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Remember a few months ago when General Stanley McChrystal promised good governance was on its way to Marjah, Afghanistan, thanks to his totally awesome counterinsurgency (COIN) plan? His exact words were:

“We’ve got a government in a box, ready to roll in,” General McChrystal said.

The general has repeatedly asserted the key role that the Afghan National Police must play in U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.

Yeah, about that...

The conduct of Marja’s interim police, from a unit American officials describe as the Interior Ministry’s most promising force, has been undercut by drug use, petty corruption and, at times, a lack of commitment in the face of the ordinary hardships and duties of uniformed life.

When the force first arrived in late winter, entire units refused to stand guard or clean their living areas, several Marines said, and in northern Marja, police shifts often still abandon checkpoints during the sweltering midday heat, disappearing for lunch breaks lasting hours. Some officers have deserted the force.

Things in Marja under McChrystal's plan in Marja are so bad that he now refers to the district as "a bleeding ulcer."

And this is supposed to be the dress rehearsal for this Fall's planned operation in Kandahar?

Something tells me the Afghans could do without General McChrystal's COIN-operated bleeding ulcer machine.

Please share this Note with your friends and suggest that they "like" Rethink Afghanistan.

--DC