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WASHINGTON – U.S. officials now are concluding that the rash of “green-on-blue” attacks by Afghan police and troops on their U.S. trainers are a concerted new Taliban tactic to thwart plans by the United States and its NATO partners to move to the next stage of training prior to the departure of Western troops at the end of 2014, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
These attacks by apparent Taliban infiltrators into the Afghan police and army come despite efforts to bolster the vetting process to prevent such attacks. If these vetting efforts don’t improve the situation, it will make it more difficult for NATO to replace its troops with Afghan troops.
The effort to replace U.S. troops with Afghan forces has required recruiting large numbers of Afghan personnel. Since the effort began in 2011, more than 70,000 Afghans have been recruited for the police and army.
To date this year, there have been 32 attacks, killing some 40 NATO soldiers and contractors and wounding another 69. This is almost double from last year and now reflects almost 15 percent of the total number of deaths of U.S. and NATO forces.
Given these developments, recent Pentagon assertions that the attacks are driven by personal issues lack credibility.
Instead, analysts say that there is an apparent clash in cultures, especially among very young recruits who never have been exposed to Western values and methods of operation. One report says that the recruits were offended by foul language used by their Western trainers.
Analysts say that NATO forces are concerned over the impact such infiltration and subsequent attacks will have in developing an effective Afghan force to thwart future Taliban efforts to undermine the Western-installed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
WND/G2Bulletin separately has reported that Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, recently issued a “fatwa” or religious edict to its proxy, the Afghan Taliban, to work to overthrow the Karzai government. Analysts believe the “green-on-blue” attacks are part of that strategy.
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