US Army troops training to train Afghans/Afghan police

From an earlier post:

...the 4,000 trainers for Afstan announced by the president are indeed in addition to the two National Guard brigades already committed; that's a hell of lot of trainers, esp. as the US manoeuvre units also do some mentoring:

4,000 4th BCT, 82nd Airborne paratroopers going to Afghanistan to train security forces...

Now:

FORT POLK, Louisiana (Reuters) - When U.S. soldiers rolled into an Afghan security force base in their Humvee vehicles at dawn one cold morning, they came not to lead but to listen.

As a cigarette-smoking Afghan army officer explained how he planned to arrest an insurgent, using a rough layout of a nearby village sketched in the sand, the U.S. troops' commander asked questions instead of barking instructions.

"We're going to talk to the elder first, right?" the U.S. Army captain asked. "You'll be in the lead?"

The setting was rural Louisiana but the exercise gave the U.S. troops a taste of a mission they will face later this year as part of President Barack Obama's strategy for Afghanistan -- advising Afghan forces instead of leading the fight.

To prepare them, the Fort Polk base is set up as a mini-Afghanistan, complete with the crackle of blank gunfire, booming fireworks to simulate bomb attacks, Afghan role-players and mock villages being created by Hollywood set dressers...

MORE TRAINING, LESS TRIGGER-PULLING

The center's staff go to considerable lengths to make the training as realistic as possible. They have goats to roam around the mock villages and troops who are allowed to grow beards and long hair to play the role of insurgents.

They also pride themselves on constantly updating their scenarios. Right now, for both Afghanistan and Iraq, that means focusing more on teaching troops how to act as mentors to local security forces.

U.S. troops are due to cease combat missions in Iraq by August next year and the Obama administration has placed more emphasis on expanding and training Afghan forces.

"We're going to get good at combat advisorship," said Yarbrough. "We're not pulling the trigger quite as much."

That statement rings particularly true for the paratroopers training at the center from the 4th Brigade of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina...

COMBAT AND CULTURAL AWARENESS

Despite the focus on advising Afghan forces, the training also includes plenty of combat practice.

As the U.S. soldiers and their Afghan partners who mounted the arrest operation drove away from the village, an explosion shattered the calm of the forest and smoke rose into the air, signaling the convoy had been hit by a roadside bomb.

The sounds of gunshots and rocket-propelled grenades rattled through the trees as a battle with insurgents ensued, using a laser system that determines whether the participants have been hit by the blanks fired.

But the training also reflects the U.S. military's increasing embrace of the idea that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan must be won by winning the support of the local population rather than primarily by killing enemy fighters.

That lesson has been learned the hard way as U.S. officers acknowledge they knew little about the societies they were dealing with in the early years of the wars.

Even the most junior soldiers at Fort Polk go through an exercise in which they try to build relationships with Afghan villagers by visiting their shops, cafes and public buildings.

To make the scenario as realistic as possible, some of the Afghans complain about U.S. forces, the lack of security and the dearth of funds to help with development projects...

An example of similar CF training here.

Meanwhile, somewhat related:

Afghanistan may double police force

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan may double its 82,000-strong police force and will train 15,000 new recruits in time for the presidential election on August 20, the interior minister said on Sunday.

More than 70,000 foreign troops are based in Afghanistan fighting a resurgent Taliban, mainly in the south and east.

Military commanders recognize foreign troops can ultimately only buy time before the Afghan army and police force are expanded. The United States is to send 4,000 police trainers to Afghanistan this year [emphasis added--there will also be those two National Guard brigades].

Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told a news conference Afghan authorities had asked international donors to approve a "strategic increase" in the size of the force.

"Our request was a strategic increase of the numbers of the police in Afghanistan and two: an interim increase until we are able to basically implement the strategic increase," Atmar said.

"Initially we thought that the Afghanistan police size needs to be doubled in order to meet the requirements," he said. "We will have to do a deeper study to establish and determine the needs, and the response to the needs."

The results of the study should be known in June.

Atmar said the international community approved on Sunday a government proposal to recruit and train 15,000 police as an interim measure before the August presidential election.

These new police would help provide security in the most vulnerable provinces and in the capital Kabul, said Atmar.

The United States and Canada have pledged funding [emphasis added] for the training, he said, while most of it would be carried out by the new U.S. police trainers...

More here on Canadian training of Afghan police.