Growing the Afghan Local Police (ALP)?

It appears that the government of Afghanistan is looking to grow the size of the Afghan Local Police or ALP. The Taliban's recent success in Kunduz City and their overall success on the battlefield across the country has the Afghan government worried. The Taliban control or contest almost 25% of the 398 districts of Afghanistan. It is quite clear that the corrupt and unprofessional Afghan National Police (ANP) are ill suited for quelling the insurgency and that the Afghan National Army is unable to defeat the insurgency. Afghanistan has been (and probably always will be) a country of regional strongmen (call them warlords if you will) and of local militia forces sometimes loyal to the central government but usually owing allegiance to local power brokers. Enter the Afghan Local Police. The government would like to increase the size of the ALP by quite a few thousand members - way beyond the current 30,000 that is funded by the United States. This has put the Europeans into the HP mode and got them frothing at the mouth - they equate the ALP with militias. It will be interesting to see how this works out. Read more in "Afghan Plan to Expand Militia Raises Abuse Concerns", The New York Times, October 16, 2015. Learn more about the Afghan Local Police and read news reports about the Afghan Local Police.

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