Gail Nelson, 职业情报官，博彩平台推荐校友, advised Afghan military intelligence leaders after the United States drove the Taliban from power

It’s been almost three years since the Afghanistan government fell to the Taliban, 随着时间的推移，一些人开始相信，美国建立和支持一个民主且对西方友好的政府的努力从一开始就注定要失败.

盖尔·尼尔森不是其中之一.

他说:“事情本不必如此。. 他说:“如果给予阿富汗领导人更多的尊重和权力，让他们承担起打击塔利班的责任, 事情可能会有所不同. 我不能肯定地说结果会改变, but at least the responsibility would have been more on the Afghans and less on the U.S. and NATO.”

纳尔逊从经验出发. A 博彩平台推荐 graduate with master’s and doctorate degrees in 政治科学 and a U.S. 公务员和空军情报工作 , 尼尔森在2000年代初和2010年代初分别担任了两年和三年的阿富汗高级情报官员军事顾问.

Those first years in Afghanistan—after the Taliban had been driven from power by U.S. and coalition forces following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on American soil—were promising, 据尼尔森说.

有前途的早年

2003年12月，纳尔逊是大约24名美国士兵中的一员.S. advisors—all military veterans  of senior military ranks —who were hired by a U.S. 在阿富汗工作的军事承包商. Representing different military branches and experienced in different fields, all were hired to advise top Afghan defense and intelligence officials.

“ We and the Afghans had radically different cultural backgrounds” Nelson says, “但是博彩平台推荐都有一个共同的目标，那就是让阿富汗人摆脱苏联占领和内战的影响. 他们和我一样，有向西迁移的明确决心. It was a positive approach but there was much work to do in institutionalizing the change.”

Afghan intelligence leaders he worked with were Soviet-trained from the 1980s, 当时苏联占领了这个国家, 所以他们已经知道情报策略和原则, 但他们想拥抱美国.S. 和北约的方法，根据尼尔森的说法.

“阿富汗最高情报官员亲自要求我:帮助博彩平台推荐建立一个在组织和教义上都以西方为导向的组织,” he says. “They wanted our help learning to run a defense and intelligence organization aligned with the West. 他们认为阿富汗成为西方的一部分非常重要.”

在阿富汗, 这种文化给予人们以年龄为基础的尊重, 尊重他们必须分享的生活经历, 据尼尔森说, so the fact that he and many of his fellow advisors were older  was an asset used for maximum effect.

“They decide how old you are, and then they decide if they should listen to you,” he says. “So, 我和我的顾问同事们在为阿富汗年轻领导人提供建议时，拥有年龄优势.”

尼尔森说，他当时的日常职责主要是会见国防和情报高级官员，就军事情报理论和实践交换意见, 并撰写有关情报生产的论文, collection, 和反间谍. 这些问题包括教义, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, 和设施.

有很多专业知识可以分享

Nelson had extensive strategic intelligence knowledge based upon his 26 years in Western Europe, where he was responsible for Soviet/Warsaw Pact and Post-Soviet political intelligence estimates. 他在博彩平台推荐获得的政治学硕士和博士学位，专攻德国和苏联研究，这对他面临的挑战是无价的补充.

他于2001年从空军强制退休, 57岁的时候, 作为一名上校退休，并从美国退役.S. 公务员也是如此. However, after 9/11, military contractors were looking for individuals with specialized expertise, and Nelson says he believed he could put his skills to good use in Afghanistan, where national leaders were seeking to create a country free of the Taliban’s harsh rule.

尽管纳尔逊在阿富汗是一名私人承包商, 他有很多机会观察美国和印度之间的互动.S. and NATO active-duty military leaders with their Afghan counterparts. 他相信，在他在阿富汗的第一年左右，阿富汗人愿意给那些西方军事代表以怀疑的好处, 但随着时间的推移，情况发生了变化.

“U.S./NATO officers found great difficulty in adapting to Afghan culture and were not inclined to do so. 他们没有南亚地区研究的背景, 让他们很难理解政治, 阿富汗军事领导人的心理和领导风格,” Nelson says. 对他们来说, 阿富汗官员普遍发现很难接受计算机技术在其机构中的首要地位，而更喜欢直接的人类话语的亲和力.

尼尔森说，让事情变得更复杂的是，限制美国出口的决定.S./北约军事人员在阿富汗一年的部署限制了这些军官与阿富汗国防部代表和总参谋部领导层合作的效率.  

“Institution-building is not easy; it takes time,” he says. “And in a culture like Afghanistan, you’re not going to make changes quickly.”

更重要的是，双方都很清楚这一点.S. 美国于2003年入侵伊拉克，推翻萨达姆·侯赛因政权，并寻找大规模杀伤性武器, Nelson says.

尽管存在这些障碍，以及试图帮助管理一个由8个主要部落和超过15个亚文化组成的国家的许多其他障碍，纳尔逊说，当他在2005年12月离开时，他仍然对这个国家的前景感到合理的乐观.

He went on to take consulting assignments as a military advisor in the Philippines and Iraq.

这是恶性循环的迹象

2010年9月, 纳尔逊回到了阿富汗首都, Kabul, and he says it was immediately clear things had changed for the worse, 部分原因是安全局势恶化.

包括北约官员在内的阿富汗领导人受到的威胁在喀布尔各处可见，主要道路和大道上都设置了路障. One assassin attempted to kill the chief of military Intelligence in 2011 but failed to reach his target. 顾问的安全屋也是主要目标, 两名警卫在尼尔森住所被杀, 2012年，至少有两名顾问在汽车炸弹袭击中丧生. Three Afghan children known to Nelson were also killed at the Gate to Camp Eggers by a suicide bomber. 

喀布尔变成了一个更加危险的地方.

Meanwhile, 尼尔森说，他很沮丧地意识到，他和其他军事承包商越来越多地被美国的军事行动边缘化.S./NATO active-duty military members,  despite their deep connections with their Afghan counterparts. 他说，西方领导人也越来越多地绕过阿富汗领导人，在阿富汗和北约打击塔利班的任务中发挥领导作用，这一决定对阿富汗的安全产生了负面影响，因为西方军队大幅减少了在阿富汗的存在，而阿富汗人感到无权填补真空   

At the same time, years into the operation in Afghanistan, Nelson says U.S./NATO military planners still had not done their homework when it came to teaching U.S. 有关阿富汗历史、文化和地缘政治的军事人员.

首都以外, 大多数阿富汗人都住在小房子里, 农村, 许多地方没有电, 坚持部落主义和伊斯兰传统. Most of the Afghans who live in those communities never leave them, which creates a provincial attitude reinforced by  complete indifference to events in Kabul, 据尼尔森说.

所以，一个年轻的美国人.S. military officer from Kansas telling a village chieftain how to run things is not going to go over well,” he says. “You can’t just march into a country like Afghanistan and think they are going to embrace a modern, computer, business-oriented model  when 10 miles outside of Kabul they don’t have lightbulbs.”

对他们来说, 塔利班成功地进行了宣传，让村民们不再把西方军队视为外国人, but as alien outsiders with no respect for the country’s deep cultural and religious traditions, Nelson says.

2013年9月，他最后一次离开阿富汗, 他对国家的前景深感矛盾. When the country fell to the Taliban in September 2021, it did not surprise him, Nelson says.

“博彩平台推荐在阿富汗国防方面失去了吸引力，”他说. “They were no longer responsible for what was happening in the field. It was too late; they were not engaged. 这已经转变为北约和美国.S. 带头打击塔利班.”

What’s more, 特朗普政府在2020年2月决定与塔利班直接谈判，并将阿富汗政府排除在外.S. forces from the country “effectively surrendered Afghan sovereignty,” Nelson says.

没有吸取的教训

Today, 在阿富汗落入塔利班之手三年后, Nelson says he is worried that America has not learned two vital lessons from its longest war.

第一个是阿富汗领导人不支持2001年塔利班被赶下台后与美国站在一起的阿富汗领导人. 具体地说，纳尔逊说，他对美国在伊拉克的军事行动深感不安.S. 在阿富汗于2021年8月落入塔利班之手之前或之后，美国和北约都没有齐心协力撤离阿富汗高级政治和军事领导人，也没有为他们提供庇护.

和他一起工作的阿富汗情报领导人, Nelson says one was killed  in the aftermath of the Taliban’s retaking of the country, at least one is in hiding in Afghanistan and one is in neighboring Tajikistan but is in limbo there, 无法获得U.S. assistance. 纳尔逊说，他不确定他在阿富汗时认识的其他几名阿富汗高级情报官员的命运.

Leaving those Afghan leaders behind was not right and sends a bad signal to U.S. 盟友和潜在盟友，尼尔森指出. 他说，他已经联系了美国.S. 国务院, 白宫和其他政府机构主张为这些阿富汗领导人提供庇护，但没有得到任何回应.

Meanwhile, 尼尔森说，他认为美国在阿富汗面临的许多问题是因为军事规划者不是该地区区域研究方面的专家, 他说，部分责任要归咎于大学, which he says typically do not offer master’s degrees and PhDs in area studies.

“If universities aren’t graduating MA/PhDs in area studies for various regions of the world, we are going to continue to produce people who know nothing about regional histories, 文化和地缘政治决定了美国是否应该.S. 国家安全政策要么成功，要么失败。. “博彩平台推荐在越南搞砸了，在阿富汗也搞砸了. I believe one of the key issues was there was a failure among the Pentagon planners, who were coming out of a background that was functional and not area-studies related.”

反思美国在阿富汗的战争, Nelson says, “进入一个博彩平台推荐完全不了解的地区, 你现在看到了它在2021年崩溃时的教训, 博彩平台推荐又回到了塔利班政权.”

上图:阿富汗喀布尔的景色(图片来源:iStock)

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