In Our Area the Taliban Are Paying More a Month
“than we are in some places because their life expectancy is much shorter.” quote from Col. Edward Kornish, Commander, Regional Police Advisory Command – South.
Today’s Bloggers’ Roundtable interview focused on the Afghan National Police in the southern and southeastern portions of the country. Here’s the transcript.
Co. Kornish’s region is made up of six provinces located in southeastern Afghanistan. It corresponds to the area controlled by the Afghan Army’s 205 “Hero” Corps.
10,000 Afghans are seving in the National Police in the region, a shortfall of 6,000. Part of that is due to the difference in pay between the police and the army that was recently corrected. Much of it is due to the increased risk taken by the ANP.
An ANP officer receives about $100 a month. Hundreds have been killed in the region by Taliban attacks. Kornish points out that the kill ratio is 10:1 or greater and that thousands of Taliban were killed in the same time period.
There are about 230 Americans, 70 British and 100 Canadians involved with the ANP training. While they are trained in traditional police procedures such as crime scene investigation, the primary focus is on survival tactics.
The police are typically deployed in groups of 6-12 at fixed checkpoints. The training effort encourages them to patrol more and to reduce the numbers of checkpoints. In Zabul Province, where the ANP once maintained over 26 checkpoints on Highway 1, they now have 6 with two police stations.
The national government has been engaged in reforming the leadership of the ANP. The local efforts are aimed at recruiting officers loyal to the national government, training them and providing better equipment.
Col. Kornish describes the ANP as a combination of a National Guard MP unit and state troopers. In this region, combat is their main duty. In more peaceful regions to the north, they perform more traditional police roles.
The police efforts have lagged the efforts for the Afghan Army. One reason was the former issue of lower pay for the police. Another issue continues to be budget availability. The training effort is outside the budget cycle which can create shortages of resources.
Table of contents for Bloggers' Roundtable
- We Don’t Commute to Work Anymore
- Terror Investors Might Want to Look Elsewhere
- I Hear It’s Safe
- In Our Area the Taliban Are Paying More a Month
- Iraqi Police Progress
- Sept. 11 Conspirators Going to Trial
- Continued Courage and Committment
- The Year of Opportunity – 2008
- Competent, Capable, Effective Leadership
- Afghan Army Acts: Decisive, Overwhelming
- Iraqi Military Medical Services
- Dallas Reporting: Aid Mission to Georgia
- Military Integration Into NIMS
- Status Report From the Afghan South
- Status Report From the Afghan East
- Fourth Fleet Is About Partnerships
- Iraqi Police Primer
- Sons of Iraq Status Update
- Army Apologizes
- We Are Here!
- Yar! There Be Pirates!
- Cobra Gold 2009
- Our Best: Sergeant First Class Helen Gillespie
- Africa Partnership Station Comes to E Africa
- Building the Rule of Law in Afghanistan
- Sons of Iraq and the Iraqi Budget
- Air Force Combat Camera – Focus on the Fight
- Afghan Update for July 22, 2009
- The Army Goal: 1.5 Gigawatts of Renewable Energy
- Withdrawing from Iraq – some perspective
- Iraqi security update April 22 2010
- 2012 Federal Budget for Defense
- Pacific Command and the Pacific
This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 12:49 pm and is filed under War on Terror, Afghanistan, Original writing, War on Terror, Afghanistan, Rebuilding, Original writing, Reporting, War on Terror, Terrorist Death Watch, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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