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There are many mitigating factors which hinder the US and NATO led operation in Iraq. Many of them such as ethnic differences in the soldiers in the Afghan Army are unfortunate and unnecessary. One such problem is the infighting that ethnic differences in Afghan troops causes. Most of the Afghan army is comprised of troops from the three major ethnicities that mainly inhabit the northern region of the country.
They perform well among the tribes who they can relate to ethnically, but major problems emerge when they operate in the Southern region of the country which is composed mainly of Pashtuns. The country has been divided along ethnic lines all along with different ethnicities showing little respect for each other.
The effectiveness of the Afghan army is hindered greatly when there are ethnic conflicts with the people that they are supposed to be helping. I believe that this is the reason for many of the war crimes which have been conducted by the Afghan military on civilians.
The Afghan government has attempted to keep the army mixed along roughly the same ethnic lines as the population but the problem has been getting Pashtun citizens to join the armed forces. This is similar to the situation that our military ring customers encountered in Iraq when crippling conflicts between the Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds led to major problems getting the citizens to unite into a viable government.
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