Afghan forces suffering 'unsustainable' casualties, says top Nato commander

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Afghan forces suffering 'unsustainable' casualties, says top Nato commander

Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul
The Guardian, Monday 2 September 2013 20.30 BST

Afghanistan's police and army are losing too many men in battle, and may need up to five more years of western support before they can fight independently, the top US and Nato commander in the country has told the Guardian.

General Joseph Dunford also said in an interview that it was too early to judge whether Nato had been right to end combat operations in Afghanistan this spring. Western forces have officially offered only training and support to the Afghan army and police during the brutal fighting season of the summer months.

Dunford admitted that Nato and Afghan commanders are concerned about Afghan casualty rates, which have regularly topped more than 100 dead a week. "I view it as serious, and so do all the commanders," Dunford said. "I'm not assuming that those casualties are sustainable."

The rapidly expanded security forces, now 350,000 strong, did not need help in basic battle skills, Dunford told the Guardian. But they still struggle to support themselves in areas varying from logistics and planning to intelligence-gathering and back-up from planes and helicopters in difficult battles.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/02/afghan-forces

[David__77]

1. The country is obviously going back to the Taleban.

Once NATO leaves... they're only delaying it in the few cities the government controls.

[unhappycamper]

2. This reminds me of Vietnamization.

After a (long) number of years American taxpayers were/are weary of war. Shifting responsibilities to locals is a 'cheap' way to keep the war/occupation going and the $$$ flowing to the guys who make weappns.

[jakeXT]

3. US scraps 7 bn USD worth of arms in Afghanistan

Instead of scrapping perfectly good military hardware it would make sense for the US to bequeath it to the weak Afghan government and its fledgling military. But the Post reported the Pentagon cannot donate a large share to the Afghan government because of complicated rules governing equipment donations to other countries, and there is concern that Afghanistan’s military wouldn’t be able to maintain the sophisticated hardware.

Therefore, much of the US military equipment will continue to be shredded, cut and crushed to be sold for pennies per pound on the Afghan scrap market. The destruction of tons of equipment has raised sharp questions in Afghanistan and the US about whether the Pentagon’s approach is fiscally responsible.

Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2013/06/29/us-scraps-7-bn-usd-worth-of-arms-in-afghanistan.html