Arm the Afghans and get out
Air Marshal Ayaz A Khan (R)
Arm the Afghan Army and the Afghan Police and get out” is the thinking
and desire of the American politicians, the public, the media, the
military and the Administration. NATO and ISAF are planning for such a
strategy. Indicators are President Barak Obama’s statements, and top
priority given by General MaCrystal to the training and re –equipment of
Afghan National Army and the Afghanistan national Police Force. Sixty
eight thousand NATO troops, including forty thousand American Army and
US Marine officers, non-commissioned officers and GI’s are engaged in
this challenging task. President Barak Obama wants the GI’s to return
home safely, but this is not possible until a strong Afghan National
Army, and National Police can take over the task of national defense and
internal security; and that could take twenty years.
Afghan Army has a bleak past and a dubious history, and lacks military
traditions. From 1960 to 1990 Afghan Army was trained and equipped by
the Soviet Union. By 1992 the national army had fragmented into regional
militias under warlords and drug barons. During the Taliban rule that
followed, the army was disbanded, and the Taliban raised their own armed
forces, led by Taliban and Islamic clerics. After the exit of Mullah
Omar in 2001, Afghan National Army started taking shape with US and NATO
help. Since 2002 the United States has spent billions of dollars on
recruitment, equipment, weapons, munitions, facilities and state of the
art housing and medical facilities for the new Afghan Army. US, British,
German, Canadian trainers and instructors from 42 NATO countries are
providing basic and advanced warfare training to theAfghan army officers
and soldiers.
In October 2009 Afghan National Army-ANA had seventy five thousand
trained troops on active duty. Afghan ministry of defense has plans for
a 134000 army. US President Barak Obama has called for a massive
expansion to a 260000 strong Afghan National Army at a cost of twenty
billion dollars. The time scale is only five years. This is an
impossible aim. It cannot be done. It is an impossible goal, because
recruits are hard to get. The pay at $ 100 per month is low. The Pushtun
youth are under Taliban influence, and Taliban threats intimidation and
influence is pervasive. The US and Afghan authorities are offering cash
and vocational stipends to encourage the youth to join the volunteer
National Army and Police. The current plan is to raise seventy five
infantry battalions, of six hundred soldiers each. Fourteen infantry
Brigades with three battalions each, are already in place. An Afghan
Army Brigade has only 1800 soldiers, as compared to 4000 to 5000 troops
in a Pakistan Army Brigade. ANA has six Corps, of two Brigades each. 201
Corps in Kabul has No-1 and No-2 Brigades under command. No-1 Brigade
defends the Presidents palace, along with a contingent of US Army
troops. No-2 Brigade is stationed at Pul-e- Chakri.
No 203 Corps with two Brigades under command, is stationed at Gerdez.
Each ANA Corp’s has an aviation component of eight helicopters. Four of
these are for transportation, two are gunship-attack helicopters and two
for medical duties. 205 the biggest Corps with four brigades is at
Kandhar. General Sher Mohammad is the Corp’s Commander. It is
responsible for Kandhar, Helmand, Zabul, Nimroz and Orazgan provinces.
This Corp’s has a commando battalion, and three garrison cantonments.
207 Corp’s at Herat has two brigades; one at Heart and the other at
Farah. No 2009 Corps at Mazar-e-Sharif is integrated with the German led
regional command. Its two brigades are at Mazar-e-Sharif and at Kunduz.
Army Corps of Engineers is also based at Mazar-e-Sharif. ANA has
received 4500 armor plated Humvees and 104000 M-16 Assault Rifles. Large
number of Humvees have been destroyed by mines, road side bombs, and
from Taliban attacks, during transportation through the Khyber Pass. ANA
suffers from acute shortage of artillery and armor. Fighting Taliban in
the hilly terrain without armor, artillery and air cover is not
possible.
The 6th Corps is the Afghan National Air Corps i.e. The Afghan Air
Force, which suffered extinction during the Taliban rule. Six Commando
battalions intensively trained and equipped, are to be deployed in
Southern Afghanistan to help Canadian forces to crush enhanced Taliban
insurgency in the area. The insurgency is now wide spread. The US Army
strategy of retreat to towns and cities, has left the rural areas i.e.
70% of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban insurgents. Six
posts along the Pak-Afghan border manned jointly by American and Afghan
troops have been vacated, leaving the border open for the Taliban. The
Afghan Army strength is far short of the requirement of defense and
security for the vast Afghan spaces. ANA has suffered heavily in
ambushes, encounters and battles with the elusive and hardy Taliban.
Afghan National Police of eighty thousand is poorly trained. Common
Afghan hates the corrupt constables. It is planned to be expanded the
police force to 160000 constables. With improper Police recruitment
procedure’s, no vetting of the police recruits, and only two months of
shoddy training policemen, are under trained, non-professional and
poorly led. Raw recruits are dispatched to outposts, where they become
sitting ducks for the ferocious and experienced Taliban guerrilla
fighters. One thousand Afghan policemen were killed in 2008 and another
one thousand during 2009. Twice that number of policemen were injured
and kidnapped. Thus policemen are demoralized, and many are synmpathetic
to the Taliban Afghan policemen have killed US and British soldiers, and
then defected .The deaths of five British soldiers at the hands of an
Afghan policeman with whom they were working, has unleashed an outcry in
Britain.
This incident has highlighted the vulnerability of the Western troops as
they train the Afghan military and police. This attack occurred at
midday on November 04,2009, in Helmand province. The British instructors
were relaxing in the warm autumn sun, at a joint Check Point, when their
Afghan police colleague opened fire on them. The attack came as the
public support for the Afghan war in America, Britain, Germany, and
other forty member NATO nations has become extremely shaky. The war has
taken a heavy toll of America and British soldiers. About one thousand
American GI’s, and one hundred British Tommy’s have been killed and
three times that number injured. In a letter to Los Angeles Times (
daily circulation runs into millions) Irwin Spector from Tolica Lake-
California writes, “Well here we are, stuck with another failed leader (Hamid
Karzai), while our brave young soldiers come home with broken bodies and
addled brains.
We really ought to forget about President Hamid Karzai and go directly
to the Afghan people: not to protect them, but to arm and train them,
and then promptly leave. If they - the people of Afghanistan really want
to enter the modern world, they will quickly dispatch the Taliban, and
Karzai’s corrupt government in the bargain. On the other hand may be
they would rather live in the 10th century, and will embrace the
Taliban. In any case let it be their decision and not ours. Americans
are sick and tired of seeing precious lives and resources lost to the
vanities of a handful of misguided men in Washington”. But the situation
is not as simple as that. NATO-US retreat will imply defeat of the armed
might of the mightiest military powers on earth. Taliban-Al-Qaeda will
then seek distant horizons much beyond Kabul. Islamabad with its nuclear
weapon capability will be the next target. That must not happen, because
it will jeopardize global security. But with rural Afghanistan in the
control of the Taliban, families of soldiers and policemen remain at
risk.Afghan National Police has been infiltrated by the Taliban. In
Wardak province during joint patrolling an Afghan policeman fired on
American soldiers killing two of them. Can such a police force take on
the role of combating Taliban insurgency? Whether this police constable
was a rogue or not, the episode could be repeated. There is a wide chasm
between the Karzai government and the majority Pushtun population. In
Pakistan the nation is with the armed forces, but this is not so in
Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai is judged as a puppet and a Quizling, who
cannot survive without US-NATO armed might.
An important part of the US-NATO counter insurgency strategy is to train
more Afghan troops and police officers to protect the Afghan people and
government., in the hope of reducing tensions and frustration created by
the presence of foreign troops. But the prospects of a viable and
reliable Afghan military and police force able to do that is nowhere
near. US and NATO forces withdrawal from Afghanistan, if not properly
planned could be like the Vietnam fiasco. Afghanistan would be lost to
the Al-Qaeda- Taliban, and planet earth will become unsafe for Western
civilizations. America and NATO are trapped in the Afghan quicksand.
Patience and wisdom of the highest order is required to extract from
this quagmire. Instead of hurried and unplanned troop withdrawal, an
intelligent exit strategy be formulated. Shortcomings in the
recruitment, training, pay, allowances and amenities of ANA and police
be streamlined; and the majority Pushtun population be compensated for
the losses and damage suffered by them. The United Sates and the West
owes an apology to the people of Afghanistan for the sufferings,
destruction and damage inflicted on them. |
