Speaking today at a Senate confirmation hearing for his nomination to become the next leader of Central Command (CENTCOM), Gen. Lloyd Austin expressed opposition to any plans to reduce the size of the Afghan military.
At present the Afghan military has around 350,000 fighters, but its effectiveness is limited by a large number of inept recruits and the regular loss of large portions of recruits who simply leave after getting a paycheck.
The 350,000 soldiers is an enormous expense, far more than the Afghan government could ever hope to pay for, and the plan is to reduce its size to limit how much the US and the rest of NATO are on the hook going forward.
Austin insists the huge military is a “hedge against any Taliban mischief” and that keeping it that large would “reassure our NATO allies that we remain committed.”
The Afghan forces should be upped to at least a million. When the Soviets pulled out they left a fully equipped and trained army and air forces of 750 000. They were able to hold the socialist 'fort' for 5 years.
No. That figure applies to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) which includes both the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP).
Currently on paper the ANA is 195K and the ANP 157K, total 352K. But to John Sopko, the ISAF IG those numbers are probably bogus.
news report:
After spending $51B, U.S. can't verify size of Afghan security force — And in a shocking statement, the IG, John Sopko, said that the numbers the U.S. is relying on from Afghan officials could be a sham, resulting in billions in waste.
General Austin:
Why is it important to reassure our NATO allies, who are all out or soon will be??
I'm pretty sure that the majority of the American taxpayers are unaware that they are footing the bill for the come-and-go Afghan military and police forces. Be nice if the MSM actually spelled it out clearly enough for it to register with the taxpayers. Why aren't those Tea Party Congresscritters screaming about this obvious misuse of American taxes? They claim to be there to end Congressional spending – this would be a really good place to start – Afghanistan is a sovereign country…they can pay for their own security forces.
Notice how the "medal chesters" call the Foreign armies "inept" ? I say the US Military is inept. They keep the war machine going, and just can't seem to complete the mission, let alone define it. The graveyard of Empires WILL prevail over the rabid US puppy dogs.
We spent years creating this force. Our reason to stay was that this force had to be ready before we can leave. If we just disband it when we leave, then it proves it was all a lie.
Furthermore, the puppet "government" we set up, which does not provide anything remotely like good government, is entirely a center for shakedowns of the population and processing foreign payments. If we drop that force we created from our payroll, the "government" we set up would evaporate overnight. All that would be left is the native Afghans, aka Taliban.