Afghanistan's Army Can't Fight

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Schuerger, left, goes over mission plans during the classroom portion of a field artillery exercise on Camp Eagle, Zabul province, Afghanistan, Jan. 20, 2014. Schuerger is assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and serves as a field artillery security force assistance team member to the Afghan National Army's 205th Corps. The exercise was the culmination of a month-long training course to teach Afghan soldiers from four brigades the basics of field artillery. U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Clay Beyersdorfer

Afghanistan's Oversized Army Can't Read Or Fight -- James Gibney, Bloomberg

Clint Eastwood is no Clausewitz -- or even much of a convention speaker -- but he was onto something when he intoned, in "Magnum Force," that "a man's got to know his limitations."

That lesson seems to have been lost on planners for Afghanistan's post-occupation security forces, envisioned at a strength of 352,000 in the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. The latest evidence of the gap between vision and reality comes from a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction on the force's level of literacy: According to one Bloomberg News story, more than half the force's members will probably still be illiterate after a $200 million literacy program.

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My Comment: There are many units in Afghanistan's army that can and do fight .... but it also true that a lack of discipline and professionalism exists in many other units. I guess this is one of the situations where you can look at the glass as half full .... or half empty. Personally .... I am seeing it as half empty. As for the U.S. literacy program in Afghanistan .... intentions were probably good at the beginning but right now .... that is money not being well spent.