As many of our readers may know, my brother Phil Bossert Jr. retired last year from the U.S. Air Force as a decorated Colonel after serving our country for more than 32 years. Not long after retiring he was hired as a consultant to the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense to formulate and implement a leadership training program for Afghan Military officers. The following is an update from Phil and his assessment of our involvement in the longest running war in U.S. history:
Hello from Kabul! I hope all is well with you this summer. I am fine and have been staying busy which has helped the time go by quickly. On May 24th I passed the seven month mark and am looking forward to seeing my family in early August during my second and last R&R.
There is a feeling on this NATO training mission that many big changes will begin happening this summer, especially with the death of Bin Laden, the beginning of the coalition draw down, and declining public support for the longest war in American history.
Let me update you on my work as an advisor, some leadership lessons, and where I believe this mission will be by 2014 and beyond. The articles that are attached give a good summary of these topics along with other recent events including the “peace treaties” the Ivy League schools recently signed with ROTC, the growing gap between civilians and their military, and the sacrifices being made by less than 1% of Americans.
Being an Advisor
My experiences teaching on the faculty of the Air Force Academy, the University of Houston, and as an instructor pilot in several USAF aircraft have certainly helped me as an advisor to the thirty Afghans I’m assigned to. I love teaching and the forty-four week programming training is showing good results along with other training programs we started.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) Department of Programming & Analysis which develops the three year defense budget had a big success when they submitted a major budget planning document to the Ministry of Finance on May 22nd. The MoD was the only ministry out of twenty-eight to submit this document on time. While not perfect and not properly coordinated, they got it done and improved their process from last year. The new term is “Afghan right” which recently replaced “Afghan good enough.” This budget document was Afghan right.
Advisors who survive here quickly learn the virtues of patience, perseverance, planning for the long-term, and the essential role of the theory of incrementalism. Progress is usually glacially slow which should not be surprising since Afghanistan is the second poorest and second most corrupt nation on earth with a literacy rate of less than 30%, a life expectancy of just 45, and now in their fourth decade of continuous warfare.
To improve advisor effectiveness we study lessons learned from missions in Iraq, Vietnam, the Soviet occupation, and other conflicts. One of the methods we have found useful is to practice a tough love approach. When our Afghan colleagues ask us for laptops, copy paper, to schedule appointments with high ranking personnel, and other requests, we simply tell them to use their system. We are forcing them to implement what we are teaching because the transition to 2014 has already begun.
We are in a situation similar to parents telling their teenage children that in a few short years they have to move out, get a job, and live on their own. A technique that I have found useful is to bring in newspaper articles showing how the U.S. Congress fell just eleven votes short of passing a resolution directing a faster draw down. That gets their attention.
To accelerate their pace of learning we are holding them to higher standards and implementing some teaching innovations including VTCs. The project management VTC given by Dr. Gary Richardson of the University of Houston was such a success that we have additional VTCs scheduled with the Air Force Academy (basic management principles), USAF Air Mobility Command Headquarters (how to brief a defense budget), the University of Houston (supply chain management and determining logistics requirements), and expect one with the Army War College (leadership, professionalism and core values) and possibly one with the Denmark MoD (defense budgeting procedures).
We are also planning a trip by six senior Afghan officers including four generals to the Pentagon and the University of Houston in early November. They will learn more about defense budgeting from the Secretary of Defense’s staff and then explore expanding distance learning courses with UH.
Leadership Lessons
One of the recurring themes on this NATO mission is the need not only to improve the literacy of the Afghan Army and Police but also the need to develop many more leaders. There are two leadership shortfalls that have hurt them significantly: the enormous amount of corruption and their ignorance of servant leadership.
During my thirty-two years in the USAF I learned that integrity is the number one attribute of an effective leader. The widespread corruption which is embedded into every aspect of Afghanistan has crippled their progress, wasted billions of dollars of coalition money (mostly U.S.), and significantly slowed their progress.
There are many investigations, audits, and a big emphasis on teaching the Afghans professionalism, stewardship, and core values. But changing their corrupt culture will take generations. Karzai does not have much support because of this endemic corruption which has also fed the Taliban movement.
They also don’t do a very good job of taking care of their people. They have a survivalist mentality, with leaders not very aware of the situation their subordinates are in. When we started English language training for them in January the sergeants who drive the generals and serve them tea were not initially included. When we discovered this we got them into the course, and now they drive us all the way back to Camp Eggers after we do our advising. But their generals should have thought of them before we did.
To improve their leadership skills we have taught them lessons from the Academy, ROTC, and the eight leadership seminars at UH in addition to other training.
The Future
The death of Bin Laden, improving security, decreasing public support at home, and massive corruption have created the conditions to start the long awaited draw down this summer.
We currently have 100,000 U.S. troops along with 40,000 troops from 48 other nations. This war is costing us $10 billion per month although the total DoD budget is still below 5% of GDP (during WW II it was 37% and Vietnam 9%).
By 2014 I believe we will have just 40,000 U.S. and 10,000 coalition troops left, but unlike Vietnam in 1975 and the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, the coalition will be here for decades. We don’t have much of a choice because if we completely leave, chaos will return but in more horrific forms including a rivalry between nuclear armed India, Pakistan, and China. The Afghans are being courted by these countries and dignitaries from all three are seen periodically in the Green Zone.
The good news is that we are making significant gains against the Taliban, are building the capacity of the Afghan security forces, and the security situation is improving despite recent high profile attacks. By 2014 the Afghans are scheduled to take full responsibility for their security with little coalition support except for advising.
One can clearly see an improvement in security in Kabul. Just last week I flew to Dubai to take a project management exam. Riding to and from the main airport I was amazed at the amount of business and construction activity. A large Sheraton Hotel is going up near the U.S. Embassy, housing projects are being built, and thirty-three million Afghans seem to like peace (relative peace), democracy (although very imperfect), capitalism (with heavy bribery), and the resulting improvement in their quality of life.
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I just came back from my first Memorial Day service in a combat zone. The attached picture shows the center of Camp Eggers during this ceremony. It was packed with members from most of the coalition countries and many senior Afghan officers. All coalition nations had their flags at half-staff. Speeches were made, prayers given, a memorial was dedicated to the 175 personnel who have died on this mission since 2004, and taps played. It was very moving.
During this Memorial Day we all can take great pride knowing that no other nation could be leading the largest wartime coalition in history which is securing, stabilizing, and developing one of the poorest nations on earth. While much has been accomplished much work still remains.
Col. Philip Bossert Jr., (ret.)
Phil Bossert is a decorated veteran of the War on Terrorism, Desert Storm, Desert Shield, the Kuwait Liberation, Grenada, and Afghanistan. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.