Afghanistan in 2012
January 3, 2012
ADM Jim Stavridis
The New Year is unfolding, and I'm thinking about Afghanistan. The good news is that we are making significant progress, especially in the security sector. The numbers of men and women killed in action among the coalition forces, an important metric, are down 20% from last year. But there are many challenges ahead.
I think there are three keys to our success in the security sector, where NATO and the International Coalition have the largest share of the work to do.
Gen. John R. Allen, commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)/U.S. Forces- Afghanistan (USFOR-A) shakes hands with Maj. Gen. John Toolan, commander of ISAF's Regional Command - Southwest, July 12 in Helmand. Allen flew to RC-SW with the commander of ISAF Joint Command, Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, to get an assessment on recent efforts in the area.
The first is something we all talk about in a military context: unity of effort. Working closely with my good friend and Naval Academy classmate, General John Allen, we have agreed to put plenty of focus on that this year. From a NATO and International perspective, our goal is to achieve a true sense of "in together, out together" among the 50 troop-contributing nations.
When I attended the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan in December, with 100 nations and international organizations represented, the theme of long-term commitment was evident. In the military sphere, that means we have to pull together smoothly on the oars as we all downsize the number of coalition troops over this coming year. For example, the US will withdraw another 23,000 in 2012 and this is on top of the 10,000 who redeployed in 2011.
Which brings us to the second key: transition to Afghan Security lead. The Afghan security forces have assumed the lead responsibility for security in districts and
provinces holding nearly 50% of the population of Afghanistan. This is possible due to the capability and professional
development of more than 310,000 Afghan soldiers, airmen, and policemen and women. Today, the Afghan security forces are taking the vast majority of casualties in the fight, as well as training over 70% of the new recruits.
Find more blog posts tagged with:
Comments: 0