In a recent interview to British daily ‘’The Guardian” General Joseph Dunford, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan has thrown light over the dying rate of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and their needs in terms of training and equipment. As the ANSF has gone assuming more security responsibilities of the country, the death toll of Afghan soldiers and police has become manifold, topping 100 per week.  More fighting will result in more deaths. As we will move ahead, the insurgents are expected to intensify their attacks and there will be more clashes between them and ANSF. Although the Afghan government has not shown any serious concern about the high dying rate of ANSF, General Dunford says, 'I view it as serious, and so do all the commanders.”

Meanwhile the General admits that Afghan security forces may need up to five more years of Western training and support before they can handle combat operations entirely on their own. While security forces do not need help with battle skills, he said, they do need support in logistics, planning and with equipment such as helicopter and planes in battle. 

The fact that Afghanistan’s air force faces lack of helicopters, fighting planes and its ground forces do not have enough modern weapons, tank and other war equipment in the hand can be deemed a major reason behind the growing graph of their casualties. Enemies cannot be fought with empty hands. Both the Afghan government and its international allies have not been paying serious attention to providing the Afghan security forces with latest weaponry and copters and planes. Afghan army and police have been putting forward their needs from time to time but have never been addressed.

For stronger defense, President Hamid Karzai has recently been calling upon the Western allies of Afghanistan to provide security forces of the country with latest artilleries, tanks and aircrafts. In his last visit to India too, he requested the same from his Indian counterpart. Nonetheless, no country has responded positively to the call of President Karzai.

It is feared that withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan may lead to a chaotic situation in the country which may waste all the gains of the last decade. If NATO is to withdraw from Afghanistan, the pace of training and equipping the ANSF should be doubled. To let ANSF be in a better position against the Taliban and other groups of insurgents, it must be provided with latest weapons, tanks, war crafts and other military equipments.