U.S. general sees trouble for Afghan forces after pullout

The four-star general in charge of helping the Afghan military deal with tribal conflicts and Taliban attacks has painted a grim picture of how that military will look in 2015 in the wake of the departure of foreign troops.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commander NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said that the Afghan National Security Forces will face fuel shortages, a lack of spare parts and other operational problems when international forces withdraw.

“My own assessment is that Afghans would have a very difficult time in the summer of 2015 because some of these shortfalls will manifest themselves in the summer of 2015 during what is the traditional period of high-operational tempo,” he said. 

Gen. Dunford spoke in an off-camera press briefing at the Pentagon after spending two days on Capitol Hill discussing Afghanistan with lawmakers. Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s staunch refusal to sign a security agreement that would protect U.S. troops while they are inside the country after December 2014 has raised concerns on Capitol Hill.

Gen. Dunford said that the fears of operational shortfalls are fueled by contract management concerns. The U.S. military is currently in the process of transferring some of the contracts it has been overseeing to the Afghan military, he said.

The U.S. military manages “countless contracts that do everything from feeding the troops at a forward operating base to taking care of the services at a forward operating base,” Gen. Dunford said. Now, the Afghan military will be expected to take some responsibility for those contracts and assure, for themselves, that the food, water and sewage trucks show up on time, he said.