About time the Afghans defused IEDs?

[soloman]

Cameron recently on his visit to Afghanistan made the point to the British troops that they were there not so much to fight a war, but to train the Afghans to keep their country secure on their own.

While I appreciate that it takes many years to fully train a bomb disposal expert is it not possible to train some of the Afghans on the types of IED found there so that our troops don't carry on losing their lives needlessly?

[manrow]

Cameron recently on his visit to Afghanistan made the point to the British troops that they were there not so much to fight a war, but to train the Afghans to keep their country secure on their own.

While I appreciate that it takes many years to fully train a bomb disposal expert is it not possible to train some of the Afghans on the types of IED found there so that our troops don't carry on losing their lives needlessly?

Considering the excessive loss of life suffered by British troops I find this proposal very attractive.

In particular it would be nice to hear the 'official' opinion on whether Afghan troops can be sensibly exposed to some of the more dangerous tasks?

[Scooby]

I think the idea has it's attractions, but does have a downside, the Afghan army undoubtedly has factions within it, so to train them how to defuse bombs will teach them how to make the bombs more difficult to defuse.

[soloman]

I think the idea has it's attractions, but does have a downside, the Afghan army undoubtedly has factions within it, so to train them how to defuse bombs will teach them how to make the bombs more difficult to defuse.

I am not sure this is likely Scooby. All manufacturers of IEDs will be attempting to find ways of making their devices more difficult to defuse. As things stand the men being killed are British; under my ideas they would be Afghan.

[manrow]

I am not sure this is likely Scooby. All manufacturers of IEDs will be attempting to find ways of making their devices more difficult to defuse. As things stand the men being killed are British; under my ideas they would be Afghan.

News tonight is that IEDs have increased by 94% in last year. Now vital that Afghans start to deal with these devices.

[Streetwalker]

Just a thought but if we were not in Afganistan wouldn't the need for Afgani bomb dissposal teams be obsolete ?

[ryoden]

Lets hope they dont take the same track as Iraq and buy the useless tosh that the evil %^&*"£$ McCormick has been selling to every country he can fool.
BBC News - Newsnight - Export ban for useless 'bomb detector'
He has made millions selling what is effectively a dousing rod as a bomb detector and I suspect that many have lost their lives because of it, he has finally been caught up with by the law (he has been bailed to return in July according to the BBC) but only due to the efforts of determined group on the net.

It's a tricky balancing act with regards to training since as has been said you could be giving the enemy the ability to upgrade their methods to defeat your anti bomb technique.

[Midas]

Just a thought but if we were not in Afganistan wouldn't the need for Afgani bomb dissposal teams be obsolete ?

I believe there's a great deal of truth there; if we weren't in that country - we being all the non-Afghani forces - the need for the Taliban and/or whoever else would have little need to plant the thousands of explosive devices they currently do. However given that we still are, I do think that the pace of using local specialists to dispose of their own devices should be greatly enhanced.

[soloman]

I believe there's a great deal of truth there; if we weren't in that country - we being all the non-Afghani forces - the need for the Taliban and/or whoever else would have little need to plant the thousands of explosive devices they currently do. However given that we still are, I do think that the pace of using local specialists to dispose of their own devices should be greatly enhanced.

Points well made by yourself Midas as well as Streetwalker. The Taliban are indeed currently targetting the non-Afghani forces, so that if the Afghani troops and population were to become the main wounded or suffering loss of life as proposed at the start of this thread, then the IEDs would have considerably less political impact.

It is not just defusing IEDs is vital in this regard, as more protection for British troops whether personal or vehicular, would make a huge difference too.