U.S. Commander Readying Request for More Troops to Advise Afghans
Journalist: David S. Cloud
Original Post: U.S. commander readying request for more troops to advise Afghans
Type: News Article
November 25, 2011 —
The U.S. commander in
Afghanistan has prepared
a request for more troops to serve as advisors for Afghan military units, a sign
that Washington and its allies are trying to speed up the hand-over of combat
operations to the Afghans as they prepare to withdraw, U.S. and NATO
officials said.
The stronger emphasis on training may keep more U.S.
troops on bases next year and help reduce U.S.
military casualties before presidential elections next November. President
Obama's Afghan policy is already an issue.
Marine Gen. John R. Allen,
who took command in Afghanistan last summer, wants 1,700 more military personnel
— mid-level officers and senior enlisted troops leading hundreds of new advisor
teams to be assigned beginning next year to Afghan units battling the Taliban
insurgency, the officials said.
It will take time to identify the right
mix of troops, and Allen's request has yet to be submitted to the Pentagon. The
move is part of a major retooling of Afghanistan strategy under discussion by
Obama and his national security team, aimed at ensuring Afghan forces are ready
to take on the militants by 2014, when the last U.S. combat units are scheduled
to pull out.
Allen and other senior U.S. military officers generally
support the idea of pushing the Afghan army into the lead sooner. Aides say it
makes sense to test how well it performs while large numbers of U.S. troops
still can come to Afghan soldiers' assistance if necessary.
Moreover,
support for keeping combat troops in Afghanistan for three more years has
withered in other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries. This has added
impetus to the White
House drive to speed up the transition to Afghan forces.
In some
ways, Obama is attempting to follow the model he set in Iraq, when he changed the U.S.
military mission to emphasize training of Iraqi forces. In August 2010, he
announced that the Iraqi military had lead responsibility for the nation's
security. U.S. casualties in Iraq have plummeted, and the last U.S. combat
troops are scheduled to be withdrawn next month.
"Our top priority right
now is building" the Afghan army and police, said a senior U.S. general involved
in the discussion. But "it's a perilous path we're on right now.... The Afghans
can't carry the load by themselves."
Obama has ordered the withdrawal of
30,000 U.S. troops by September. That will leave about 68,000 U.S. troops in
Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Leon E.
Panetta hinted at the Obama administration's new thinking during a news
conference last week with the Canadian defense minister in Halifax,
Canada.
"We're trying to get the Afghan army, the Afghan police, to
assume more of the responsibilities with regards to combat operations," he said.
"That's going to depend a lot on Gen. Allen and working with ISAF to determine
how best to make the transition from a combat role to an advise-and-assist
role," he said, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance
Force.
Administration officials said the White House planned to formalize
the shift to a more advisory role at a NATO summit that Obama is playing host to
in May in Chicago.
At last year's NATO summit in Lisbon, Obama and other
NATO leaders agreed to begin handing control of areas with low insurgent
activity to Afghan military units. Afghan troops have since assumed control in
some parts of the country, and U.S. forces plan to turn over more areas next
month.
But the NATO plan called for waiting until 2014 to give Afghan
forces responsibility for all combat operations. White House aides and other
governments with troops in Afghanistan are now increasingly worried about that
timetable.
By waiting so long to give Afghan troops the lead in areas
where the insurgency is strongest, the plan magnified doubts about whether
Afghan soldiers could assume the combat burden once U.S. forces finally
left.
"We want [Afghan forces] to be in the lead. It's part of the
current plan and the whole intent is to morph over time," a senior NATO officer
in Afghanistan said. "But we have to figure out what trainers and advisors will
be required. They're doing the math now."
U.S. military officials have
cautioned the White House not to expect too much of the Afghan units, many of
which are beset with operational and personnel problems.
Even with
hundreds of additional U.S. advisor teams, American infantry and special
operations units will need to lead some of the fighting for the next three
years, especially in eastern Afghanistan, where the insurgency remains
strongest, the officers said.
Fighting in Afghanistan typically tapers
off in winter, when conditions can make it difficult for insurgents as well as
regular military units to move. If the transition to a role that emphasizes
advising and training starts late next year, that would be after the U.S. and
its allies have had another full season to try to further weaken the
insurgents.
Although 1,700 advisors may not sound like a large
deployment, Allen has emphasized that he wants combat-experienced troops who
could handle being assigned to an Afghan unit as part of a small team,
potentially far from other U.S. troops. That may not be easy.
It may take
months for the Pentagon to identify enough experienced officers and senior
sergeants and train them to serve as advisors. When U.S. commanders made a
similar request to beef up Iraqi forces in 2004, the Pentagon resisted and sent
support troops and officers who had never seen combat.
David Barno, a
retired U.S.
Army lieutenant general who led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from
2003 to 2005, said delay in pushing Afghan troops into the lead would force U.S.
units to do the heaviest fighting themselves.
"Organizing the remaining
U.S. force more clearly toward the advise-and-assist mission is needed sooner,
not later," said Barno, now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American
Security, a Washington think tank.
U.S. and other NATO units normally
plan and lead major combat operations, usually with a "partner" Afghan unit.
Afghan soldiers are brought on patrols and special operations raids in hopes
they will improve their fighting skills.
In many cases, however, no U.S.
advisors are assigned to help the Afghans conduct independent operations.
Topic(s): Terrorism, Irregular Warfare and Crime
Project(s): Diplomacy and Development, Military Personnel, Pakistan, South and Central Asia, Special Operations Forces, Terrorism, Irregular Warfare and Crime, Twenty First Century Strategic Environment, U.S. Military Forces and Operations, U.S. National Security and Defense Policy
People: Lieutenant General David W. Barno, USA (Ret.)
