By Steve Hynd
Asking private contractors to build security forces was an epic fail in Iraq, graft and price-gouging took precedence over results, but that's not stopping them trying again.
Army building, like nation building, is a challenge in a country in which corruption is rife and illiteracy is high. Nine out of 10 new Afghan army recruits cannot read or write, according to recent news reports.
One way to gauge how the U.S. military sees this job is to look at the tasks that have been drawn up for the 175 contractors to be hired to help mentor and train personnel at the Afghan Ministry of Defense.
...No fewer than 37 companies have indicated to the Army that they have an interest.
Depressingly, the military's remit seems to concentrate more on paperwork and powerpoints than the actual training.
The contractors' first task, one that is already underway, is to complete the writing and production of "a cornerstone military intelligence manual similar to the U.S. FM 2-0 (Intelligence)." That is the intelligence field manual used by the Army.
...Once an English text is completed, the contractors are to monitor translation into Dari or Pashtu as directed by the Afghan chief of intelligence. They then are to "coordinate" internal approval through other ministry officials and then through Wardak's signature.
...When the manual is approved, they are to coordinate its printing and distribution. Finally, they are to coach the Intelligence Ministry workers in preparing a training program for teaching the manual to Afghan army intelligence personnel. Part of that program is to ensure "that more than 50 percent of Afghan National Army intelligence personnel complete basic computer and Dari literacy training," according to the work statement.
All that paper and time just to begin to teach trainees basic language and computer skills before they can begin wading through the manual's sections on "surveillance principles, interviewing, how to approach sources, questioning and debriefing" when the first could be more easily and cheaply accomplished by sending the trainees to courses at Kabul College. Insanity, and a simple opportunity for profiteering.
The U.S. military apparently can't change a lightbulb without first staffing the problem out the wazoo, writing a manual, then hiring private contractors to rewrite the manual, and another set of contractors to finally change the lightbulb (but leave behind dangerously faulty wiring).
Mercenaries coaching mercenaries. I don't think that approach to waging war has a good record. Kinda like kite flying. What happens when the wind stops?
ReplyDeleteTeaching Afghan's modern fighting techniques is a bad idea to begin with.
ReplyDeleteUsing an Ak-47 or most infantry weapons, or learning small unit tactics, doesn't require literacy, I'm hardly the first person to note.
ReplyDelete"...when the first could be more easily and cheaply accomplished by sending the trainees to courses at Kabul College."
ReplyDeleteI think this statement really summarizes one of the fundamental problems with the way we're going about our policy in Afghanistan. Parasitic profiteers trying to get a cut of the money being poured into Afghanistan.
From my own experience serving a tour in Kabul and Herat as a military mentor with the US Army, time and time again I saw labor that could easily have been performed by Afghans performed instead by foreign nationals, American civilians, and gigantic corporations. American soldiers and American contractors are given the task to build schools, wells, and improve infrastructure, while Afghans are left unemployed watching from the sidelines. Occasionally Afghans are hired to do work, but this practice needs to spread on a much wider scale and in a much more profound way.
If we were trying to muscle the Afghans out of their own economy, what we are doing right now would be a very effective way of realizing that goal.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteI think you're exactly right. But it gets worse because contractors seem to be brought in - and money sucked out - at every stage. Cubic Corp has just been given a $40 million contract to train US soldiers in how to be mentors to Afghan soldiers.
Regards, Steve