Let India Train the Afghan Army

[1000VA]

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Let India Train the Afghan Army - WSJ.com

Training the Afghan army is "the most critical part" of America's "long-term strategy" in the country, U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke said Monday. Pakistan agrees, and has suggested it can help, too. Yet the best candidate for the task is the Indian Army.

This million-strong force has had close to 60 years' of intense counterinsurgency experience in a variety of terrains. Indian troops have successfully carried out campaigns in jungles in India's northeast, at high altitudes in Jammu and Kashmir and in the plains in the Punjab. Its officers and enlisted men have counterinsurgency experience in both urban and rural environments.

India already has the capacity to impart this knowledge to friendly forces. The country boasts one of the world's largest military training establishments, with the ability to train officers and men for varying combat duties. Educational facilities include a major counterinsurgency training base—the Counterinsurgency and Jungle Warfare School—and a school focused on urban warfare in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the site of an ongoing insurgency. Both can simulate a variety of combat situations and provide the Afghan Army with training relevant to the terrain and physical conditions that its troops are likely to encounter upon deployment. India's counterinsurgency schools also come complete with firing ranges, obstacle courses and training areas for the detection and handling of improvised explosive devices.

Beyond such infrastructure, however, the Indian Army has at its command significant accumulated knowledge of counterinsurgency operations and techniques. Its substantial cadre of instructors have ample field experience and routinely train India's forces in counterinsurgency operations. The Indian military has formulated a viable, codified doctrine to fight counterinsurgency. This doctrine calls for important restraints on the use of force, highlights the significance of not alienating civilian populations, insists upon respect for local customs and emphasizes the importance of an eventual political solution to all insurgencies. These principles are routinely stressed in the curricula of the counterinsurgency schools and applied to the best extent possible in field operations. There is little reason to believe that within a specified span of time they could not be inculcated into the Afghan Army too.

Finally, thanks to some setbacks over the years, most notably in its operations in Sri Lanka and subsequently in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Army has taken heed of and learned a great deal from its past errors. Its leadership has undertaken a number of organizational innovations to best cope with counterinsurgency operations. Since 1990, for instance, India has fielded a contingent called the Rashtriya Rifles (literally "National Rifles"), forces with an optimal "teeth to tail" ratio, specifically trained in counterinsurgency operations. These units, drawn from the regular Indian Army, have proven especially effective when deployed in Jammu and Kashmir and have managed to restore more than a modicum of order in the state.

The Indian Army has other advantages, too. Thanks to its cheap labor costs, it can train Afghan forces at a fraction of the costs of training them in similar duties almost anywhere in the United States or Western Europe. Rank and file Afghan soldiers would feel much more at ease in India than in most other parts of the world. India has cultural bonds with Afghanistan of very long standing and Afghans have over centuries traveled to various parts of northern India. Finally, critics of the Indian Army's counterinsurgency operations notwithstanding, its forces have learned to operate within the scope of the rule of law. Many officers who have exceeded their brief have been subject to court-martial and charges of human-rights violations are not swept under the carpet.

If training the Afghan Army is as important as the U.S.-led coalition says it is, then why not accelerate training in the place that's best served to do it? Not turning to India would amount to a grave strategic error.

[Salahadin]

IMMMMMMMMposible we have seen ur intense counterinsurgency experience

[Kinshuk]

okkkkkkk you train them, be happy.

[graphican]

okkkkkkk you train them, be happy.

Soooooooooo its stop requesting and delete the thread.

By the way, Indian Army has opportunity to train its own people within its own land. Naxals are an eminent threat to Indian security and it needs lots of those experienced trainers to train military and paramilitary forces to fight them back. In my opinion India needs to build its defensive strategy more than offensive at this time.

[Kinshuk]

Soooooooooo its stop requesting and delete the thread.

By the way, Indian Army has opportunity to train its own people within its own land. Naxals are an eminent threat to Indian security and it needs lots of those experienced trainers to train military and paramilitary forces to fight them back. In my opinion India needs to build its defensive strategy more than offensive at this time.

Mr Chidambran had made it clear that we won't use forces against Naxals as they are citizens of India.

What are you proposing is really beyond my level of understanding. If it was a joke then its ok but if you were serious...

No PLease, Don't talk any rubbish that you couldn't digest properly after the dinner.

Offensive??? Lol!! Had we been offensive, you wouldn't have seen any naxals in the new. It is very clear we are not using any offensive against them. Though I would refrain from commenting on any other issue related to naxals. They are our own citizen and we cannot go offensive against them (I mean rampage kinda stuff).

India would do, what serves it in the best possible manner and in favor of its people.

[weaponx]

Soooooooooo its stop requesting and delete the thread.

By the way, Indian Army has opportunity to train its own people within its own land. Naxals are an eminent threat to Indian security and it needs lots of those experienced trainers to train military and paramilitary forces to fight them back. In my opinion India needs to build its defensive strategy more than offensive at this time.

look this we can debate in a positive manner or start ranting and destroy this thread..

i hope ur was a positive criticism..

so let me explain certain points u may not know about Naxals and indian security forces..

Indian Army can only be involved if there is insurgency(secession) in part of the country....but naxalism is not secessionist movement but a socio-economic struggle....same goes for IAF...in recent times there has been requests from the IAF to allow them to shoot back at naxals if they r fired upon...But it was denied by the government...

if Indian Army is brought upon to solve the naxal problem, it wont take long to get rid of these scums..but by doing will be in direct confrontation with the constitution of india....So it has to be taken care by Police of respective states and Central police...
and u know how our police in south asia works...severe under hand, low pay doesnt help...

now coming to indian army helping in counter insurgency training to other countries..let me paste an article i found in net...

"Taking in to account the successes in combating militancy to a great extent, New Delhi in 2001 threw the school at Vairengte open for soldiers from other countries with three US army officers being the first overseas batch to be trained. After the 9/11 terror strikes in the US the jungle warfare school at Vairengte began attracting military cadets from across the world.In 2003, a group of about 100 elite US commandos completed a three-week anti-insurgency combat training at the institute. The exercise, codenamed Balance Iroquois, saw personnel of the US Special Forces undergo an intensive exercise along with soldiers from the Indian Special Forces battalion at Vairengte. Troops were trained to feed on venomous vipers, dogs and monkeys as part of military exercises to sharpen their skills in jungle survival and combat.
Indian Army soldiers and U.S. Army and National Guard soldiers trained together in Operation YUDH ABHYAS 04-1 the two forces focused on reflexive firing, ambush, jungle patrolling, survival in the jungle and a fast roping technique called slithering.
France, UK, Israel and Italy are the latest have sought India's help to train their soldiers in counter-insurgency operations at this elite facility"

so u see indian army is famous for its counter insurgency ops.....i see no harm if afghan army trains with indian army..it is better for all the 3 countries(india,pakistan,afghanistan) if they can learn form our successes and failures...

[Super Falcon]

welll we will more than happy if you give them your faulty trainning that what USA wants tooo USA can give them trainnning but USA wants to give them faulty trainning which Indian armed forces are at best

[weaponx]

IMMMMMMMMposible we have seen ur intense counterinsurgency experience

may be u have not noticed..tat kashmir is still with us....

[SMC]

yeah ...train them to be suicide bombers....tats what u will train them...
and i no u are the best in that field....brain wash young children and blow them apart...Talibs r ur disciples ......isnt it?

May be USA knows about ur gr8 accomplishments....creating taliban and destroying a whole country just bcoz u wanted ur neighbour to be slave to the wishes of ur ISI.....

tats y india is being asked by world over to train the afghan army....

Ignorance and lies in abundance. I won't even over go each one of them because I have been over them so many times. Is that what indian textbooks have taught you?

[SMC]

may be u have not noticed..tat kashmir is still with us....

So you're gonna teach Afghan army brute force tactics and oppress the population?

[SMC]

Ignore this guy. He is clearly a troll.

[weaponx]

i carefully and respectfully posted something which i believ in(post no 6)...but insted of having some healthy discussion..u guys started hurling rants..and when i responded in the same ..u started to abuse..shame on u

[Gazzi]

i carefully and respectfully posted something which i believ in(post no 6)...but insted of having some healthy discussion..u guys started hurling rants..and when i responded in the same ..u started to abuse..shame on u

Its not post 6 that the problem...thats just your silly observation....its post 8 that causes problems....you wish to link us with terrorists and bring forward silly arguments then expect a reply in kind.

[SMC]

Stop acting like kids, will ya..

[Gazzi]

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"Talib are your disciples".....you insult our religion and then have the nerve to say that you are not doing so.......just get lost with your Hindutva mentality........

If you are going to term us Talibs, then I will refer to you as Hindutva