Afghan Police: Literacy and Trust

Afghan Police: Literacy and Trust

By Colin Clark Monday, August 23rd, 2010 1:12 pm
Posted in International, Policy

Next to counter-terror operations, perhaps no mission is more crucial to Afghanistan than is building its national police force. NATO brought in U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell to lead the crucial mission of training the police and the army and this week he’s doing his first round of interviews since taking command. One of his “biggest challenges” can  be described simply: recruiting enough people and getting them to stay. Right now, Caldwell said some units have an attrition rate of about 47 percent. That sounds horrific, but for perspective that is down from about 70 percent. Overall, the police’s annual attrition rate is about 14 percent, he said.

Among the key elements Caldwell and his colleagues are deploying to keep the people they train are literacy training, the equivalent of combat and long service pay. But we hear from sources in Afghanistan that the biggest single issue for improving the effectiveness of the Afghan police is to ensure that locals actually trust them. That means turning them into people with guns whom locals believe will actually protect and serve them. And, while it is somewhat circular logic, that requires retaining people, ensuring they are educated enough to communicate effectively and training them in the basics of police work, as well as the more exciting elements of counterterrorism. As Caldwell put it during his televised press briefing this morning: “If we are going to professionalize the force, they must be able to read.”

The problem of the lack of trust is deep-rooted, as Marine Brig. Gen. David Berger, head of Marine operations,  noted in a conversation with reporters last week. Afghans, generally, do not understand or trust their national government and the police are key to changing that, Berger said.


Forging that force will not be a quick endeavor. When Caldwell was asked just when the Afghan police and army will be ready to start taking over from coalition forces, he said it would not be before October of next year.

Join the Conversation

Bubba August 23rd, 2010 at 2:34 pm

I applaud Gen Caldwell’s vision, and I hope he retires and goes bcak to make the vision come true. As Marine “operator” noted the populace is a long way from accepting the premise “the policeman is your friend.” There is no “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” in most of the areas we are asking our trainers to operate in. This is a “nation-building” exercise in which it is very easy to mistake the trainee’s acquiescense for agreement and attribute success to a program that is not really making the fundamental change to values.
If you look at Pakistan and how long they have been working with a similar population in their Federated Tribal Territories you have some degree of the difficulty facing our trainers at introducing the western concepts of the rule of “law” as envisioned by a non-resident central government. The American medical team that was recently massacred had been on the ground for a protracted period (one since the 1970s.) For the most part they were not trying to “persuade” anyone of a mindset “change.”

Bubba August 23rd, 2010 at 2:55 pm

At the risk of the wrath of those who feel a comparison to other counter-insurgency operations is inaccurate or inappropriate, I note that Gen. Caldwell has the same task that my grandfather had with the Constabulary in the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. While the Moros no longer seen as a “threat” I will point out an insurgency (low-level by most measures) is still in place. I truely wish the General the most miraculous of good fortune. I honestly desire that our troops don’t have to be there much longer. But if Asia has demonstrated anything — it takes multi-decades to see any change. From the Huks in Mindano, the VC in the Delta, the Long March by Mao, no one has approached the global village with any appreciation for western values in less than 50 years. We started in the Philippines in 1901, and it wasn’t until Magsaysay (1952?) we were able to say Clarke AFB wasn’t in danger.

Oblat August 23rd, 2010 at 3:58 pm

The General is a fraud with a story for the weak kneed Americans back home. He knows very well that we are building a force that is hated by the majority of Afghans and will never be respected. What he wont tell you is that the tribes we are keeping in power don’t have and will never have enough people to dominate Afghanistan — that’s the real “police recruiting problem”

BOOMER August 23rd, 2010 at 4:58 pm

They also fail to inform that those who flee from thier police and military positions, do so well armed, equipped with better training and with enough money to last them a few years. (should had been required to turn in thier weapons and ammo daily).

EdT August 26th, 2010 at 4:54 pm

Never trust a Muslim, period

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