Afghans Start To Fear The Eventual U.S. Withdrawal Of Combat Soldiers

Afghan Army Successes Cannot Mask Fears Of What Happens When US Goes -- The Guardian

Despite the progress made by home-trained soldiers, there are worries that the Taliban will quickly fill the void.

Six and a half years ago, when Abdul Baseer first started treating wounded Afghan soldiers in southern Afghanistan, he worked out of a small wooden hut which served as his office, pharmacy, surgery and sleeping quarters. He shared it with four other medics.

Now he has a gleaming, 100-bed military hospital that can do "everything except neurosurgery". Nearly every Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier who is wounded in southern Afghanistan comes through his hospital at the sprawling, and equally new, base of the 205th "Hero" Corps outside Kandahar City.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am one of those who are deeply skeptical that Afghan society and culture can transform itself to some semblance of the 21rst century in my lifetime. Tribalism, a culture of corruption, warlords and the drug trade, extreme and horrid poverty coupled with a fanatical religious indoctrination among a large segment of the population .... all of these factors can easily (and probably) sweep away any progress that Afghanistan has made in the past few years.