1 in 4 elite Army officers Afghanistan-bound - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

1 in 4 elite Army officers Afghanistan-bound

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — One-quarter of the officers graduating this week from the Army’s School for Advanced Military Studies are soon to be in Afghanistan.

Thirty officers will graduate Thursday from the school at Fort Leavenworth after a year of study in military arts and sciences. The program focuses on planning and carrying out operations, ranging from conventional war to counterinsurgency and peacekeeping missions.

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, with the first to join the fight by Christmas. Two of Thursday’s graduates will be working directly with the training of Afghanistan’s security forces, a key component of Obama’s new strategy.

Majs. Grant Martin and Joe Jackson have orders to report to Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, the former Fort Leavenworth commander who was tapped by Obama to lead the new NATO training mission.

Jackson was in Afghanistan in 2007 and worked on the training plans that have been in place to build Afghan police, army and border patrol units. He said that plan will be revised to fit the new strategy but that the overall plan for Afghanistan can’t rely solely on the military, requiring significant economic and diplomatic efforts.

“It’s not just a matter of measuring success but [it’s] what you aren’t losing,” Jackson said.

Martin said Obama answered key questions about what the U.S. commitment would be in the short term, but more important is what will happen when 2011 rolls around and troops are scheduled to go home.

“One of the biggest mistakes we made in Vietnam was the aftermath. What happens when we do leave,” Martin said. “A lot of strategic communications is what we do and not what we say.”

New strategy

The majors said a key change will be that instead of small teams of advisers working with Afghan forces to train them and accompany them into battle, the new strategy would increase the number of active-duty soldiers working directly with the Afghans. The majors said this should increase the Afghans’ effectiveness, as was the case in Iraq when U.S. units worked in closer concert.

Martin said it was clear the Obama administration has made Afghanistan a priority, something the last administration didn’t do, and that the mission will have sufficient resources.

“You definitely hear the political pressures in the background. I’m not surprised at all by that,” he said.

Members of the Republican-dominated Kansas congressional delegation gave Obama’s announcement a mixed review, praising the increase in troops, but criticizing the setting of a date to reduce overall troop numbers, which will approach 100,000.

Sen. Sam Brownback said Thursday he was pleased with the president’s decision to keep the United States on the offensive against the Taliban and Al-Qaida, but that the key factor was Caldwell’s training mission — and that U.S. troops should only come home when Afghanistan can take control of its own security.

Both he and Rep. Todd Tiahrt, who represents the Kansas 4th District, said it was wrong for Obama to set or openly discuss timelines, which they said would only embolden adversaries.

“I don’t like artificial deadlines placed on insurgencies. It’s dangerous for Afghanistan and it’s dangerous for Pakistan,” Brownback said.

Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins, whose 2nd District includes Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth, said she hoped Obama would listen to commanders on the ground in implementing the policy, adding that defeating Al-Qaida was “not an option, it is a necessity for our nation’s security.”