The way out of Afghanistan for the U.S. depends on Afghan soldiers and cops' ability to secure their own country. Yet the Pentagon is cutting funding for those Afghan forces by nearly half.
Tucked in the Pentagon's $88.5 billion budget for war funding for the next year is a request for $5.7 billion for the Afghan National Security Forces. That's down from the $11.2 billion that Congress approved for the last fiscal year. Which is kind of odd, since the President explicitly tied the withdrawal of American troops to the build-up of their Afghan counterparts.
"Our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan security forces move into the lead," President Obama said in June. "By 2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security,"
On Monday, Pentagon comptroller Richard Hale told Danger Room that the deep budget cut isn't necessarily at odds with the President's goal. According to Hale, the U.S. spent "heavily" in past years on getting trucks, weapons, helicopters and other equipment for the Afghans. Now, there's no need to buy so much gear. Hence the shrunken budget.
"Don't take that reduction in any way as a sign of our reduction in commitment," Hale said during a Monday afternoon briefing on the budget.
"We've still got more to do in training," he added. "But we think the $5.7 [billion], based on the best judgment of our commanders over there, is adequate funding to fully support roughly 352,000 in the Afghan National Security Forces."
Hale said the reduced funding was the recommendation of the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO war command led by Marine Gen. John Allen. "They're quite comfortable with it."
The Afghan forces have grown exponentially in the last two years. Hale said the new funding plan still assumes the Afghan forces will ultimately total 352,000, NATO's current goal.
But there's a long, long way to go with the Afghan forces. Most are either illiterate or can barely read. Only one percent of Afghan battalions can fight on their own. The general formerly in charge of training those forces believes the U.S. will have to mentor them until 2017 -- but NATO and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced last week that the U.S.-led coalition plans on turning combat over to them next year.
It may be that the Afghans have as much gear as they'll ultimately need. Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin has made funding for Afghan forces a priority, and could conceivably inject money back into the account. In the meantime, the Pentagon is now accelerating the timetable for turning Afghan security to the Afghans while cutting their funding nearly in half. And NATO still expects those forces will cost $6 billion, annually, even after the U.S. leaves -- about as much as it plans to pay in the upcoming year.
Photo: U.S. Army
