A.L.L. = Afghanistan Lessons Learned for Soldiers

Taliban Code of Conduct published by Taliban leadership, Mid July 2009 (Mullah Omar‟s COIN guidance – a population-centric strategy) “This is our mission: to keep people and their property safe. Do not let those people that love money take our local people’s property and cause them problems.” “Keep good relationships with your friends and the local people, and do not let the enemy divide / separate you.” Intentions • We don’t have to beat ISAF militarily, just outlast international will to remain...

ISLAM • Abrahamic religion-shares roots with Judaism and Christianity • Qur’an holy book – infallible authority • Five Pillars: Testimony of faith (Shahada), Prayer (Salat), Charity (Zakat), Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj), Fasting during month of Ramadan (Sawm) • Other Beliefs: Faith (Iman), Oneness of God (Tawhid), Prophets, Angels, Judgment Day, the Books (Qur’an, Bible, Torah), Fate and Predestination • Division between Sunni and Shi’a not as important as ethnic/tribal differences • Pervasive part...

In 1969 Afghanistan tried its hand at compulsory public education for children between the ages of 7 and 15, but the initiative never had a chance to grow roots. When the Soviets invaded 10 years later, many programs, including compulsory public education, were terminated. Prior to 1969, education was purely at the discretion of the family. Even then, much of the education offered concentrated on rote memory of the Quran, and was reserved for males only. Families that elected not to send their children...

It is not something a lot of people like to talk about or acknowledge, but it is a factual way of life in many cultures, especially Afghanistan. I have talked about it before on my main blog ( www.bouhammer.com ), why Thursday nights are so popular over there, why they are called Man-Love Thursdays and I even have talked about "Chai boys" or the young soldiers in the Afghan Army and police who become R&R tools for older, senior members. Well this Tuesday, PBS is airing a "in your...

Here is another blog post that is part of the Afghanistan Lessons Learned series. With the recent postings about Karzai's statements and the arguing back and forth between our country's government I figured it would be good to provide some background on how the Afghanistan Government works. Afghanistan’s 34 Provinces are divided into districts. The number of districts has changed with the division or merging into other districts. The 325 districts that existed prior to 1979 changed with a...

A Brief History of Afghanistan (334 B.C.- Jan 2010) • 334-326 BCE: Alexander the Great’s conquests Establishes many trade centers in Afghanistan to include Kandahar and Herat• 30-248 CE: Kushan Empire The Kushans were great patrons of Buddhist art and culture; Bamiyan Buddha statues erected• 642 – 1187 CE: Islamic Conquest of AfghanistanResulting in the conversion of Afghanistan to Islam from the pre-invasion practices of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and other belief systems• 962 – 1186: Ghaznavid...

As you get ready to deploy to Afghanistan both in pre-mobilization and post-mobilization training and maybe even in your indoctrination training once you get in country, you will get more than your fair share of IED training. You will see many of the same pics, same videos, etc. over and over. You will probably hear about how IEDs work in Iraq and may or may not hear about how they work in Afghanistan. I can tell you that the IEDs in Afghanistan are not as sophisticated as they typically are in Iraq...