US suspends Afghan police training after green-on-blue attacks - Polidicks

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19454742[/url] [quote=BBC News][B]The US says it is suspending training for new recruits to the Afghan local police (ALP) while checks are carried out on possible ties to the Taliban.[/B] The move follows a series of incidents in which foreign troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers or policemen. The suspension of training - which only applies to new ALP recruits - will allow US special operations forces to "re-vet" current ALP forces. US special forces currently have around 1,000 Afghan local police trainees. "While we have full trust and confidence in our Afghan partners, we believe this is a necessary step to validate our vetting process and ensure the quality indicative of Afghan local police," Col Thomas Collins, spokesperson for US forces in Afghanistan, [url=http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-releases/us-forces-afghanistan-statement-on-training-of-afghan-local-police.html]said in a statement[/url]. The suspension of training would be "temporary", according to Col Collins, adding: "Despite the recent rise in insider attacks, they are relatively rare among SOF [Special Operations Forces]-partnered forces." An existing eight-step vetting programme will be made more rigorous, officials say. The number of counter-intelligence teams will be increased and there will be greater vetting when Afghan soldiers return from leave. The sale of Afghan army and police uniforms will be made illegal. Military guidelines on vetting have sometimes not been followed in the past for fear of slowing the growth of the Afghan security forces, officials told the Washington Post. Operations by forces already trained would continue, as would the recruitment of new trainees, US Special Operations Forces spokesman Lt Col John Harrell told the Associated Press. There are currently 16,380 members of the ALP. The Afghan army and national police, trained by Nato, are unaffected by the suspension. The training of Afghan special forces will also continue. On average, 7,000 Afghan soldiers and 3,700 Afghan police graduate from training every month. The ALP is a relatively new force, introduced to improve security in some of the most remote parts of the country, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul reports. [B]'Green-on-blue' attacks[/B] On Wednesday, three Australian soldiers were killed by a man in Afghan army uniform in Uruzgan province. Currently, approximately 130,000 Nato troops are fighting insurgents in Afghanistan alongside 350,000 Afghans. Some 45 coalition troops have died in more than 30 "green-on-blue" attacks this year, at least 15 of them in August alone. The term refers to the colour-coding systems used by the US military - Nato forces are "blue" and Afghans are "green". The Taliban has been actively recruiting members of the Afghan security forces, publicly announcing that insider attacks were a central part of their strategy against Nato forces. Most of the victims of the green-on-blue attacks have been Americans. [I]Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the killing of civilians by an ALP commander. The BBC now understands this was a local militia commander, not a policeman.[/I][/quote]

No Afghan police, you are the Talibans

[quote=Article]The suspension of training - which only applies to new ALP recruits - will allow US special operations forces to "re-vet" current ALP forces. [/quote] I'm dumb, what does "re-vet" mean?

Run background checks again

How do you background check people with no history anyway?

Afghanistan used to be much like we were in the 1950's, IN the 1950's. What a shame

[QUOTE=FalconKrunch;37509749]How do you background check people with no history anyway?[/QUOTE] I am sure they have a way.

[QUOTE=FalconKrunch;37509749]How do you background check people with no history anyway?[/QUOTE] Any way you can. Whether it be looking at any documents that exist or interviewing past friends and family if necessary.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;37509629]I'm dumb, what does "re-vet" mean?[/QUOTE] Vetting is the process of critical and careful examination something. Basically they're just going to make sure there are no more infiltrators and check their procedures before resuming training.

[QUOTE=Ereunity;37509830]Vetting is the process of critical and careful examination something. Basically they're just going to make sure there are no more infiltrators and check their procedures before resuming training.[/QUOTE] Though I'm not an expert, I would guess that a majority of them are unneeded because haven't these attacks happened almost immediately after the men were recruited? My guess is that anyone that didn't start shooting the moment they were let in aren't going to.

That would suck if you weren't going to shoot everything up, like "I know you've done months of training to get to this point but BILL over there just had go and ruin everything!"

[QUOTE=TheTalon;37509766]Afghanistan used to be much like we were in the 1950's, IN the 1950's. What a shame[/QUOTE] Nah, Afghanistan is more like the 1750s...

this is bad the only thing this does is confirm that the 'taliban' (i say this in the loosest way possible) are winning with their "green"-on-blues

[QUOTE=Ridge;37510234]Nah, Afghanistan is more like the 1750s...[/QUOTE] i knew that a dumb post like this would be paired with a my little pony avatar.

[QUOTE=W0w00t;37510268]this is bad the only thing this does is confirm that the 'taliban' (i say this in the loosest way possible) are winning with their "green"-on-blues[/QUOTE] And its fairly new, and its freaking successful. This will probably be their main plan.

[QUOTE=W0w00t;37510268]this is bad the only thing this does is confirm that the 'taliban' (i say this in the loosest way possible) are winning with their "green"-on-blues[/QUOTE] Winning in the same way Gravity is winning when we install fences around high places? It's a precaution to prevent anyone else from being hurt, it's not like the TSA where they look at naked pictures of us, our skeletons, and our luggage, while failing several drills put in place to test their effectiveness.

One of the countless shitty problems with an insurgency force.

[QUOTE=hear me purr;37510393]i knew that a dumb post like this would be paired with a my little pony avatar.[/QUOTE] I knew a dumb post like that would be paired with an apple avatar. I can do sweeping generalisations too.

[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;37512332]I knew a dumb post like that would be paired with an apple avatar. I can do sweeping generalisations too.[/QUOTE] yes please feed it

[QUOTE=SonicHitman;37512467]yes please feed it[/QUOTE] I'm not going to ignore that moron

[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;37512535]I'm not going to ignore that moron[/QUOTE] but you already fucked up by adding an unoriginal retort, thus proving his point.

And the train called this tread veers off the rails into a canyon.

About time really. Can't imagine just how much tension and stress that must be putting on the troops who are going through the trouble of training the Afghan police.

[QUOTE=TheTalon;37509766]Afghanistan used to be much like we were in the 1950's, IN the 1950's. What a shame[/QUOTE] Wow, I did not know this so I looked it up and read about it. Very interesting. Thanks! [url]http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=full#0[/url]

[QUOTE=mac338;37521022]Wow, I did not know this so I looked it up and read about it. Very interesting. Thanks! [url]http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=full#0[/url][/QUOTE] Woah

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;37521047]Woah[/QUOTE] Disheartening isn't it?

[QUOTE=mac338;37521022]Wow, I did not know this so I looked it up and read about it. Very interesting. Thanks! [url]http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=full#0[/url][/QUOTE] This is very depressing.

[QUOTE=mac338;37521022]Wow, I did not know this so I looked it up and read about it. Very interesting. Thanks! [URL]http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=full#0[/URL][/QUOTE] [quote]"I bought a photobook about the country published by Afghanistan's planning ministry"[/quote] take this entirely with a pinch of salt. using a piece of propaganda for resource, and then having a clearly very middle/upper-class journalist guide us through it, is not exactly good reporting yes, pre-taliban afghanistan did have a more prevalent middle-class and something more similar to modern western culture, but then you have to look at its history in more detail to find out what other conditions were more important, and how it came to be in that situation when compulsory co-educational school for boys and girls, abolition of the burqa, and other reforms were introduced, in the 20s, there was tremendous uproar and revolt from traditional tribal leaders and the king was forced to abdicate. until the 70s, there was much to and fro with progressive politics and conservative tribal leadership that led to the assassination and abdication of various tribal and monarchical leaders yes there was more freedom for women and children and yes there was fashion and modern music etc etc, but this was all born the result of a non-democratic monarchy, and the majority of the population detested the change. to look at this report and think "aw look they were so like us. how great was that. so sad that they're not at all like us anymore" is just inaccurate and pandering to the writer's whims. afghanistan never was anything like a modern western nation, whatever pencil skirts a book by the government shows