Gary Owen, Vice News: The Real Reason the US Military Was So Secretive About Afghanistan
WNU Editor: This is the "money quote" ....
.... Campbell doesn't care if people know how much America spent on literacy training, or how many planes are in the Afghan air force. What he cares about is people knowing that the army that's supposedly taking over for the US is disappearing. It's impossible for the ANA to miss troop strength goals this badly and survive.
In short .... the Afghan Army cannot make up the soldiers that it is losing through combat and the usual attrition. If this is true ....it is only a matter of time before this shortfall in troops will reach the breaking point, and someone will need to step in .... which in this case I can only presume will be the U.S..
Hat Tip to reader Jay for providing this lead/link.
I spent a deployment in Eastern Afg. in 2012-13 and this was a problem. Soldiers would join ANSF and just never come back. Many of the ones who stayed would avoid a fight whenever possible. ANA, ANP, ANCOP, and even Afghan SF were loaded with sympathizers who provided intelligence and uniforms, or overlooked weapons caches during searches etc. Then there were the insider attacks which were numerous and effective.
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope for the best for Afghanistan, but how can anyone expect success when Kabul/NATO couldn't maintain an effective Afghan Army during more than a decade of immense international assistance?