It reminds me of something I read in the Guns of August. While in the first month of WWI the French were falling back on Paris, the BEF was in headlong retreat from Belgium, and Russians had been crushed at Tanneberg, equally absurd rumors were circulating in Britain and France. Apparently tens of thousands of Cossacks were being shipped from Archangelsk to Scotland, and then sent by rail to Southern England, where they would be taken to the Channel ports to reinforce the Western Front.

It was all wishful thinking and fantasy, of course.

The US has given Afghanistan $38 billion in grants. India, China, Iran, and Russia are not even in the same ballpark. They could all contribute far more in economic aid and a civilian surge.

They could also contribute many thousands of noncombat “trainers” to NTM-A/CSTC-A with the provision that they can’t be used as embedded combat advisers. In the case of Russia and India, this would be a political necessity to avoid Pakistan and the Gulf Sunni Arabs flipping out.

China, India, Russia, Iran and other countries could also contribute economic aid, trade, investment, for Pakistan. They could also offer training to the Pakistani security forces. {In practice Pakistan would only accept Chinese and Western help, but the mere fact that India, Iran and Russia offered it would be a positive signal.}

Recently the Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony stated that Indian troops will not be deployed to Afghanistan. This is about a year after the rumor that India was offering 120,000+ troops — something that would surely push it into a war with Pakistan.

Obviously the US security establishment doth protest too much when some other neighbors pump money into the country, whether it’s to the east (China) or west (Iran), despite the visible improvement it can have.

But should any of Afghanistan’s stronger neighbors (China, Iran, Pakistan) contribute significant land forces, it would be interpreted by at least someone as an invasion. And lord help us if Russia did it!