September 7, 2010 1:31PM # Phantom Forces By [Malou Innocent](https://www.cato.org/people/malou-innocent) --- SHARE Over at “The Skeptics” blog at *The National Interest Online*, I wrote a short piece detailing the abysmal state of the Afghan army and police — you know, the institutions that are supposed to take over responsibility for security and allow U.S. forces to being to come home? > “From illiteracy and corruption to poor vetting and low pay, the current training effort has yielded a force of compromised caliber.” What’s more: “An *AP* reporter on patrol with Americans at Combat Outpost Ware in the Arghandab Valley found that when the Afghans go on patrol they are treated as outsiders. “[When they see us, the old men say, ‘They are the sons of the British](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/27/world/main6717786.shtml),’ ” Lt. Haskar said, explaining that the villagers equate both the Americans and the Afghan soldiers with the British attempt to colonize Afghanistan in the 1800s.” [Check it out](http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/phantom-forces-4035). ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).