The NATO plan to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014 will force U.S. and allied troops into overdrive as commanders struggle to prepare Afghan security forces for the task of protecting the country’s elected government while reducing corruption and breaking the will of the Taliban insurgency. Given the enormity of the job, many experts say that NATO troops will be staying far beyond the announced date. Still, a 2014 drawdown of forces is much more feasible than the original timeline of President Obama, who announced in December that American troops would begin to withdraw by July 2011.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing American and NATO commanders is turning the Afghan National Army into a competent force capable of resisting the Taliban and loyal to the national government.
Right now, the Afghan army is ineffectual and occasionally dangerous to Americans charged with converting the members into fighters.
Last week, a rogue Afghan army soldier shot to death two Marines with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines from San Diego. That killer apparently defected to the Taliban, which took responsibility for the attack.
Marine Major Gabrielle Chapin said that the investigation into the Afghan soldier incident is continuing.
“This criminal act carried out by a murderer is not indicative of the quality and professionalism of Afghan soldiers whom we train, mentor and partner with,” Chapin said. “It is imperative in growing a strong Afghan National Security Force that we maintain a partnership, meaning we live, work and train as one cohesive unit.”
But a military official in Kandahar province said the murder of the American Marine was just the most tragic recent manifestation of a dysfunctional relationship between U.S. and Afghan forces.
The situation in the Kandahar area is dire, the military official said. A large number of the Afghan troops use narcotics, violate orders and steal supplies from U.S. forces to sell on the black market, he said. Many of them “stay high on opium and weed, rarely go on missions and when they do they are scared to death.
“Our command is trying hard to get them straight, get some productivity out of them. They have hardly lost anyone because they haven’t been in many fights,” the military official said.
When combat breaks out between Afghan soldiers and the Taliban, the government troops “run when the shots are fired,” the official said. “Once we start wasting the bad guys, they don’t stop shooting and go into overkill mode. We just can’t seem to get them ready to take over so we can get out of here.”
Even after extensive training, Afghan soldiers have terrible weapons discipline, U.S. soldiers say. They routinely misfire their rifles or point loaded weapons at friendly troops.
“The first step in making a difference here is to stop lying about it and covering it up,” the military official said. “Once we stop doing that, maybe we’ll find an answer.”
James Carafano, senior defense analyst for the Heritage Foundation, said that “as unrealistic as 2014 may seem to some, it is a heck of a lot more realistic than 2011.” He said timelines, end dates and exit strategies are “the language of politicians, not war fighters.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he supports NATO’s new goal, which was announced at the Lisbon meeting last week, despite his earlier calls for a more rapid reduction of forces.
“There is a reason why the Taliban immediately came out and declared they were going to drive NATO out before 2011. They recognized the shift in tone for what it was — a commitment not to cut and run,” Carafano said. “The best way to get on with the task of building up the capacity of folks in the countryside to push back against the Taliban is to show resolve.”
Troops interviewed by The Washington Examiner in Kandahar, Zabul and Helmand provinces said that moral is low, mostly because of a lack of a consistent mission to target the Taliban but also because of a failure of the Afghan security forces to become a viable force for combatting the Taliban.
“If they think we’ll be ready to start handing this over in 2014, they’ve got to be joking,” said one Marine, fighting in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province. “We can’t trust the Afghan forces. Most of the time they run when under fire. They don’t follow instructions. … It’s like baby-sitting.”
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
