Building the Security Force That Won't Leave
Abstract
The Taliban and other insurgent elements fighting against the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) are convinced that they will succeed if they simply wait us out. They think they only have to maintain their influence in areas like Helmand and Kandahar Provinces, and when coalition forces begin to leave in the next few years, they will be poised to control the entire country. What these enemies of GIRoA fail to grasp is that they will not be able to wait out the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), which are now on the verge of becoming the enduring force in the country. Insurgents will not be able to outlast a national force that will not go away. As North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has stated, "[the Taliban] might think they can wait us out. But within a year or so, there will be over 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police trained and ready to defend their country. And they can't be waited out." The mission to develop these forces, and the capacity of their government to sustain them into the future, belongs to NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA546305
Entities
People
- Nathan K. Finney
- William B. Caldwell Iv
Organizations
- National Defense University