Afghanistan training, Iraq uncertainty

Report Faults Training of Afghan Police (NY Times, JAMES GLANZ and DAVID ROHDE)

Five years after the fall of the Taliban, a joint report by the Pentagon and the State Department has found that the American-trained police force in Afghanistan is largely incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement work, and that managers of the $1.1 billion training program cannot say how many officers are actually on duty or where thousands of trucks and other equipment issued to police units have gone.

In fact, most police units had less than 50 percent of their authorized equipment on hand as of June, says the report, which was issued two weeks ago but is only now circulating among members of relevant Congressional committees.

In its most significant finding, the report said that no effective field training program had been established in Afghanistan, at least in part because of a slow, ineffectual start and understaffing.

I think last time I checked, training security forces and getting them equipment would be pretty much the single most important parts of providing security for a large, mountainous country facing prospects of warlordism and resurgent Taleban. Yeah, yeah, after a double check that's still the case.

This just reinforces the case that we would have been a lot better off trying to do Afghanistan right before running nose first into Iraq. What the hell is wrong with the people in charge of planning? Was it really so hard to see that we needed to do a lot more planning, ground work, and then actually improvement in at least one of the two countries we invaded?

Here's the Iraq round up lately:
Rumsfeld Memo Proposed ‘Major Adjustment’ in Iraq (NY Times, MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAVID S. CLOUD)
Memo Text (NY Times)
Annan Calls Iraq Situation 'Dangerous' (AP in WP)
Baathists Demand U.S. Exit From Iraq (AP in Guardian)
Bush Is Weighing Options for New Strategy in Iraq, Aide Says; Hadley Says Previously Rejected Ideas Are on Table, Including Suggestions in Rumsfeld's Memo (WP, Charles Babington)