Comments on: We Pay Afghan Soldiers Less Than the Taliban Does

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By: Taliban Pays Its Troops Better Than Karzai Pays His « Overseas Civilian Contractors

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:28:15 +0000

[...] Stanley McChrystal testified to Congress that the pay scale of the Afghan security forces was “almost at parity” with the estimated $300 that the Taliban pays its foot soldiers per month. But look at the [...]

By: Name

Name — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:30:15 +0000

It's shocking to me on first blush, too. But thinking about it… isn't this always the way? The mafia pays better than the NYPD, the Mexican drug gangs surely pay better than the Mexican army. Heck, private defense attorneys make more than the D.A.s they go up against, if you want to push the metaphor.

Isn't there just supposed to be something to being “one of the good guys” that's it's own reward?

I dunno… maybe that doesn't apply here, since “good guys” and “bad guys” is probably not how the average Afghan sees it (or if they do, they might see it the other way 'round).

By: Name

Name — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:30:15 +0000

Isn't there just supposed to be something to being “one of the good guys” that's it's own reward?

I dunno… maybe that doesn't apply here, since “good guys” and “bad guys” is probably not how the average Afghan sees it (or if they do, they might see it the other way 'round).

By: Hockey » Blog Archive » The Cost of War « Just Above Sunset

Hockey » Blog Archive » The Cost of War « Just Above Sunset — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:54:17 +0000

[...] be that as it may, Spencer Ackerman here notices an interesting bit of testimony from General McChrystal about the Taliban – they’re [...]

By: The Cost of War « Just Above Sunset

The Cost of War « Just Above Sunset — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:20:54 +0000

[...] be that as it may, Spencer Ackerman here notices an interesting bit of testimony from General McChrystal about the Taliban – they’re [...]

By: badtux

badtux — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:13:39 +0000

Sad to say, this isn't going to change as long as the Afghan government is thoroughly corrupt. We had the same problem in South Vietnam. We gave the South Vietnamese government enough money to pay the troops, but the paymasters tended to embezzle the money into their Swiss bank accounts rather than paying the troops with it. There's many a restaurant here in the USA that was started with money that was intended to be paid to ARVN soldiers.

Anyhow, the eventual result in South Vietnam was that the troops basically said, "no pay, no play" and, lacking any allegiance to any nation (since there was no real South Vietnamese national identity, no leader had built a cult of nationhood there just as Afghans don't view themselves as Afghans but, rather, as members of an ethnic group or clan) saw no reason to fight hard. During the final offensive after their leadership mostly fled the country they by and large threw down their weapons and stripped off their uniforms and went home. Both NVA veterans and civilians who later escaped report that the streets of Saigon were littered with thrown-down weapons and uniforms as the NVA entered virtually unopposed.

What that history says about our chances in Afghanistan... you connect the dots yourself, okay?

By: AfPak: The Counter-Intuitive Strategy | One Utah

AfPak: The Counter-Intuitive Strategy | One Utah — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:10:30 +0000

[...] Today on Capitol Hill, General McChrystal identified one fairly large problem: the Taliban pays its fighters more than the Afghan Army pays theirs. Share [...]

By: Matthew Yglesias » The Price of Soldiering

Matthew Yglesias » The Price of Soldiering — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:29:31 +0000

[...] seems to have made some news at today’s hearings with the revelation that the Taliban pays higher wages than the Afghan government for a soldiers. As Spencer Ackerman says “if the Obama [...]

By: strangely_enough

strangely_enough — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:53:54 +0000

When you consider what we pay our own soldiers, versus what we pay them when they go to work for Blackwater, Triple Canopy, and the rest of the merc's, seems to be a pattern.