Why do we still train Middle Eastern Officers. Especially after the AWOLs over the past years.

2016-12-06T22:21:57-05:00

Response by CSM Michael Chavaree made Dec 6 at 2016 10:40 PM

2016-12-06T22:40:57-05:00

Good question

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 6 at 2016 10:48 PM

2016-12-06T22:48:54-05:00

Because it is necessary....because the majority do return back to their country...and because they had to go through multiple layers of background checks and screening before they were even accepted in the first place.

The thing you have to understand is that the Iraqi army and the Afghan army as they exist now do not have the established background that the US military has. They do not yet have a culture of professionally trained soldiers who were raised, mentored, and trained by their country's own professionally raised, mentored and trained soldiers. The reason we bring them to the US is to expose them to that culture. Yes, some go AWOL, most return. The ones who go AWOL are not a threat to the US and you would know this if you ever had knowledge of the insane process it takes to recommend foreign soldier to attend a course in the US. Afghanistan and Iraq sucks, it sucks so bad that some of their best officers and NCOs would rather wash dishes in their cousin's best friend's aunt's restaurant than go back to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The payoff in the end is still worth way more than a few individuals going AWOL.

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Dec 6 at 2016 10:57 PM

2016-12-06T22:57:11-05:00

This is an old story....older than the Afghan war. The Foriegn Student detachments used to have special training for those requesting asylum, those going AWOL, what to do if they flunk out, etc. I was an escort officer for a late 90s Partnership for Peace exercise (former communist countries) and got similar training. Before it was Afghans, it was Officers and NCOs from Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, various countries in Africa, and newer allies in Eastern Europe. Before that it was Japanese and German Officers along with our NATO counterparts. There is always someone who goes over the wall, even with many who have much better prospects than an Afghan Officer, who may be going back to certain death. How does this little streak of seven compare to the total number here Training? They leave that out of most articles.

The alternative to having these Officers/NCOs coming here, seeing what is possible in Murica if they make it happen, and taking that back to their country (part of their curriculum is designed purposely to do just that) or is to it better to try and have all our school house infrastructure deploy there? We wanted to reduce risks to our ETTs, so we moved allied officers here to train. We want to get out of there someday, right? Only way that gets done if they gitty up and make it happen there. If a couple go over the wall, meh.

Afghans are Central Asian and not middle eastern. This story is from September. Why is this a thing now? What evidence has there been that anything bad has happened or is about to happen with regard to these guys? We have thousands of expired student visa peeps that just disappear into America every year. No Foxnews level outrage. They are actually from hostile countries like China and Iran. My spidey senses are that these guys are hiding out somewhere, driving a cab or working somewhere off the grid to scratch out a living.

Response by SFC George Smith made Dec 6 at 2016 11:15 PM

2016-12-06T23:15:01-05:00

In the Old Days they Were Well Vetted And We knew they Would Go Back And Do Well and Work Well With US And Allied Forces...

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 7 at 2016 12:06 AM

2016-12-07T00:06:26-05:00

I am sure we'll have a lot of defecting Cuban officers who go to the military service schools

Response by SFC Marcus Belt made Dec 7 at 2016 6:32 AM

2016-12-07T06:32:59-05:00

Because training foreign officers was and remains a means to achieve our foreign policy objectives.

Response by Capt Tom Brown made Dec 7 at 2016 8:53 AM

2016-12-07T08:53:51-05:00

Training Afgans is a waste of time as they have neither the will nor the desire to fight the Taliban and various other groups trying to take over their miserable country. Wasted time and effort kinda like training all the South Vietnamese.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 7 at 2016 8:55 AM

2016-12-07T08:55:37-05:00

Poor argument since US Soldiers go awol too, one could argue that even some of them are a bigger risk.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 7 at 2016 9:40 AM

2016-12-07T09:40:14-05:00

Just last year, 3 Afghans disappeared from Ft Leonard Wood. And those don't take off, seem to become the problem in the future. But we're trying to build a friends over there... Hearts and minds and all of that crap

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 7 at 2016 10:25 AM

2016-12-07T10:25:52-05:00

This picture doesn't even show all of the incidents. There was one at Joint Base Cape Cod in MA a couple of years ago. They ended up finding them in upstate NY on their way to Canada.

Response by SPC Erich Guenther made Dec 7 at 2016 11:34 AM

2016-12-07T11:34:10-05:00

Those are pretty low AWOL rates, in my opinion considering most of them are away from home for the first time and their pay is so crappy. I'd like to see a comparison to American rates of AWOL in training. I remember more than one AWOL from my Infantry OSUT class.

Response by SGT J M Porters made May 1 at 2017 11:50 PM

2017-05-01T23:50:07-04:00

It is part of our commitment and it is also above our pay grade also. And remember we all have been home sick also.