Local power brokers in Kandahar have worked to maintain this revenue stream by keeping the police force weak, forcing coalition forces to rely on private security companies for protection, the Institute of the Study of War report said.
That is precisely the type of behavior by local officials that has alienated residents and provided an opening for the Taliban to establish effective control over much of the province.
Abrahams said he has tried to tell locals that he understands their plight, but he is consistently undermined by the wild shooting.
“Actions speak louder than words, and the locals see these drugged-out thugs with guns and trucks with ‘The United States’ painted on the side,” said Abrahams.
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That is how I would have wrote this title for the story below. It’s kind of funny how the Afghan government was soooo adamant about pulling all the security companies under their control, complete with only issuing licenses to Afghan companies, yet at the same time, these private security companies they control are doing a lot of harm to their government and to the war effort.
It is also doing a lot of harm to the US and Coalition strategy for the war, all because the Afghans don’t have control over something they said they wanted to control. I guess making money off of the licenses and taxes is all they really cared about? Meanwhile, we have Afghan companies running through communities and using poor fire discipline, thus causing civilian casualties.
The final point I want to make, is the ‘shadow government’ that the Taliban are running in places like Kandahar, are totally benefiting from reckless Afghan security companies. If the government pays the cops crap wages, they moonlight as security contractors. Then they go out with the companies, and when their convoys receive a little fire from a Taliban shooter, and the convoys fire up entire communities with everything they got, that cop is now attached to that incident. Or that convoy forces people off of roads or robs other people or contractors on the roads, and now the Shadow Government has succeeded in making the police and government look weak because they can’t control the companies. And because the goods on the trucks of the convoys all say ‘Made In The USA’, well then that ties in the actions of these companies to the coalition.
My advice to General McChrystal and company is to get a handle on this quick. Because the enemy will only continue to exploit this angle.(they have actually been doing this for awhile) They will also conduct pseudo operations, and pretend to be Afghan police or army, and further attack the people, all with the idea of pinning it on the real government. This tactic is nothing new, but now that there is such a huge demand for logistics in country to support the surge of troops and contractors, it would be kind of important to take care of this now.
One solution is to make it mandatory that Afghan companies are bonded. Hell, nothing motivates a boss more to do things right, than the possibility of losing a lot of money because of poor performance or because of breaking the law/contract. And to ensure they are doing things right, I think there should be a monitor attached to these convoys. Be it expats or soldiers, it doesn’t matter. Just some kind of adult supervision to say ‘yes, these guys are doing it right’ or ‘no, they violated the contract/law and they lose the bond’. That would be a quick down and dirty way of making sure these guys are not negatively impacting the war strategy, and ensuring they are doing a good job. –Matt
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Reckless private security companies anger Afghans
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT
April 30, 2010
HUTAL, Afghanistan — Private Afghan security guards protecting NATO supply convoys in southern Kandahar province regularly fire wildly into villages they pass, hindering coalition efforts to build local support ahead of this summer’s planned offensive in the area, U.S. and Afghan officials say.
The guards shoot into the villages to intimidate any potential militants, the officials say, but also cause the kind of civilian casualties that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has tried repeatedly to stop.
“Especially as they go through the populated areas, they tend to squeeze the trigger first and ask questions later,” said Capt. Matt Quiggle, a member of the U.S. Army’s 5th Stryker brigade tasked with patrolling Highway One, which connects Afghanistan’s major cities.
The troops say they have complained to senior coalition officials and have even detained some guards to lecture them about their conduct, but the problem has continued.