Your wish was actually granted in 1990 by Artyom Borovik, in “The Hidden War,” which, interestingly, also features the original cover used by Mr. Feifer.

http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-War-Russian-Journalists-Afghanistan/dp/080213775X

Yes, it’s true that militaries of many Islamic countries may not posses that high level of technical expertise as some of ISAF troops can boast of. Those higher capabilities, however, are being utilized to kill more Afghans. For training Afghan army and police forces, one does not really require NATO-level standards for the instructors in any case. Afghan Army is not supposed to accomplish NATO missions. Also, the mission of Islamic peace force will not be to fight against Afghans but rather to do the peace keeping duties and facilitating intra-Afghan negotiations aimed Afghan national reconciliation.

Do you support increased contributions from Turkey and other muslim majority countries? I am surprised, since their primary mission would be to train and equip the ANSF, which you are suspicious of. Do you know a single OIC country that doesn’t back President Karzai? If not, why would you be okay with OIC trainers and advisors for the ANSF?

I think the Afghans, MoD, MoI, and CSTC-A/NTM-A would delighted if the OIC sent ANP trainers, judge/attorney trainers, ANP advisors, and a civilian surge to increase the capacity of Afghan civilian institutions.

Faisal, the Afghans have already asked OIC countries to contribute. What else do you think the Afghans should do to encourage them to contribute?

Faisal, the problem is that you, and presumably some other Pakistanis, don’t like the GIRoA and its ANSF, and would presumably support violent attacks against any OIC forces that came to Afghanistan. It is probable that many Pakistanis would as afraid and suspicious of the OIC forces as they are afraid and suspicious of ANSF and ISAF.

It would also take the OIC many years to train their forces in Dhari, Pashtu and Afghan culture, the way some ISAF forces have been trained. Many OIC countries lack large Afghan diasporas to recruit from. It would be very expensive to train, equip and field OIC security forces and civilians in Afghanistan; more expensive than training, equipping and fielding the ANSF in Afghanistan. Who would foot the bill for the OIC security forces and civilian surge? Who would train and equip the OIC forces so that they in turn could train and equip the ANSF?

And then there is a quality issue. Bangladeshi security forces for example are widely considered to be less than optimal quality (especially compared to Pakistanis and Indians.) Bangladesh has better quality security forces than most OIC countries. Arguably the only Arab Army that is as good quality as the Iraqi Army is the Jordanian Army. And we all know that the Iraqi Army has challenges.

This said, my hope would be that Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Arab countries play a larger role in:
-training and advising Afghan judges and attorneys
-training the Afghan Police
-advising the Afghan Police (this would be a stretch for most OIC countries, although some of them such as Turkey are contributing POMLTs as we speak.)

Second, an equally important factor is the fact that Afghan society predominantly consists of strictly Islam-loving people. While they may be scared by and allergic to the foreign forces, a peace force consisting of only Muslim troops and controlled by the OIC will help to reassure them of the nature of their mission, which is peace keeping and facilitating of negotiations. It is not to say that the Muslim peace force will face no problems. Vested interests would rather try to divert the focus in an attempt to keep the bloodshed continuing in that country. But it should be clear that process of national reconciliation and unity in Afghanistan has no better basis than Islam. That may be hard to understand for many non-Muslims due to the fact that many Muslim countries have been fighting in past. That does not really mean that Islam is totally irrelevant factor that can not be used as binding force in Afghanistan.

The gambit and game of the occupation forces is entirely different from the mission of a proposed peace force in Afghanistan. Also, do not ignore the importance of behind the scene contacts and positive influences of different Islamic organizations and personalities. That is in contrast to the case of the NATO and American forces, which are totally aliens in Afghanistan and no one really trusts them, trying to achieve their goals by the use of deadly mix of force, dollar, deception, and coercion.

I have deliberately not mentioned Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asian states in the list of potential contributors to proposed peace force. I feel the force should be clear of any regional geo-strategic politics and policies. In addition, many extra-regional vested interests would try to make that a lamenting point to oppose the approach and start playing a dirty game against the peace force if it materializes at all. These evil forces have nothing directly to do with Afghanistan but these forces have come to Afghanistan only to harm the regional countries, including Pakistan, Iran, and Chine.

NOTE: Some people would call my views as a wishful thinking. Well, it may look like that. But, to me, it’s a good excercise to exchnage views. Who knows some good may come out of that exchange.

Global free market democracy has greatly benefited billions of poor around the world, including in India, Indonesia and Brazil.

1 + 1 =3. We benefit from the success of others.

Just curious: I recall one source, which escaped me, that there was also a small contingent of the Nationale Volksarmee (the GDR’s/East German army) in the Soviet occupation force in AFG. Any views whether this is true? NVA officers and advisors were certainly present in South Yemen and several African conflict zones.