NATO scales back in Afghanistan: What does it mean for the U.S.?

Amidst a rash of deadly assaults, NATO is stepping away from cooperation with Afghan forces. Though President Obama remains committed to his timeline for U.S. withdrawal, the training of Afghan forces may suffer.?

By Phil Stewart,?Reuters / September 18, 2012

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks to reporters after a meeting with Albania's President Bujar Nishani in Brussels Tuesday. A cutback in NATO operations with Afghan forces in response to a surge in insider attacks on foreign servicemen is a 'prudent and temporary' step, but NATO's strategy in Afghanistan is unchanged, Rasmussen said on Tuesday.

Eric Vidal/Reuters

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NATO's decision to scale back joint operations with Afghan?forces may protect the lives of Western troops increasingly targeted by "insider attacks," but it raises troubling new questions about President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize?Afghanistan.

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After ramping up Afghan?security forces at a breakneck rate to allow for a drawdown of Western troops, NATO is coming to grips with a rash of deadly assaults by Afghan?recruits who turn their guns on Western allies. Muslim rage over a film insulting the Prophet Mohammad has further stoked the risk.

The?White House?and NATO leaders have stressed that the suspension of some mentoring operations announced on Tuesday is only a temporary step, limited in scope, that does not alter?America's withdrawal timeline. It applies to front-line missions involving units smaller than an 800-strong battalion, and even then, there will be exceptions.

"The president's policy of gradually turning over security lead to Afghan?forces continues,"?White House?spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. "It doesn't affect the timeline."

But?James Dubik, a retired lieutenant general who oversaw the training of?Iraq's security forces, warned that the move would undoubtedly act as a drag on training of Afghan?forces, an urgently needed step to prepare them for the time when most NATO combat troops have gone home at the end of 2014.

"As we saw in?Iraq?and as?Afghanistan?has seen in the last two years, the partnership program at the company, platoon level is key to the on-the-job training that is required," Dubik said. "So that will be affected and it will be a decelerant in terms of their proficiency."

How much of an impact the restrictions have depends on how long the policy is maintained, he said.

Top brass were under intense pressure to do more to stem a rise in Western casualties at the hands of Afghans they were training - a phenomenon that, by their own admission, they are still struggling to explain.

So far this year, at least 51 NATO troops have been killed in these insider, or "green-on-blue," attacks. That is a spike of more than 45 percent on similar incidents for the whole of 2011.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/sf7gFjNs7Bo/NATO-scales-back-in-Afghanistan-What-does-it-mean-for-the-U.S.

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