EXCLUSIVE: DOD knew as early as 2005 that Afghan military was weak, former general says – Yahoo News

Department of Defense generals have known since 2005 that the Afghan military and National Police were not mentally capable of defending their nation without the backbone of the United States, said a special operations general who was involved in advisement and training.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley received reports as early as 2012 outlining the military's flaws even though he expressed surprise after the Taliban took over in a matter of days.

There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days, Milley said during a press conference Wednesday.

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However, Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc told the Washington Examiner that he wrote dozens of reports over repeated deployments beginning in 2005 outlining the fledgling Afghan militarys reluctance to fight.

Bolduc, currently running for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, oversaw the Armys special ops team in Afghanistan from 2005 through 2013. Starting as battalion commander, then a one-star general, he helped create a program that installed local police departments in hundreds of villages across the country.

The Afghan military was wracked by poor leadership, soldiers who left their deployments without permission, performance issues, and a lack of timely paychecks, among other problems, he wrote.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of NATO and International Security Assistance Force troops in Afghanistan, visits the 1-16th Infantry 2nd Battalion at Qalat Mangwal, Afghanistan, during a battlefield circulation, May 8. ISAF, in support of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, conducts operations in Afghanistan to reduce the capability and will of the insurgency, support the growth in capacity and capability of the Afghan National Security Forces, and facilitate improvements in governance and socio-economic development, in order to provide a secure environment for sustainable stability that is observable to the population. (Photo by U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Joshua Treadwell) (Released) U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Joshua Treadwell

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I submitted reports from 2005 to 2013 on how incapable the Afghan National Police and military were, Bolduc said. We knew their capacity to fight the Taliban without support was just not there. It was not there. They could not defeat them.

Bolduc said he was surprised to hear President Joe Biden say that the country could be defended by the military when Americans left.

We had been reporting on how bad the military was, how incapable it was, Bolduc said. [They had] poor morale, and they refused to fight in a firefight against other Muslims, regardless if they were Taliban or al Qaeda. Some of our casualties were because of this. They would stop fighting, and we would come out to get them to do their job and we would get shot.

Afghanistans national troops did not have the sense of pride and duty to their nation that is second nature to Americans, he said. However, it was a different scenario with local police, who had always defended their villages and families from intruders. As a result, they were excited about the new jobs with training, uniforms, and weapons provided by U.S. special operations.

Don Bolduc with a group of Afghan counter-terrorism fighters in 2002 Don Bolduc

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The Local Police Program was a great success and ultimately drove back the Taliban, putting 90% of the country under government control by 2013, he said. It was disbanded by the Obama administration in 2014 in lieu of a noncombat training operation with the national military.

Bolduc vividly recalled the meeting in which he was told that the program would be disbanded. It was attended by Milley, who was one of his commanders, Barack Obamas chief of staff Denis McDonough, and NATO commander Joseph Dunford, who would later become Joint Chiefs chairman.

[McDonough] said, We are going to transition out of the villages and into noncombat ops. I respectfully said to my superiors, This is going to be a disaster in the rural areas, and we need to do a couple more years, Bolduc recalled. We even had the date circled on the calendar when we predicted this program would be finished.

At the expected completion, the Afghan government would be able to manage the program, and the villagers would have the confidence and skill to fight off the Taliban successfully, without assistance from Americans.

McDonough, Dunford, Milley, and others had perturbed looks on their faces after hearing the challenge to their new mandate. Bolduc described their reaction as not well received. I was told afterward that I should not have spoken up.

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Milley had been a fan of the program, Bolduc said. He did not speak to Bolduc again, and the brigadier general was transferred to a position commanding U.S. forces in Africa a few weeks later. Bolduc was then passed over for a two-star general promotion and retired with numerous honors in 2017.

There have been many significant accomplishments by our service members in training, equipping, and assisting the Afghan military, but the Afghans' ability to defend their country has always been in doubt, Bolduc said. Im glad I came out against their strategy because it needed to be said, even if it cost me my promotion.

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Tags: News, Afghanistan, Military, Defense, National Security, Mark Milley

Original Author: Tori Richards

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EXCLUSIVE: DOD knew as early as 2005 that Afghan military was weak, former general says - Yahoo News