Can Afghan Republic Survive After U.S. Withdrawal?

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By AWR Hawkins 

As the Obama administration gets closer to pulling all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, questions still exist about what kind of country we will leave behind and whether the Afghan republic will be able to survive once we are gone. 

Conservative talk show host David Webb and former Navy SEAL Team Six assault team leader Chuck Pfarrer traveled to Afghanistan last week to get a firsthand look at what we are doing there now, as well as indications of what it might be like once we leave. 

Speaking with Webb on Fox News, Pfarrer said there is not much to teach the Afghans about light infantry because "they are masters of the world at that." However, he stressed that they must have an air force that can support the infantry in missions "that are going to be necessary... to continue to prosecute a counterinsurgency war." 

Webb agreed and speculated that in "our history we've seen military aviation become the development of commercial aviation" and help to spread more and more "commercialism, capitalism, and dare I say it, the growth of a nation."

His point was clear. If we leave Afghanistan too soon or if we leave them without the right skills and equipment in place, then we may be contributing to the collapse of a nation instead of the advance of one. 

Pfarrer said this is exactly what needs to be stressed and that it forms the work General John E. Michel is doing in Afghanistan right now, explaining, "[Michel] is not only manufacturing Afghan aviators, he is helping to put forth a new breed of Afghan citizens... [Persons] connected to the world, [persons] not burdened down by religious prejudices; these are the kind of young leaders -- men and women aviators -- that General Michel is working with [and] that are really going to be the future of Afghanistan."