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West's Afghan exit strategy in question
Kabul (AFP) Nov 5, 2009 A manhunt was under way Thursday for a rogue Afghan policeman with suspected Taliban links who killed five British soliders, fuelling doubts about the West's exit strategy from Afghanistan. The incident confirmed fears that Taliban militants have infiltrated the Afghan security forces, potentially undermining law and order at a time when security across the country is rapidly deteriorating. "The team left for Helmand this morning. It's a joint team, Afghans and colleagues from ISAF," a spokesman for the interior ministry said, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The use of police uniforms by Taliban insurgents has become so commonplace in the past 12-18 months that trust in the force -- and its uniform -- has evaporated, Western security experts said. Efforts by foreign forces to train local police and soldiers in order to speed their departure from Afghanistan have been self-defeating as standards have fallen in order to boost numbers, others said. "Building Afghan security forces, including the police, has been all about the numbers. Very little attention has been paid to the quality and that's why we see incidents like this," said lawmaker and former general Noor-Ul Haq Ulumi. The five soldiers were shot dead on Tuesday at a checkpoint in southern Helmand province by a police officer they had been mentoring in the Nad Ali district, Britain's defence ministry said. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told parliament the Taliban had claimed responsibility, but the precise identity of the attacker was still unclear. "It may be that the Taliban have used an Afghan police member or that they have infiltrated the Afghan police force," Brown said. The killings underscored the increasing complexity of the eight-year war in Afghanistan, where Western military and political leaders have put NATO training of Afghan security forces at the heart of any future exit strategy. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused to budge on his stance that training Afghan forces lies at the heart of any future exit strategy. "I consider this an isolated incident and it does not change my position," Rasmussen said. NATO's commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, has said he wants to double police numbers to 180,000 in a few years. But security officials and diplomats said NATO's emphasis on training Afghans, to enable a pullout in the foreseeable future given opposition to the war at home, meant shorter training and no background checks on recruits. "They stopped their vetting procedures about a year ago because they need the numbers -- that's the Western measure of success so they can get out quickly," said a Western official. Security experts in Kabul said the Taliban made known their plans to infiltrate government forces more than a year ago -- and to create sleeper cells for future activation -- and are increasingly using police uniforms at checkpoints and in suicide attacks. "If we stop at a 'police' checkpoint we're on alert, we're certainly not thinking that we're safe," said a foreign researcher who travels regularly to southern provinces where Taliban activity is at its height. "We don't know until we get out the other side that we're safe," she said. This distrust of police was spreading to ordinary Afghans, who feared that police at their door could be militants intent on kidnap or murder, she said. "It means that law and order has totally broken down and there is no trust in the police as a force for public protection rather than terror," she added. Fears were underscored late last month when militants in police uniforms attacked a Kabul guesthouse approved by the United Nations, which resulted in the deaths of five UN staff. The United Nations said Thursday it was withdrawing 600 of its 1,100 foreign staff from Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks, and stepping up security for those remaining. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Commentary: Warlords R UsWashington (UPI) Nov 4, 2009 If we are successful beyond President Obama's wildest dreams -- e.g., the Taliban is wiped out and a tough new Afghan government does not allow al-Qaida or other terrorists to conspire against us on their territory -- would that make us safer from radical Islam? The answer, of course, is no, because this is not about geography. Two veteran intelligence operatives with much Middle Eastern and ... read more |
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