$1.1bn US training for Afghan police termed failure
By Our Correspondent
NEW YORK, Dec 4: A joint report by the Pentagon and the State Department has found that the American-trained police force for Afghanistan is largely incapable of carrying out routine law-enforcement work.
The report says that managers of the $1.1 billion training programme cannot say how many officers are actually on duty or where thousands of trucks and other equipment issued to police units have gone.
The report, published in the New York Times on Monday, said that in fact, most police units had less than 50 per cent of their authorised equipment on hand as of June.
The report was issued two weeks ago but is only now circulating among members of relevant Congressional committees.
In its most significant finding, the report said that no effective field training programme had been established in Afghanistan, at least in part because of a slow, ineffectual start and understaffing.
Police training experts, who have studied or had first-hand experience with the American effort in Afghanistan, told the newspaper that they agreed with the report's findings, and some said they had warned for years that field training was the backbone of a strong programme.
But they also told the Times that additional problems needed to be investigated, including the quality of private contractors and the cost and effectiveness of relying on them to train police officers.
