KABUL, Afghanistan — America’s longest war is about to include more cash for Afghanistan’s army and police force – without any new conditions to try to make sure it doesn’t get gobbled up before making it to the battlefield.
At a NATO summit in Warsaw that begins July 8, the United States and its allies will try to raise $15 billion to fund Afghan security forces through 2020. About $10.5 billion of that is expected to come from the United States, a continuation of existing commitments to pay and clothe Afghan security forces while supplying them with fuel, weapons and ammunition to fight Taliban insurgents.
But even though billions of dollars have been wasted or stolen here over the past 15 years, NATO leaders will probably not link the money to new benchmarks or anti-corruption standards for the Afghan military, said Maj. Gen. Gordon “Skip” Davis Jr., commander of Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, which oversees coalition support for Afghan security forces.
The U.S.-led coalition, for example, will still seek to fund 352,000 Afghan soldiers and police – even though auditors have repeatedly questioned whether Afghanistan has that many security personnel.
“There was discussion last year about having some specific benchmarks before the Warsaw summit, but I think the allies felt it was impractical,” said Davis, adding that it would have taken months to agree on what new strings should be placed on the money. “There just wasn’t enough time.”
But the upcoming NATO summit is a reflection of increasingly hawkish political leaders in the United States and Europe as it relates to the war.
When NATO last met to consider Afghanistan funding in 2014, President Obama was still insisting that all but 1,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn from the country by the end of this year.
But Obama, who was elected in 2008 on a pledge that he would end the war, has since backtracked on his troop withdrawal plan, agreeing to keep 9,800 soldiers here this year.
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