Long noted, disturbing trend in Afghanistan

CNN reported over the weekend that all coalition troops at headquarters and on bases in Afghanistan will now carry loaded weapons at all times. The move comes after another round of attacks on troops by members of Afghan National Security Forces.

Last week, CNN also reported 37 Americans have been killed by these so called green on blue attacks this year alone, and another 28 occurred in 2011.

I have to ask, why has the U.S. military waited so long to finally allow our troops a means to defend themselves? Even before the recent surge in these attacks, the Pentagon knew there was a problem.

A May 2011 military study gave in depth analysis to these fratricidal murders being carried out by members of the Afghanistan security forces. Included with the study was this appendix:

COMPARATIVE LINE-OF-DUTY MURDER RISKS BETWEEN
U.S. POLICE OFFICERS AND N2KL WESTERNERS
WHO WORK WITH ANSF PERSONNEL

Reports from the US. Department ofJustice (FBI, 2010) indicate that out of approximately one million law enforcement officers in the United States, 48 were feloniously killed in the line of duty during 2009.  This represents a death rate of4.8 per 100,000 per annum.  

In the Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman Provinces constituting the N2KL region of RC-East, the region of assignment for this Red Team since 2008, there are very roughly 3,500 Westemers who regularly and officially interact with Afghan National Security Force personnel (defined as routinely having one meeting a week or more with ANSF members).  During the last six month period between November, 2010 through April, 2011 thirteen Westerners (made up of 12 US. Army and one US. civilian employee) have been murdered by actual members of ANSF.  This death rate for the last six months is 370 per 100,000.  Extrapolating this in per annum terms, this reflects a murder rate of740 per 100,000 (this death rate is only for deaths caused by bona fide ANSF members; other factors related to combat service that significantly increase the overall death rate for these coalition personnel are not included).  

Therefore, the N2KL Coalition Force's murder rate from ANSF personnel, at 740 per 100,000 is 154 times greater than the line-of-duty murder rate of 4.8 per 100,000 for US. police officers.

The study, entitled A CRISIS OF TRUST AND CULTURAL INCOMPATIBILITY: A Red Team Study of Mutual Perceptions of Afghan National Security Force Personnel and U.S. Soldiers in Understanding and Mitigating the Phenomena of ANSF -Committed Fratricide-Murders, received only limited media attention following its release last year.

The Wall Street Journal was among those reporting the study. In its story of June 17, 2011, the Journal noted:

The study was originally unclassified, but military officials in Kabul said Thursday that it has been recently classified "secret" by the U.S. Central Command in Florida at the request of coalition officials in Afghanistan. On Thursday, despite its new classification, the report was available on a publicly accessible military knowledge-sharing website.

The study remains available online, and can be located with a simple Google search.