S. military adventurism in foreign lands far distant from any relationship to the security of the United States and its people. Bravo.

I can appreciate the common-sense frustration inherent in the comment, but the well-chosen and appropriate epithet, by itself, does not explicate what the purposefully confusing rhetoric means in practice. The American public mistakenly believes that “training” means teaching someone to perform an activity independently so that they no longer require further commentary, suggestions, or advice from anyone else. In other words: “training” results in the trained “standing on their own,” so to speak. This more or less works with American enlisted personnel trained by other Americans over several months of “Basic Training,” which, in essence, amounts to “Hurry up and Wait” and “Nobody cares what you think. If the Navy wants to know what you think, the Navy will tell you what you think.” That sort of thing.

But in actual practice with Americans training foreign vassal military forces, a sort of reverse Pavlov’s Conditioned Response takes place. Consider the following metaphorical illustration:

American military “Trainer”: If I ring this bell every time I feed this dog, the dog will learn to drool in anticipation of another meal.

Foreign “Trained” Dog: If I drool just a little bit, an American military trainer will supply me with a meal and some music to go along with it.

Also precisely relevant to the current disintegrating situation in Afghanistan (if not Iraq, too) Chris Hedges in his book Death of the Liberal Class (2010) explains the actual nature of this U.S. military “training” for the Afghan Army (ANA):

“The real purpose of American advisers assigned to ANA units, however, is not ultimately to train Afghans but rather to function as liaisons between Afghani units and American firepower and logistics. The ANA is unable to integrate ground units with artillery and air support. It has no functioning supply system. It depends on the U.S. military to do basic tasks. The United States even pays the bulk of ANA salaries.”

I hope this clears up some of the misunderstanding that results from the U.S. military (and its attendant corporate camp followers) using the word-like noise “training” in a deliberately deceptive manner so as to obscure the true nature of their actual — and woefully inept — activities and results.

Note *  comment reference

JerryS (July 27, 2021 at 9:30 PM)

"I love how we always want to stay to provide “training” until our favored fighters can stand on their own. Decades of training but it is never enough. Who the hell is training the terrorists/insurgents/rebels? Every time I see footage of them, they are running around in Toyota pickups with RPGs and AK-47’s and a canvas bag full rice or beans or whatever. I know it is more complicated than that but this never ending training is just bullshit."