Positive Move Between Chinese and Afghanistan Armies

In a small effort of helping its bordering country to the west, China reached an agreement with Afghanistan that would allow the Chinese to begin training Afghan soldiers and officers. What this small move demonstrates is that China is not there to just take copper, but instead, they are actually going to give a little. Instead of reaping the benefits of a country that is slowly turning around, China is actually participating in the country’s growth.

While China is still not deploying soldiers to fight the Taliban, by sending trainers into the country to start training soldiers, they are beginning to realize that if Afghanistan begins to fall into ruin, that copper mine that they have access to could be taken away from them. Because China is at that stage of development where resources are so important, a stable Afghanistan means a safe exchange of goods and services.

China joins a list of other nations that have trainers in Afghanistan including France, the United States, Britain, Germany, and the Czech. There are numerous other countries that participate in training the army with the hopes that one day, the Afghan army might be able to hold its own against threats.

This news is especially beneficial because it comes on the heels of a report that a pay increase for Afghan soldiers has resulted in more enlistment. As much as that was a common sense conclusion, it’s important because the army is going to be increasing in size as more money is provided. While the United States and NATO fighting the Taliban and, simultaneously, trying to train the Afghan army to be up to speed by the time America begins to pull out, it was going to require a considerable amount of resources. As much as the job is going to still be a very difficult one, the fact that China is stepping up and taking some of that pressure off the United States backs up the basis of a Sys-Admin force.

A sys-admin force is a military force whose responsibility is to fight for the peace. They are those that are trained in counter-insurgency, relief work, development and building up the sovereign military to name a few tasks. The United States has always been very good at the fighting side of war, but when it came to the peaceful side of war (rebuilding a country, fighting insurgents, etc.), we were never very good. That was what we had to learn from Iraq and Afghanistan and now, we are making the push toward success.

The most important thing that China has done in this deal is bring officers back to China to train them. In an article I wrote about the Afghan Army, I talked about how the United States should invite new officers back here to train at our military academies. By learning in our military academies, the officers develop an understanding of what it means to be a successful officer. While it will take years for those young officers to reach the higher echelons of command, they start immediately having an influence on the military because they are the ones training the enlisted men.

For some, this might seem like too little, too late from China. That’s not the case. China comes from such an isolationist mindset that for them to start helping other countries is going to take some time to get used to. While this is only a small step and they’ve yet to send soldiers to fight the Taliban, it is an effective move towards a more global effort in Afghanistan. Chinese involvement in Afghanistan can only be positive; there’s no other way to look at it.