US enlists ex-warlord’s men for Afghan police force focus 06/16/2010

US enlists ex-warlord’s men for Afghan police force

focus 06/16/2010 RAWHANAY — Drawing on a cigarette held between his tattooed fingers, Mohammed Daoud is thanked by an American junior officer for dispatching 5,000 Afghan militiamen to join the police force. “This would make me very happy to stand side by side with my friends,” US Lt. Jared Hollows tells the 35-year-old commander and loyalist of former warlord Gul Agha Sherzai in a village in Kandahar. US troops fighting to control the southern province have cut a deal to bring Sherzai’s militia into the police, providing salaries and uniforms in return for help quelling Taliban unrest. Nato commanders hope such deals can help reverse the tide of the nine-year Afghan war in the crucial months ahead under a strict timetable, as US President Barack Obama is keen to start getting troops out next year. “We’re building an Afghan solution that puts the legitimate power where it belongs — in the government and in the security apparatus,” said US Lt. Col. John Paginini, commander of the 1st squadron, 71st cavalry regiment. “There is no distinction between them and any other policemen from any other tribe or any other family.” But alliances with men like Sherzai — former warlords suspected of pursuing personal profit — are not universally welcomed. At least 30 US and Nato soldiers died in Afghanistan last week. Record casualty numbers and tough fighting across the south have raised questions about the course of the war, with commanders under intense pressure to show progress....More Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100616com5.html 6

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