NATO Orders All Training of Afghan Recruits Halted

Wants 27,000 New Recruits 'Re-Vetted'

Desperate to show some progress in trying to cut down the number of “green-on-blue” attacks nationwide, NATO has announced that it is halting all training for new Afghan recruits indefinitely for both police and military forces.

The training will be halted, officials say, until all 27,000 of the newest recruits go through a new vetting process designed to see if any of them have any Taliban ties. The exact details of the vetting were not released to the public.

Earlier this year, however, the Afghan Defense Ministry pushed for broad ban on any Afghans serving who had any relatives living in Pakistan, a move which was eventually toned down because of fear that it would expel a large portion of the military.

Exactly how long the new vetting process will take is unclear, though officials said it would be “at least a month.” The delay will presumably be used by NATO member nations to delay planned drawdowns, arguing that their training missions couldn’t be completed as planned.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.