Troops skeptical of turning things over to Afghans

Washington Times:

When nearly 60 tribal leaders gathered in a Taliban stronghold here recently to discuss mounting security challenges, U.S. military commanders and staff listened attentively, but there were no representatives from Afghan security forces.

"What government do we have?" asked Mohammed Nabi, a malik, or tribal leader, from the Kandahar region who acknowledged he was a Taliban sympathizer. "The only faces I see here are men from another country wearing uniforms like the Russians. We are left to fend for ourselves, protect ourselves, and there is no one here from Kabul who cares."

President Obama's strategy for Afghanistan relies heavily on increasing the quality and quantity of Afghanistan's army and police. But eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban, the nearly 120,000-member Afghan National Security Forces remains a work in progress. Some U.S. troops are skeptical that the locals will ever be able to step up and defend the Afghan people by themselves.

During October, when a record 59 American troops were killed in Afghanistan, a reporter and photographer for The Washington Times visited southern Afghanistan and found no Afghan army units fighting alongside or otherwise aiding U.S. troops in the Maywand or Arghandab Valley regions. On several occasions, the Afghan army and police failed to show, forcing missions to be postponed because the Americans are required to have Afghan escorts before entering Afghan homes.

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It appears the Afghan citizens are just as skeptical of their own forces. Clearly they have not stepped up and it is unrealistic to think that will happen in the next 18 months.

Obama is not giving this new strategy the time it needs to succeed.