Multiple obstacles for Afghan training mission

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1st Infantry Division soldiers look on as Afghan National Army soldiers zero their weapons during basic rifle marksmanship training on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Challenges lie ahead for U.S. forces as they attempt to build an effective, coherent Afghan security apparatus.


Multiple obstacles for Afghan training mission
By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 3, 2009 18:35:05 EST

WASHINGTON — The eight-year U.S. effort to build a functional Afghan security force has been a study in slow motion, raising doubts about President Barack Obama’s new plan to quickly get the nation’s army and police in shape so U.S. forces can begin to leave in 18 months.

A lack of competence, resources and confidence have hampered Afghanistan’s army and police, as have illiteracy and corruption. Those continuing obstacles provoked skepticism from Congress this week about whether the U.S. military can train the Afghans quickly and effectively enough to begin to replace American forces by Obama’s proposed exit start date of July 2011.

“It seems to me that the large influx of U.S. combat troops will put more U.S. Marines on street corners in Afghan villages, with too few Afghan partners alongside them,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat, said at one hearing.

The untested Afghan force is the linchpin in Obama’s twinned surge and exit strategy. It would have to grow and improve rapidly to take up the fight against the Taliban as the Americans start to leave.

In announcing his reworked approach to the war Tuesday, Obama said the 30,000 extra U.S. troops and a smaller contingent of new allied forces “will increase our ability to train competent Afghan security forces and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_afghanistan_training_120309/