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Afghan security force’s rapid expansion comes at a cost

Afghan security force’s rapid expansion comes at a cost as readiness lags

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Published: October 21

Top Pentagon leaders, White House advisers and members of Congress from both parties have long regarded the rapid expansion of Afghanistan’s army and police as a crucial element of the U.S. exit strategy. For years, they reasoned that generating a force of 352,000 soldiers and policemen would enable the Afghan government to keep fighting Taliban insurgents after U.S. and NATO troops end their combat mission.

The U.S. military has nearly met its growth target for the Afghan forces, but they are nowhere near ready to assume control of the country.

If only the top Pentagon officials, White House and Congremen could see the ANA & ALP in action on the ground and how they really are.

Good article, with some great points.

I have to say all anyone has to do is go back to 2009 when Gen McChrystal sent his assessment on what the AFGHAN Secuirty Forces status were and then asked for his "Surge". We make more training centers and more whatevers for what??

The statement about how the Afghan ANA or ANP know what they are doing by not doing any patrols or "work" because they are the sole breadwinners for their families and they cannot afford to get killed or severely wounded is SO true. Then the have the ones that have been kicked out of the Tribe because on some reason and takin up training in the ANA or AUP.

Hell how many units have their ANA units plan, go out on their own patrols with US unist acting as a QRF?? How many just can frinkin do something themsleves? When we turn over Bases to them and the can't support them because commander, Logistical people, etc are taking everything and selling it on the open markets doesn't help.

I do agree with the part that we continue to teach people how we do everything our NATO, ISAF and US ways. When they will never have a computer, power 24/7 or the pens or penciles to do most anything. I taught ANA how to use papermaps and them plotting points on the map was hard as hell. Shit if they can't count rounds how will they be able to do more?

We have been carrying the Afghans for far to long and they will continue to bleed the USGOV for money so the people in powerbrokers will take the money and run with it when it is all done.

Is there a fix? MOO, not at the National level, maybe the middle air but the village level will ALWAYS be the tribal leader, because most village "people" feel the tribal ways are "faster". We try to install our Western Thinking in areas were they have 2000 years of the same way or thinking pass down generation after generation.

I enjoyed Rajiv's book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, about his time in the Green Zone in Baghdad...that being said,

Great quotes from the article:

Quote:

“We have been obsessed with quantity over quality,” said a Special Forces major who worked alongside Afghan soldiers for a year. “You can only build so many troops to a certain standard. At some point — and we’re long past that — you get to diminishing returns.”

Duh...

Quote:

“Those forces have taken the lead to very complex combat operations, and they are suffering the vast majority of coalition casualties, a further sign that the Afghans have the willingness to sacrifice and take the fight to the enemy,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said this month."

Or, due to their current low levels of training, pervasive corruption, abject apathy, risk aversion, minimal operational capabilities and capacity, and a barely functioning logistical system, they are more prone to get themselves into shitty situations and more apt to get their ass handed to them when they do...

Quote:

"Even then, there are no plans to ease up on recruitment. High rates of desertion and low rates of reenlistment mean the army needs to replace about a third of its force each year."

Exactly. A 300,000+ ANSF is unsustainable...this is the same thing I saw in 2010 when they were trying to give the ANCOP to SOF, because of serious systemic issues and training shortfalls in that formation ...when asked for my opinion, I told senior SOF leadership that it wasn't SOF's job to fix every broken toy or good idea gone bad in Afghanistan and that our efforts would be better suited to be focused elsewhere...

Quote:

"To some senior U.S. officers, the decision to expand the force so rapidly seemed like a mistake. “It was irresponsible,” said a general who had been involved in training efforts earlier in the war. “Afghanistan isn’t the sort of place where you can triple your inputs and expect three times the results.”

And you would be hard-pressed to find any star-level officer that grabbed his stones and spoke out against this idiocy...please see:

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...ailure/309148/

Quote:

"The need to expand the force rapidly meant jettisoning other long-held tenets of security force development: small group instruction, careful vetting to weed out infiltrators, and restrictions on creating systems and structures that cannot be sustained once foreign advisers leave."

Exactly...you can give them all the "sharks with laser beams" and gee-whiz equipment that you want, but as soon as we leave and that shit starts breaking and proves to be absolutely logistically unsustainable, the ANSF will implode...Lord of the Flies anyone?

Quote:

"Advocates of the 352,000 goal argue that slowing training or building a smaller force would have ceded valuable ground to the Taliban. “You have to start with a higher number of less-well-trained troops just to plug the hole in the dike,” said Mark Jacobson, a former top civilian adviser to McChrystal. “By the time you get those better-trained troops, it’s already over.”

Or everybody could have quit lying to each other at Star Fleet HQ and admitted to the President/Congress/SecDef/each other, that there was no way to unfuck Afghanistan on a self-imposed 2014 timeline and that there was going to be a need to keep "surge" forces on the ground for a longer period of time to give the ANSF some time to get their shit together...but that opens up another can of worms...