ISAF COMMANDER TELLS CONGRESS THAT BILATERAL SECURITY AGREEMENT VERY IMPORTANT

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
ISAF Commander Stresses Importance of Bilateral Security Agreement
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2013 - The top commander of NATO and U.S forces in Afghanistan told Congress today a bilateral security agreement will help to address the uncertainty Afghan people have about their country's future after 2014, when the International Security Assistance Force mission ends and Afghan forces have security responsibility for the whole country.

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. stressed the importance of the agreement while testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on progress in Afghanistan.

"The U.N. security mandate will expire in December 2014, so our presence, post-2014, will be based on the agreement we make with the Afghan government," he said.

Dunford said one of the key issues a bilateral security agreement would address is "this idea of uncertainty and the lack of confidence that the Afghan people have about the future."

"From my perspective, the bilateral security agreement will be the physical manifestation of our commitment to post-2014, and really form the foundation of an effective narrative," he said. This will help with the "clear and compelling narrative" needed for the future to help in overcoming the Taliban message, which has been one of abandonment, the general added.

Dunford cited the U.S. leadership role in Afghanistan as another reason to come to terms with a post-2014 presence.

"The other reason why the bilateral security agreement is important is because our coalition partners are very much looking to the United States to lead with regard to post-2014," he said. "They're going to need the time to generate the political will in their capitals, and do the detailed budget planning, just as we have to do for a post-2014 presence."

Originally, Dunford said, the agreement was to have the bilateral security agreement signed no later than November 2013, but President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai met in January and agreed to accelerate that timeline.

"We are now cautiously optimistic that we would get that in May or June," Dunford said. "I think it's very important that we get that before the 2013 fighting season."

The Afghans will "absolutely" be in the lead going into the 2013 fighting season, the general said, and the information environment they operate in will very much be informed by the sense of commitment that the United States provides about post-2014.

"And, again, I believe the cornerstone of that commitment is the bilateral security agreement," Dunford said. "I think it's very, very important, both from a psychological perspective inside the country, as well as for our ability to form a coalition post-2014."

The general said he would strongly recommend that the agreement be completed to "continue to incentivize our coalition partners to participate with us as we go into the post-2014 mission."

Dunford also noted that work conducted on the agreement over the last several weeks has featured "direct engagement" involving Karzai, Obama, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

"Ambassador [James B.] Cunningham, our U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, and I also routinely engage not less than once a week with President Karzai," Dunford said. "I think that level of engagement is going to be required."

Obama spoke with Karzai within the last week and addressed the bilateral security agreement, Dunford said.

The presence of coalition forces in Afghanistan beyond 2014 is absolutely, inextricably linked with the future of Afghanistan, Dunford told the House panel.

"What's most important is that the future of Afghanistan is linked to the bilateral security agreement," he said. "My sense is ... that the people in Afghanistan absolutely recognize that."

DOD SAYS AFGHAN FORCES ARE SHOWING PROGRESS

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Afghan Forces Show Progress, DOD Officials Tell House Committee
By Jim Garamone
WASHINGTON, June 21, 2012 - The Afghan national security forces are making tremendous strides and look to be ready to assume security control of the country on schedule, Defense officials told the House Armed Services Committee June 20.
David S. Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, said the Afghans remain on track to assume the lead for security nationwide by the end of 2014.

There are immediate payoffs, he said. One is the last U.S. surge troops – some 23,000 service members – will withdraw from the country by the end of September. "That is all made possible by the improvements in the Afghan national security forces," he said.
After the surge troops leave Afghanistan, the remaining American and coalition forces will work to transition security to Afghan forces.

"The key to the success is the increasing capability and confidence of the Afghan security forces and of the Afghan people in those security forces," he said. "The Afghan national army and Afghan national police are both on schedule to meet their goal for size by or before October this year."

Afghan security forces now participate in over 90 percent of all operations in the country and lead more than 40 percent of the missions. Sedney quoted Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, the NATO commander in Afghanistan, who said the Afghans "are better than we thought they were to be, and importantly, they're better than they thought that they could be."

Sedney said Afghan forces already provide security for more than 50 percent of the Afghan population. That will climb to 75 percent when more areas come under Afghan control in the months ahead. The latest group of areas to transition to Afghan control contain contested areas, and there is some tough fighting going on, he added.
"This fighting season ... will be the most significant challenge for the Afghan security forces, as they are more in the lead than ever before," he said. "However, the time for this test is now,¬ when we and our coalition partners have the forces in theater to ensure their success."

Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the director of the Joint Staff's Pakistan/Afghanistan Coordination Cell, gave more detail about the growth and training of Afghan security forces, and said NATO's International Security Assistance Force remains focused on building an Afghan national security force of 352,000.

"That becomes a mechanism for defeating the insurgency," Townsend said.
The security forces continue to meet or exceed this year's recruiting objectives, "with the army and the air force expected to meet their combined goal of 195,000 by the end of this summer, and the police reaching their goal of 157,000 by October," he said.

The security forces have problems with literacy and with shortages of non-commissioned officers, and efforts are underway to solve. The NATO training mission and the Afghan ministries provide literacy programs to approximately 90,000 soldiers and police each day. "This is going to make the ANSF one of the most literate elements of Afghan society," the general said.

Attrition – from failure, sickness and desertion – continues to be an issue, the general said, and this continues to hamper long-term development. "The security ministries continue to implement policies to combat attrition, and they're working," Townsend said. "Attrition is going down for the last several months."

Shortages of NCOs hamper training and operations as well, but this takes time. "The (Afghan National Security Forces) are taking the lead in training their own forces, and they're implementing instructor cadre training programs," he said. "These Afghan instructors are providing more basic and advanced skills training at Afghan-led training centers every day."

The NATO command has rated 67 percent of the army units and 62 percent of the police units in the top two categories of operational effectiveness, Townsend said.