By Steve Hynd
Prof. David H. Bayley is a member of the International Police Advisory Council to the U.N.'s Police Division, Department of Peacekeeping Operations and an expert in law enforcemen't role in countering terrorism. Today in an op-ed he writes that "The problem in Afghanistan isn't the number of American troops, but the lack of Afghan police to serve and protect the people."
Foreign military forces can suppress insurgent operations, but they can't bring legitimacy to local governments. Since military force almost inevitably produces collateral damage to civilians, counterinsurgency operations may alienate populations from their government and its allies. Local people also know that foreign troops eventually go home. If the Afghan government does not provide security and essential services in an effective, honest and even-handed way, American soldiers cannot win the war.
Following U.S. military operations to clear territory of insurgents, the Afghan government must immediately provide basic services -- law, safety, justice and development. The key are Afghan police who can hold the ground and provide the level of security necessary for political reconciliation and economic development.
Although the United States has spent more than $6 billion training the Afghan police since 2001, they remain unreliable, corrupt and thin on the ground. In opinion polls, Afghans have characterized the police as a greater threat to their security than the Taliban.
One reason is that Afghan police are trained by the U.S. military as "little soldiers" and used as cannon fodder in the fight against insurgents. Inadequately equipped, poorly led and deployed without adequate support, the police had combat losses in 2008 that were three times larger than those of the Afghan army. From January 2007 to March 2009, 3,400 Afghan police were killed, compared to nearly 600 American soldiers since 2001.
In Afghanistan, U.S. efforts have not been based on a clear division of labor between the American and Afghan military and the Afghan police. The role of troops is to protect cops; the role of cops is to win people to the government. Within territory cleared and held by the military against insurgent attacks, police prevent crime, arrest law-breakers, mediate disputes, regulate traffic, enforce ordinances and respond to calls for assistance. [Emphasis mine - Steve]
He is, of course, 100 percent correct. As I've written in the past, what the US is engaged in isn't really COIN, it's a pacification operation. It's never going to work.
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