By Cliff Montgomery – May 4th, 2013
In February, the Obama Administration boldly declared that the American-led coalition in Afghanistan had successfully employed over 350,000 indigenous military and law enforcement officials by October 2012.
Afghan “forces are currently at a surge strength of 352,000, where they will remain for at least three more years, to allow continued progress toward a secure environment in Afghanistan,” stated administration officials.
It seemed quite an impressive milestone – creating a self-sufficient Afghan military and law enforcement apparatus has long been one of the major goals of U.S. officials. But it’s not true, according to a new study released this week by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the U.S. government’s leading watchdog over federal spending in that country.
“The goal to ‘train and field’ 352,000 Afghan National Security Forces by last October was not met,” declared John Sopko, Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction, in his most recent quarterly report to the U.S. Congress.
Three months ago, Obama Administration officials claimed that the Afghan police and military apparatus had employed about 20,000 more individuals than were actually employed at that time, according to Sopko. The Special Inspector based his assessment on data collected from coalition top brass stationed in Kabul.
Sopko’s most recent quarterly report to lawmakers held an extra surprise. According to his information, the number of Afghan forces is in fact declining, rather than rising as Obama officials maintain. Currently there are 4,700 fewer people in Afghan law enforcement and military services than there were last year, according to his data. The Special Inspector noted that for this calculation, he relied on precisely the same information the Pentagon normally uses in its assessments.
The last point is an especially important one, as administration officials say their February statements were based on data provided by the Defense Department.
Such obvious inconsistencies in Afghan force assessments should be resolved, Sopko stated in his report.
“Accurate and reliable accounting for ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] personnel is necessary to ensure that U.S. funds that support the ANSF are used for legitimate and eligible costs,” declared the study.
The clear discrepancy between the Obama Administration’s statements and SIGAR’s findings on the size of Afghan forces has prompted Sopko to begin a wider audit into “the extent to which DoD [the Department of Defense] reviews and validates the information collected” from its Afghan sources, stated the Special Inspector’s report.
The extra SIGAR study also will provide a far-reaching assessment on “the reliability and usefulness” of official U.S.-led coalition statements regarding the size of Afghan forces.
“We are not implying that anyone is manipulating data,” Sopko told the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a non- profit investigative news venue. “[But] we are raising a concern that we don’t have the right numbers.”
“We appreciate how difficult it is to get the correct numbers,” Sopko continued in his statement to CPI, “but we need accurate numbers because we’re using those numbers to pay ANSF salaries, supply equipment and so forth.”
