Situation Normal: Afghanistan Fouled Up
Here is the first finding from each report:
– NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (NTM-A/CSTC-A) officials did not develop adequate sustainment requirements for the 15 types of ANA individual equipment items.What the heck is going on here?
– ACC officials did not properly award or manage 19 contract actions in accordance with regulations and did not include specific quality requirements in the contract for 13 contract actions because they did not perform all necessary contracting procedures when accelerating procurements.
– Army contracting officials at Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) did not appropriately award and administer the ANP contract in accordance with Federal and DoD guidance.
Here we are, a decade into this war, and the proper training and outfitting of the Afghan security forces is the key to leaving something worthwhile — worth the nearly 2,000 American lives and $640 billion we’ve invested in the place – when we depart, more or less, by the end of 2014.
It’s really pretty simple: either the rules are too complex and not worth following, or the military – at least in these cases – is incompetent. Most likely, of course, it’s some of each. Granted, no war plan survives contact with the enemy, but it shouldn’t be so brittle that the IG can carp and criticize nonstop.
Perhaps there are too many little things tripping up our troops. That’s not fair to them, the IG, or the Afghan security forces, who generally seem content with what U.S. troops call Afghan good – not good enough to pass muster with Pentagon bean-counters, perhaps, but good enough for an 18th Century nation roiled by more than three decades of war.
No comments:
Post a Comment