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Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘Afghan forces’

CIA’s Afghan Forces Terrorize the Public, Undermine Trust – News From Antiwar.com

Posted by M. C. on January 1, 2019

Forever War

60 years later and still winning hearts and minds by burning down villages.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/12/31/cias-afghan-forces-terrorize-the-public-undermine-trust/

Jason Ditz

17 years into the US war in Afghanistan, various administrations have tried myriad different strategies to try to win the war, many of them involving recruiting local groups. While the Pentagon’s various allies have had well-documented problems, they’re nothing compared to the CIA.

Clandestine and playing fast and loose with the rules, the CIA’s own Afghan forces, various bands of local gunmen with some nominal training, have missions to do, and very little in the way of rules of engagement.

Being told to “search for militants” is all but blanket permission to raid and loot random homes. One survivor of such a raid describes the fighters taking him away for questioning. After they took him, they killed his two brothers and sister-in-law, then burned the house to the ground, killing his 3-year-old daughter.

Provincial officials were deeply critical of the “atrocity,” saying the raid targeted an innocent man. With the CIA’s seal of approval attached to it, however, there is very little that local or even Afghan government officials could do about it…

Be seeing you

napalm

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‘Will never rejoin’: Record casualties take toll on Afghan forces | Afghanistan News | Al Jazeera

Posted by M. C. on November 26, 2018

Salman, 27, a police officer in the northwestern province of Faryab, said he had not been paid in three months and air support during attacks by the Taliban “were not effective”.

US foreign policy: When in a hole, dig some more.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/rejoin-record-casualties-toll-afghan-forces-181123115957675.html

As the Taliban maintain an upper hand in the 17-year Afghanistan conflict, casualties in the country’s beleaguered security forces are reaching what experts warn are unsustainable levels.

Since the beginning of 2015, nearly 30,000 Afghan soldiers and police have been killed, President Ashraf Ghani revealed this month – a figure far higher than anything previously acknowledged…

Afghanistan’s beleaguered security forces have long seen high rates of attrition.

But the shocking mortality rate has sent the already shaky morale to new lows, with many soldiers questioning how much further they should push their luck.

In the third quarter of 2018, the number of soldiers and police deployed across Afghanistan fell to 312,328 – nearly 9,000 fewer than only a year ago, and the lowest level for any comparable period since 2012, a US watchdog said in October.

Reasons for attrition included fatalities, and soldiers going AWOL or declining to re-enlist, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said, citing the US defence department… Read the rest of this entry »

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Report: Afghan forces lost $700 million in US ammo

Posted by M. C. on September 27, 2017

Old news but pertinent. How much is lost by accident?

By the by, the DOD has never had a complete dependent audit as required by law. Some are more equal than others.

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2017/09/26/report-nearly-a-1-billion-worth-of-ammunition-may-have-been-wasted-in-afghanistan/

U.S. officials are not sure that $702 million spent on ammunition for Afghan forces from 2015 to 2016 was used for its intended purpose, according to a recent Defense Department inspector general’s report.

This appears to be a common theme in Afghanistan where corrupt ministries continue to plunder U.S. aid with near impunity.

U.S. officials have been hesitant to enforce strong conditions-based aid in fear of its potential impacts on the battlefield.

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