Quote of the Day

“Many of our districts are on the edge of collapse, and in Qaisar district only the center is under the control of government. All the villages in those areas which were cleared by Gen. Dostum have now once again collapsed to the hands of the Taliban.” — Fawzia Raoufi, MP (TOLO)

Today’s Warm Front of Hot Takes

Dostum leaves, Taliban return: fun in Faryab

Faryab provincial representatives said on Tuesday that a number of villages in their province have once again collapsed to the Taliban following Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum’s reportedly successful operation last month.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) responded and said they will not allow the cleared areas to again fall to the Taliban. The Interior Minister also said that the security forces will suppress the Taliban in the north and in other parts of the country.

This doesn’t do a whole lot except point out that vice presidents make great photo ops, but end up doing very little in the way of actual combat. Which is the way things out to be anyway, and trying to make it otherwise is Dostum hanging on to a past life when he needs to move on. And it points out how good the Taliban are at not dying.

The question I have about much of this fighting and the reports of places being overrun is how much of it is happening, and how much of it is hype that parliamentarians are shouting out to make some kind of point about how they need more troops for their particular province. That’s a bit of an Afghan tradition, telling the government that things are really bad in your part of the graveyard of credible threat reporting, just so Kabul will send you more security forces.

Not saying that’s what’s happening here, and also not saying that the MP in the quote above saying that this is happening could have an anti-Dostum agenda and wants to make Dostum (as part of Ghani’s administration) look like a failure. Just that it’s nearly impossible to get corroborating reports from anyone, since whatever NATO knows about the situation, it’s not saying anything, and large chunks of the country are too dangerous for any journalists to wander around and ask questions.

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Just in case you forgot there’s a war on in Afghanistan, here’s some Air Force dudes and a bomb that’s going on a drone. (USAF)

Expanding the ALP in Nangarhar

The Ministry of Interior has approved 1,000 more police for eastern Nangarhar province.

General Ali Shah Ahmadzai, head of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) department at the Ministry of Interior says that the purpose of this addition is to assist with security.

A statement released by the media office of Nangarhar province states that General Ahmadzai told Governor Saleem Khan Kundozi in a meeting that these police would be deployed to restive districts.

The Afghan Local Police (ALP) program was supposed to be a temporary measure to increase Afghan security forces without all the trouble and expense of making them actually part of regular police forces. It’s a legalized militia — irregular troops selected from the local area and vetted by local elders for assignment to the walking human rights nightmare that is the ALP. It seems the program might be here to stay for the time being.

Which isn’t a terrible idea once you get past allegations of the violations of human rights on a growing scale that have been leveled against the organization. Once you’re past that, then things are pretty great. And it’s a bit of an unfortunate fact of wars in general that people like the ALP do exist because the consensus among those smarter than you or I is at least they’re not as bad as the other guy.

I’d beg to differ, but putting more people into ALP uniforms makes it clear that the security situation in Afghanistan is still pretty dire. And so standing up these armed groups, regardless of their behavior, means that the war isn’t going that well, and that it’s going to be a long, long year.

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Pakistan talks peace with…the Americans

Pakistan discussed the stalled Afghanistan reconciliation process with senior US officials.

Army Chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday held a meeting with top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan General John Campbell and the acting American Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Jarrett Blanc, reported Dawn online.

Not sure if this is just the Pakistanis acknowledging that the US is still driving the peace bus, or Islamabad trying to snub Kabul and go to the Americans, therefore bypassing Ghani. Lately the two countries have been trading a whole lot of “I know you are but what am I” around the whole “who’s really harboring terrorists” debate. Which isn’t going to make this process any easier.

Peace talks have been stalled for a while now after the announcement that Mullah Omar’s been dead for…years. It looks like the Taliban leaderhip succession question has been answered now, so hopefully that means everyone can get back to the table and hammer out a deal.

That doesn’t look too likely, as Taliban infighting still continues, the Islamic State looks like it’s more of a problem than before, and the whole thing’s pretty precarious at this point in the festivities. Ideally, an outside party like the UN or the Chinese brokers talks and that moves things forward. The Americans are too invested, and this particular conversation will go nowhere.

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McCaskill to DoD: just answer the SIGAR already

A Missouri senator said Monday that the Defense Department should turn over evidence for its decision not to punish two generals for a $36 million command center at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, built despite objections and then never used.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who sits on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said the department and a commander who pushed construction of the facility have claimed it was part of a strategic vision for restive Helmand province during the U.S. surge in 2010. But the military has not provided lawmakers the classified documents that back the claim, and auditors have criticized the Army’s own investigation, she said.

Oh hey it’s the SIGAR pointing out stuff without offering solutions again. Or trying to find anything that’s working so we can duplicate that. Not asking the man to be a cheerleader, but with all the manpower he has at his disposal, maybe the occasional report that finds a workable project would be nice for a change.

McCaskill’s not wrong here, and it’s one of the things I like about the American system is the civilian oversight of the military. What I don’t fully understand at this point is why we’re still talking about this. I know, I know, it’s millions of dollars, but there’s a few other things that probably bear questioning about US processes in Afghanistan. For example: how are we suddenly justifying the MRAP expense when just a couple of years ago we deemed them too complicated for the Afghans to handle?

Still, explaining why you went ahead with building something that expensive when people said they didn’t need it? Probably should be able to do that. And if you can’t, then let’s fire some generals for a nice change of pace.

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Afghan Onion is trying really really hard

They have referred to First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, a feared former Afghan militia commander with a reputation for enjoying his alcohol, as the “Vodka General.”

They called Mohammad Mohaqeq, another ex-militia commander accused of human rights abuses during the civil war of the 1990s, the nation’s “fifth vice president.” It was a dig both at Mohaqeq — whose actual title is second deputy to the chief executive — and at the unwieldiness of Afghanistan’s unity government.

Love the idea, not a fan of the site. It’s pretty clunky satire (and I’d know from clunky satire), and there’s little to back up their claims against people like Kabul’s police chief. This just reads like someone trying to piggyback on to the controversy surrounding the “Kabul Taxi” Facebook page, which has faced legitimate threats from the government and make a story about government oppression when there isn’t one in the first place.

I know, I know, if an Afghan’s doing something like satire we’re supposed to fall over ourselves with amazement that the brown people did a funny. Color me unimpressed. And I’m only mentioning here because it’s the L.A. Times and that’s I guess some kind of a major outlet and they should probably know better. That being said, trying to find a story that doesn’t read, “Well, Afghanistan sucks,” can be a challenge.

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Scattered Showers, Chance of Sunshine

• AAF air strike on bazaar just hits Taliban
• US worried about Afghan food security
• Afghans would rather forget 9/11
• Dutch aid worker free after 81 days
• AG summons former Kabul mayors over corruption
• Taliban making their way into Badakhshan
• Electronic ID cards in limbo thanks to NUG
• Khowst tribes to stop paying debts with daughters
• Local art show in Mazar without icky nudes
• Omar’s brother, son, pledge allegiance to Mullah Mansoor