Jalalabad, Afghanistan – U.S. and international efforts to train Afghanistan’s security forces began in 2002, about a year before a similar program for Iraqi soldiers and police officers; yet, the Afghan model seems to have lagged behind the troubled Iraqi program.
Training Iraqi security forces to replace U.S. troops is the linchpin for the Bush administration’s exit strategy for Iraq.
Shoring up Afghanistan’s fledgling security forces to conduct their own counterinsurgency operations has far-reaching implications for security here too.
By September, the Afghan army had grown to 26,000 troops and the Afghan police force to more than 50,000.
In contrast, the Iraqi army and special police forces have 87,300 troops, and the Iraqi police force has about 104,300 officers.
Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, defended the approach that U.S. and allied forces had used to develop the Afghan forces, saying trainers have had to overcome the lack of a professional army for the past 13 years, a 20 percent literacy rate among recruits, no barracks or modern equipment with which to start, and other hurdles.
U.S. commanders with experience in both Afghanistan and Iraq noted that Iraq has a much higher literacy rate, more of a tradition of professional soldiering and vastly better infrastructure.
Of greater concern to the Americans are the police forces, which suffer shortages of vehicles, radios and even basic weapons.
Until early September, many police recruits were training with wooden rifles.
“It’s more or less a hollow force,” said Maj. Gen. John T. Brennan of the Air Force, who oversees the police development effort.
He said that the United States would spend $860 million this year to train and equip the police but that it would not be until late 2009 that the force was fully trained and outfitted.
Overall, the United States has spent more than $2.5 billion in the past two years on training, equipping and paying all Afghan security forces.
